Game of Chicken
Game of Chicken
When it comes to Chick-fil-A, one local Facebook group ain't playin'
As Owen Wilson mania swept Saratoga last spring, a story with much longer legs was taking root. The A-list actor was in town filming a movie, and the Facebook page What’s Going on Saratoga? (now 18,000 members strong) was having a field day, choked with grainy photos of Owen in ‘70s attire posted in real time, super-fans begging for location details, and jaded citizens without stars in their eyes begging for the fun, er, mania to stop.
But the Spa City die-hards, the ones who feast on mundane neighborhood drama that no sparkly Hollywood celeb could ever compete with, were focused on the one burning question that would dominate the hyper-hyper-local news for the next year (and counting)—what’s really going on with our potential (fictional or otherwise) local Chick-fil-A?
Since What’s Going on Saratoga? is technically a private Facebook group, we’ve left out people’s names. (We’re also not going to “sic” every incorrect Facebook spelling of Chick-fil-A—it’s Facebook.) But the saga arguably took on its modern-day form on April 29, 2021, with an innocuous enough-looking (from the outside) post: “What will ever replace Friendly’s on Route 50 by the mall??”
Most suggestions were nice, friendly and neighborly:
“A nice family diner. With late hours.”
“Ted’s Fish Fry. Or Red Lobster.”
“Waffle House would be good.”
But the cracks were there, in hindsight.
“Chick fil A Pleaseeeee”
“Chick fil a”
“Spectrum” “that’s already coming nearby” “yes I know I was joking”
“Spectrum”
“Chick fill a”
“Chick fil a?”
“Hopefully a Spectrum store”
“I see what’s happening. Post is trolling for a Chik Fil A fight. That card has already been played. Lol.”
“Chick- fil-a”
“I think they should put a chik fil a”
And with that, the “Will we ever get a Chick-Fil-A” drama and the “do we really need a new Spectrum store” drama became one.
Now let’s be clear. This is NOT the first mention of either situation, but simply when the Chick-fil-A jokes and Spectrum jokes formed a Venn diagram with Chick-fil-A-slash-Spectrum jokes at its center. In fact, one member claims to have been the very first to bring the Chick-fil-A debacle to the group, mentioning a form letter sent to her straight from the company itself denying that one was coming. The week prior to that post, another member begged, “Can someone just build a Chik-Fil-A so this group can stop teasing us!?” And an entire month before that one, yet another, cheeky, member taunted, “are there any spectrum stores locally?”
Some were already in on it. Some were not.
Thus began a vicious cycle of members posting what to an outsider looked like an honest, Nextdoor app-worthy post asking about some spotted construction project (the next phase that lasted awhile was an Aldi-adjacent spot, also in Wilton). If you were civilized, you groaned to yourself and kept scrolling. If you couldn’t help yourself, you jumped in for the umpteenth time and egged others on. If you were in the third category, a bona fide Facebook voyeur like almost everybody else, you stayed silent, cracked your knuckles, and jumped down the rabbithole for a guaranteed good time.
So where do we stand now? At long last, Chick-fil-A fatigue seems to have set in, just as the Times Union swooped in with Big News—a Chick-fil-A is coming (!!) … to Clifton Park. Alas, the reaction was tepid.
“I’m so tired of getting notifications about this.”
“This has been a ‘possible’ location for them since 2020 lol.”
“Please stop just stop”
Will this one actually make it to opening day? Only time will tell. All we do know is that Chick-fil-A, Spectrum and Aldi enjoyed a lot of free publicity this past year—and none are bringing piping hot waffle fries to Wilton or Saratoga Springs. For good chicken, however, there’s always that new Popeyes that opened … also, sigh, in Clifton Park.
—Abby
ICYMI Recap
This week in Saratoga Living After Hours: more Saratoga-themed word plexers and the big reveal of SPAC’s first official classical season poster in decades.
Game Time: (Monday) Three tricky word plexers representing beloved hot spots around town. Did you solve the trifecta?
(Tuesday) Isn’t she gorgeous? We talked to the illustrator of SPAC’s first classical season poster in decades. PLUS: if one or more of the word plexers stumped you, this is where you’d find the answer. Do you want your puzzles easier? Harder? We welcome feedback! #SubscribersFirst
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