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Chick-fil-A's first-ever restaurant — a 56-year-old location in an Atlanta mall — is closing
Business Insider ^ | 5-19-23 | Grace Dean

Posted on 05/19/2023 7:49:36 AM PDT by dynachrome

Chick-fil-A's oldest restaurant, which opened in an Atlanta mall 56 years ago, is closing.

The restaurant, located in the food court of Greenbriar Mall to the southwest of the city, is set to shut for good at 4 p.m. on Saturday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Printed-out signs posted at the location don't give reasons for the closure.

Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy opened the restaurant in 1967 in what was one of the first indoor malls in the Southeast. He'd previously set up a diner in Atlanta called The Dwarf Grill, later renamed The Dwarf House, with his brother Ben.

"At the time, the concept of a shopping mall restaurant was groundbreaking," Chick-fil-A says in a history of the Greenbriar Mall store, describing it as a "pioneer in the modern-day food court."

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Food
KEYWORDS: atlanta; chikfila; closing; greenbriarmall
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To: Lisbon1940
Can you walk to the mall?

No

21 posted on 05/19/2023 8:12:14 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: billorites
I miss the newsstands where you could browse newspapers and magazines from around the world.

Trouble was, too much browsing, not enough buying.

A Barnes & Noble superstore was near me in the 1990s and 2000s. Many of the "new" magazines on its newsstand were dog-eared and wrinkled from the constant browsing. Even some of the "new" books were wrinkled, dog-eared, and coffee stained by the browsers.

The store (which had three stories) was normally packed with people, sitting on all the benches, and windowsills, and even the floor, reading. But no lines to the cash registers. Maybe a single buyer every now and then.

22 posted on 05/19/2023 8:15:28 AM PDT by Angelino97
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To: dynachrome

White supremacists again!!


23 posted on 05/19/2023 8:18:40 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: dynachrome

Wait, don’t they serve dark meat?


24 posted on 05/19/2023 8:26:45 AM PDT by gathersnomoss (Welcome to The Biden Clown Show.)
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To: Angelino97

My daughter used to manage the children’s department at a Barnes and Noble. Talk about poorly managed.

One year the regular book division had a 6% loss in sales. Her department was flat which in my book is a huge success.

She was so well regarded that parents would bring their kids in because they wanted to see my daughter and buy books instead of going to the park.

So what do the moron managers do? Whenever someone didn’t show up, my daughter ended up at the cash register up front or the coffee shop instead of being an actual bookseller.

She quit. Years later some of those moms still ask her for book recommendations.


25 posted on 05/19/2023 8:27:32 AM PDT by cyclotic
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To: Jeff Chandler

The Windsor Park mall that I referred to earlier was built in 1976, the year I graduated high school. It was a great mall. Then, like many malls, they added the mall to a bus route and began shipping in ferals.

It’s closed in the mid-2000s and when Katrina hit it became a refugee center for Katrina victims. Sad, very sad.


26 posted on 05/19/2023 8:32:28 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (Donald Trump is a setting sun. Ron DeSantis is a rising star.)
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To: dynachrome

“Future of malls in NJ: ‘Mall rescue’ group buys Bridgewater Commons”


27 posted on 05/19/2023 8:41:18 AM PDT by Salvey
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To: dynachrome

My wife and I used to like to go into Louisville and walk around and shop at the St Matthews Mall.

For all the reasons people are listing here in this thread we no longer go there. I can pick out stuff in my living room that we bought at stores there. One thing I do miss is the kitchen store. I always like those. Anyway St Matthews is no place to go now for normal person who doesn’t want to steal or get into rumbles.

Back in the early ‘70s I had a place near fashion square Mall in Orlando. I used to hang around there in the evening just to look at the honeys


28 posted on 05/19/2023 8:46:19 AM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ( If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there..)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Greenbriar has been overrun by the criminal/cultural rot of the great society.

No use doing business there ever.


29 posted on 05/19/2023 8:51:30 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal (Jesus + Something = Nothing ; Jesus + Nothing = Everything )
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To: Repeal The 17th
That was not the “first” location.

You talking about Waffle House? That was the first location where Chik-Fil-A sandwiches were sold.

30 posted on 05/19/2023 8:59:59 AM PDT by COBOL2Java ("Life without liberty is like a body without spirit." - Kahlil Gibran)
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To: 1Old Pro
Dead Malls
31 posted on 05/19/2023 9:03:07 AM PDT by COBOL2Java ("Life without liberty is like a body without spirit." - Kahlil Gibran)
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To: dynachrome

Malls are closing. Their day is over no different than how the general store was made obsolete by the Sears Catalog and the advent of the department store.


32 posted on 05/19/2023 9:03:08 AM PDT by MeganC (There is nothing feminine about feminism. )
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To: Responsibility2nd

I never spent much time in malls except on business, but they looked like a good, safe place for young people to socialize.

Too bad.


33 posted on 05/19/2023 9:05:44 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: Leaning Right

Greenbriar Mall doesn’t have a good reputation. I used to take a coworker home to that area when I was fairly new to ATL metro and she told me do not stop for any reason between her home and the interstate.


34 posted on 05/19/2023 9:07:35 AM PDT by newzjunkey (We need a better Trump than Trump in 2024)
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To: Responsibility2nd
"no one goes to malls anymore. Especially malls that old.

Especially malls that dark. Maybe if the lighten up the place. Nah, never happen. Once their gone, they ain't coming back.

35 posted on 05/19/2023 9:17:01 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: dynachrome

Chick-fil-a is fine. Many parts of Atlanta are in decay.


36 posted on 05/19/2023 9:21:48 AM PDT by D Rider ( )
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To: D Rider

CFA is a mostly a drive through operation these days. They are money printing machine and really have no reason to bother with under performing locations.


37 posted on 05/19/2023 9:30:47 AM PDT by lodi90
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To: Responsibility2nd

Windsor Park Mall was bought by Rackspace a number of years ago, after it closed. I think you’re onto something...


38 posted on 05/19/2023 10:01:42 AM PDT by jagusafr ( )
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To: jagusafr

Yes indeed. And now Rackspace is abandoning this mall.


39 posted on 05/19/2023 10:05:36 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (Donald Trump is a setting sun. Ron DeSantis is a rising star.)
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To: Repeal The 17th

Wikipedia says that the Greenbriar Mall was the site of the first freestanding Chick-fil-A location.


40 posted on 05/19/2023 10:19:56 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.)
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