Traverse City Bracing for Traffic Back Ups; Lines As Chick-Fil-A Opens

It's happened in Kalamazoo and is happening in Battle Creek. Now get ready for a replay of the same on Thursday in Traverse City as Chick-fil-A opens its first Northern Michigan store. The location at 2700 N US Highway 31 has the Chick-fil-A market all to itself, as it's some 140 or so miles from the next nearest location.

MLive says, according to the franchisee, Chris Ramsey, he expects long lines, likely even ahead of the 6:30 am opening time on Thursday morning. That Traverse City location will keep those hours, 6:30 am to 9 pm on Mondays through Thursdays, and an additional hour, until 10 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and, of course, will be closed on Sundays, per corporate rules.

As a grand opening promotion, the store will be surprising some 100 local "heroes" with free Chick-fil-A food for a year.

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The phenomenon of people sitting in long car lines for, in this case, chicken, and prior to that, for a short stretch, Krispy Kreme donuts, is a fairly recent one. The Kalamazoo area has seen this with both Popeye's and Chick-fil-A, to the level of it causing car accidents for a good part of the past half-decade. It might point to the homogenization of our society with people seeking foods they are comfortable with and shunning unfamiliar albeit local specialties.