Why did the chicken cross the road? To steal another business’ employees!
The owner of a Prospect Heights juice bar is blasting management at southern fried chicken chain Chick-fil-A for a shameless attempt to poach his employees.
“To have someone come in and target the whole staff was kind of ridiculous,” said Evan Franca, owner of Flatbush Avenue’s Brooklyn Crepe and Juice. “It’s one of those things that really rubs me the wrong was as a business owner in the community for the last 11 years.”
The Georgia-based fried chicken chain dispatched a saboteur to Franca’s juice shop between Prospect Place and St. Marks Avenue on Aug. 24, according to a manager, who said the secret agent engaged in some casual chitchat with a cashier — before suddenly talking turkey.
“He seemed friendly,” said Julian Monar. “Before he leaves he hands [the cashier] a few business cards and says he’s from Chick-fil-A — they’re opening a location by the Barclays Center, and they are hiring.”
Chick-fil-A is just weeks away from opening its first Brooklyn outpost two blocks down Flatbush Avenue from Franca’s juice shop next month, and Monar suspects the recruiter was looking to stock the chicken chain’s hen house by enticing the four juicers working that day to fly the coop.
“I was surprised someone would do that,” said Monar. “That’s a little disrespectful.”
Following the loony attempt at industrial sabotage, the juice bar manager informed his employer about the chicken chain’s shady tactics, and Franca fired off an angry email to Chick-fil-A headquarters, but all he got in reply was an automated, cookie-cutter apology for the “poor customer service.”
“They obviously didn’t even read my email,” said Franca. “They just gave me a copied and pasted response.”
So far, none of Franca’s employees have agreed to join Chick-fil-A’s flock, but he’s still mad as a wet hen!
“To have it come from a big chain like that was very surprising,” he said. “It’s one thing that I really don’t like, and to have it happen on a mass scale is just concerning.”
Neither the Chick-fil-A employee nor anyone from their corporate offices responded to request for comment.
