MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Chick-Fil-A restaurant owner gave advice to the city of Memphis on how to deal with long lines at their COVID-19 vaccination sites.
Anyone whose ever even driven past the fast food drive-thru knows how busy it gets but also how quickly the line moves. Scott Malone, an owner and operator, of the Chick-fil-A off Poplar near Mendenhall gave advice to the city.
“Literally a couple thousand cars go through here everyday,” Malone said.
Malone has owned the location for more than 20 years. He has made it his business to run an efficient drive-thru.
Malone says through a mutual friend, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s team got in touch asking if he would take a look at the COVID-19 vaccination drive-thru process in the city.
When vaccines first started we got plenty of reports of long lines but since then we’ve been told those wait times have gone down.
Malone says visited the Appling location earlier in the week.
“I don’t know if I had too much advice. I thought they were doing a great job. I thought they had already made some decisions in the queuing, in the serving, they have times, they have goals,” Malone said. “They may have challenges at other locations. I think there are a few things I suggested but primarily I think they’re setting it up well.”
Malone added, “They had so many volunteers. I was overly impressed with how many people were helping to volunteering to help in Memphis.”
Tiffany Collins, the deputy director of general services with the Mayor’s office says Malone told them many of the processes they’ve implemented are similar to Chick-fil-A’s.
Collins says having partnerships with groups across the city allows them to continually make adjustments to improve.
“No one been struck to any process. Everyone has been willing to change to make sure we give the citizens the best customer experience,” Collins said.
Malone plans to help more in the future. As we start to see more vaccines in the Mid-South and scout other locations that will be good access points too.
Chick-Fil-A helping out isn’t new to Memphis. One of the fast food restaurant owners in South Carolina went viral after he stepped in to help a vaccination site in the Charleston area.
Mayor Strickland responded Thursday morning to WREG’s story, thanking Chick-Fil-A in Memphis for advising the city: