If you want to win a year’s supply of Chick-fil-A combo meals by being one of the first 100 customers of the new Chick-fil-A at the WalMart center at Northwest Highway and Skillman, here’s a guide to giving it your best shot.
Just like every new Chick-fil-A during the past eight years, the new one in our neighborhood (which opens at 6 a.m. Thursday, by the way) is hosting a “First 100 Event” to promote the location. As the program name suggests, the first 100 people in line to open the store receive the big prize, and while standing, sitting or lying in line, they’ll be entertained by Chick-fil-A with games, activities and meals.
But there’s a bit of a trick to winning, it turns out.
First off, running out to the restaurant right after you finish reading this blog post — even if it turns out you are absolutely, positively, first in line — doesn’t necessarily guarantee you a place in the winner’s circle. Turns out to be a winner, you need to be one of the first 100 people in line at 6 a.m. WEDNESDAY, the day before the store opens.
That’s when the Chick-fil-A people count those present and hand out coupons to the first 100 people there, along with designating an additional 10 or so “alternates” authorized to take over in the event any of the actual first 100 are unable to fulfill the duties of their new-found office, which basically means they somehow can’t wait in line for all of the next 24 hours. (Don’t laugh: It happens, a Chick-fil-A spokesman says.)
But wait, there’s more: If at 6 a.m. Wednesday there are not 100 people in line (which the spokesman says is unlikely but not impossible), those who continue to show up will be given winning numbers until a total of about 110 have been handed out.
And if there are more than 110 people lingering about at 6 a.m. Wednesday (the most likely scenario, the spokesman says), you can still be a winner: If more than 100 people are in line, the “winning 100” are selected by random drawing, with all of those in attendance — no matter how long they’ve been in line — drawing numbers randomly to determine who can hang around the next 24 hours to be a winner at 6 a.m. Thursday morning.
So if you want to play the odds and have the best chance of winning while spending the least amount of time hanging around outside the store, show up at 5:45 a.m. Wednesday, hope there are more than 110 people there and participate in the random drawing. If you win, you still have to stick around for the next 24 hours. But if you don’t pull one of the lucky 110 numbers, you’ll only have invested about 30 minutes in the whole process, and you can still stop by Whataburger on your way out of the parking lot for breakfast before heading back home or off to work.
So there you have it: A few tips to help you win the 52 combo-meal prize. If you head on down there, let me know how it all turns out; I’m going to wait a couple of days and simply pay for my food there. Complete rules can be found on the restaurant’s website.
If you do head over to the new Chick-fil-A, here’s what you’ll find: 4,040 square feet of restaurant with 105 inside seats and 16 outside patio seats. This store offers two drive-thru-ordering stations that merge into a single pickup window. And just so you know, there wasn’t enough room at this store to include an indoor playground similar to the one found in the Chick-fil-A at Central Expressway and Southwestern.
Both of those restaurants, along with one across from SMU on Hillcrest, are owned by Jeff White, who has long been a big supporter of neighborhood schools with Chick-fil-A products and whose parents live in Lake Highlands.