Chick-fil-A has announced it will be closing its longstanding outpost at the The Mall at Stonecrest (2929 Turner Hill Road) in Lithonia. The food court restaurant has been in business since the mall opened in October 2001, but will close permanently as of July 31.
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| Classic Chick-fil-A food court at North Point Mall circa 2004 |
Jeffrey O'Kelley, owner/operator of the Chick-fil-A restaurant, indicated in a separate social media post that Chick-fil-A, Inc. declined to renew the lease. A traditional freestanding Chick-fil-A, located at 2985 Turner Hill Road, just off the mall property and operated by a different owner, will remain open.
As one might expect, food court Chick-fil-A restaurants generate less than half the volume of a freestanding unit. According to published reports, the company's freestanding units averaged $9.3 million in sales in 2024 compared to $4.5 million at food court locations. To help bridge the gap, Chick-fil-A has implemented modified drive-thrus at select mall locations where space and logistics allow. The company introduced this ordering option at both Dalton Mall in Dalton and Auburn Mall in Auburn, Alabama.
In May 2023, the Atlanta-based fast food chain closed its first ever Chick-fil-A at Greenbiar Mall. The Greenbiar restaurant had opened in 1967. In November 2023, the chain closed its restaurant at Peachtree Mall in Columbus which had been in business since 1975.
Chick-fil-A has in years past also closed food court locations in North DeKalb Mall, Gwinnett Place Mall, Northlake Mall, Phipps Plaza, CNN Center (now The Center), Macon Mall, and Southlake Mall, as well as in Sunland Park Mall in El Paso, Texas and City Plaza in Raleigh.
The company continues to operate restaurants in several Atlanta area mall food courts around metro Atlanta including North Point Mall, Perimeter Mall, Town Center at Cobb, Lenox Square, Cumberland Mall, and Mall of Georgia.
Are you surprised to see Chick-fil-A closing at The Mall at Stonecrest? What is your favorite food court eatery? What is currently your favorite mall in metro Atlanta?
Please share your thoughts below.
11 comments:
If a Chick-fil-a in a shopping mall can’t make it, that means the Mall itself isn’t going to make it. It’s unfortunate but Internet shopping has pretty much doomed the bricks & mortar stores and malls.
That mall had so much promise but once delivered, the area around it fulfilled the reasons why large shopping areas avoid certain areas.
When they leave, others follow. Might see an empty food court here in a year.
One place where hookah would make sense!
praise da lord, no mo chillruns be shot
As a long, long, long time customer of Chick-fil-A, dating back to Truit and the Dwarf House in Hapeville, I often seek out the restaurants as business travels take me from Atlanta to Net York and Southern California. I love most of the established menu and believe the foundation of chicken based meals should be continued. Stay with what you are known for and leave the BBQ sandwiches to those who know it best. .my two experiences with your BBQ almost sent me away for ever. However, your very best sandwich, the Chicken Salad Sandwich appears to have been discontinued at most all restaurants. Not sure if it is mismanagement by not choosing to respond to customer wants and needs, or just corporate greed that the profit margin is too slim to offer it. Throw out the BBQ and bring back the Chicken Salad Sandwich. My recommendation from a customer that has brought you many new customers. Hoping someone other than AI reads this. Correcting the menu will speak volumes. You might revisit the seasonal shake flavors also, they are not seasonal to your established customer base. Robert
This chick fil a was the only reason we even visited the Stonecrest mall. I was able to bribe my kids with Chick fil a if they let me shop. Super sad to see it go!
Super sad to see it go! Anytime I needed to visit the mall to shop, I would bribe my kids with Chick fil A so they would let me shop in peace! Now I won’t really see a point of visiting this mall anymore and I will have to go to Buford 😔
Also bring back the lemon ice box pie and the cole slaw or I’ll never eat there again.
The largest omission in this article is Snellville. The original location in Highway 78 was the first free-standing unit opened in 1986. It closed a few years ago when they built a new, bigger CFA just down the street.
Respectfully, you are mistaken. The first freestanding CFA was on North Druid Hills & Briarcliff and opened April 16, 1986.
https://www.tonetoatl.com/2017/04/first-freestanding-chick-fil-to-be.html
Thanks as always for your comments and readership.
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