A Chick-fil-A restaurant in Hammond, Louisiana, is hosting a “summer camp” for kids to get an inside look at the chain.The restaurant said the roughly 180 reservations across six days were booked within a day of being announced for a cost of $35 each.
An earlier version of the event listing said that campers would “learn dining room host and customer service skills, learn how to take a guest order, learn how to bag a guest order, tour the kitchen and box your own nuggets, and make your own ice dream cone or cup,” leading to some backlash on Facebook from critics who said the camp sounded suspiciously like work.
That listing was later revised, and a company spokesperson told Business Insider the location is one of several across the US that offer the three-hour event. Another location in New Orleans has a “camp” scheduled as well.The idea started with a Houston-area restaurant owner-operator six years ago, and it has grown so popular that this year’s 200 spots sold out within seven minutes, the spokesperson said.The spokesperson also said the event is not a corporate initiative, the restaurants do not profit directly from it, and no child performs the work of an employee at any time.A flyer for the event says that campers will receive a kids meal, T-shirt, name tag, and snack, and “spend some time with the Chick-fil-A Cow and Chick-fil-A Team Leaders.”Louisiana labor law requires teenagers to be at least 14 to work, but when it does come time for a summer job, former campers could do far worse than to work at Chick-fil-A, where they’d learn from the best in the business.Customers consistently give the chain top scores in order accuracy, food quality, and staff friendliness, and the company is legendary for finding and cultivating a level of talent that is a cut above the typical service business.
