I’ve wanted to start writing more, so I started a blogger account. Xanga wasn’t cutting it for me anymore.
Last night I completed a goal of mine… I actually camped outside of a location in hopes of a great deal in return. We all know these things…camping out for event tickets, black Friday deals, the iPhone…I have always wanted to want something SO badly that I’d be willing to camp out, overnight in some parking lot for it. And last night, I did.
Chick-fil-A’s first 100 event has been going on for a while. I remember first hearing about it when the Conway location opened. I think Chick-fil-A purposefully keeps the web site information vague, but this is how it goes down. The whole thing boils down to the first 100 people willing to camp out overnight receive 52 coupons for free combo meals.
Starting as early as 24-hours in advance, Chick-fil-A employees start taking your name down on their roster and give you a colored wrist band and a number. If you’re in the top 100 your wrist band will be some designated color. Anyone over the 100 hoping for an opening will have a different colored band.
You must bring all your camping gear on the CFA property before you register. That means, no running to the registration tent thinking you can get a number and go back to the car. They will turn you away if you don’t have all your stuff because you cannot leave the property after you sign in. After being registered, they chalk your number on the asphalt. And you can setup camp.
Now, they have random ‘line checks’ to make sure nobody has left. Basically, they call line check and you have to be on your chalked number when the employees come around with the roster. If you are not there, you’re disqualified. During some of these line checks the give the contestants food (a chicken sandwich, nuggets and ice cream at 3 of our checks). They provide water and sweet tea to drink and open the restaurant bathrooms for use. Plus, there are games, music, dancing and other give aways throughout the night. All the music and activities stopped around 12 a.m. for us.
They accept up to 150 contestants. After the first 100, the next 50 are required to stay overnight to be in the running for a raffle drawing of 5 additional people to also be given the 52 coupons. The other 45 get a complimentary number of coupons, but no where near the 52. CFA officially opens at 6:30 a.m. They had all the contestants line up at 6:00 and one-by-one we walked through the front door, shook the hand of the owner, got our nugget box filled with coupons and walked out the back door. The restaurant wasn’t even officially opened for us to order any breakfast. They call it a year worth of free food, which 1 meal a week for 52 weeks is. The coupons can be used at any Chick-fil-A location.
All in all, a great experience. I wanted to camp out for a good deal and I did. Someone did the math including tax and it turned out to be $306 worth of free food. A night of humidity and only a couple hours of sleep for a year of free food from my favorite fast food restaurant…totally worth it.
