Food Theory: Skip School! Own A Chick Fil A! 

I'm sorry did he say he read all 403 pages of the franchise document. Ladies and gentlemen and Theorists alike let's give Matt Pat a round of applause. 👏👏👏👏👏

It's nice to see more people stray from the way of thinking that college needs to be mandatory in order to earn a decent living.

I swear MatPat is like the only person who actually kept using all the knowledge he got from school 💀

As a high school student constantly worrying about college, it’s comforting to know I’m an honor roll food theory student

I think having a hands-on franchise owner would make being an employee easier. While what you have to do at your job may be harder, having the person making decision see what's happening first hand would probably lead to better working conditions unless they're just incompetent.

food theory is like that one weird kid that constantly tries convincing people with weird theories, but when you listen to him it actually makes sense

I did not realize that so many people who worked at CFA are on this comment section, I worked there for a couple years in High school and community college. I met some great life friends. I was the cow lots of times. The operator was a good guy he did micro manage a bit but the managers where really great. I learned lots, made life long friends there, and had a manager who became a life mentor to me.

Do a food theory on "Does an apple a day REALLY keep the doctor away?"

For anyone wondering, Matpat went to Duke University. The national ranking is #9 with a 7.7% acceptance rate.

What if there was a food theory episode about how many different skittle combinations you can have in each bag size and like whether every skittle packet is truly different or how many have the same combination of colours?

I work at CFA and my store owner is really nice and pretty chill. I'd say the few angry customers are the ones spitting in our faces rather than the owners breathing down our backs hahaha

0:14 the origin of most youtubers

I work at a chickfila and wanted to mention that the operators are on occasion in our store but not 100% all the time. Our operator has built great relationships with our team so I wouldnt say it's that stress to work with him. You are very right that there is sooo much behind the scenes work that goes into running a CFA and I think it's really cool to hear your opinions on something I care about.

The fact that an operator has to be hands on is not always true. My operator comes in maybe twice a week for an hour at a time. He can do everything quicker then most workers but he’s not there for long.

MatPat, I wrote an entire business article and have set career goals for myself in franchising all thanks to this video. It inspired me and led me to really research the process of becoming a franchisee. Thank you for elucidating the details of an industry of which I knew preciously little.

honestly the work environment at chickfila from an employee perspective has been great. we have a tight group of workers and i get along with my team leaders and operator really well.

Starbucks Barista here! The company does not franchise at all. All of the stand-alone stores are corporate owned, but the ones located in airports and grocery stores, at least in the US, are licensed.

To be an operator, they require you to have at least a Bachelors in any major OR have run your own business for 5 years. So if you think you can skip college for this, then you’ll be disappointed

As a chic fil a employee, they don't put pressure on us at all. They focus on hiring people that already are kind and hardworking. Everyone I work with is super nice, and all around very good people. The only stressful part of my job is how busy it is ;-;

I've always felt conflicted about college. on one hand it's nice to know that people can still make a good living without a degree because not everyone excels at school. on the other hand, as a degree holder, it's just sad that my degree doesn't seems to worth that much and it makes me question why I studied for all those years.

Hey Matt. I recently got covid, so I’ve been eating a lot of chicken noodle soup, and it got me thinking: why do eat chicken noodle soup when we have a cold (or something similar) does it actually help with the symptoms? Boost our immune system? Or is it just placebo? Better yet, deliberate marketing. This felt very much like something I would see food theory, so i would be super interested if you’d make a video around the subject

As someone who works at a Chic-fil-A, I would say that the owners of the store are NOT breathing down my neck, and that is not just me saying to make the company look good. I was just talking about how I don't feel pressured when I work at Chic-fil-A by my bosses and managers.

In defense of college, I think an important point to realize here is that the benefit of modern university is not at all education, learning concepts, or training… University is really all about networking and making connections. That’s why the fancy schools are so desirable. Not because of the quality of the education, but because of all the successful alumni and future colleagues in the industry you’ll meet and befriend. In the modern job hunting world, its not about how many degrees you have or how high you score on tests, it’s about connections. Don’t go to college to lock yourself away, study, and barely pass tests. Go so you can meet people who will offer you jobs, be your future business partners, or introduce you to new opportunities.

Hi! I work at CFA & our operator has worked for CFA since he was in high school. He’s the most kind and caring guy I know! He always is there everyday and makes an effort to talk to all of his employees everyday and get to know us. I never feel stressed when he’s watching us work. He helps out a lot! He’s awesome. I love working for CFA!!

CFA EMPLOYEE HERE: Ngl I was pretty happy with everything said until around 10:40. Gotta agree with most he said. HOWEVER- most Operators aren’t ‘breathing down their employees necks, micromanaging everything’ etc. CFA views leadership differently (proof: am currently in the leadership program). For one, the idea of servant leadership. Every manager there is helping, doing what needs done, WHILE leading and directing the team. That’s a big part of why we’re so efficient! It’s all in the leadership. Finally and most importantly- when I first started working there, during my orientation, a trainer was showing me around the store. We walked past front counter, where someone was taking orders. My trainer was like ‘oh, and this is (name), our owner/operator.’ He waved to me and kept working. I was like ‘????’ The person who owns the restaurant??? Is taking orders??? Dang TLDR the leaders make the job, and MOST* Operators don’t micromanage. I (obviously) can’t speak for every store (I know there are plenty of CFAs with bad management, my bf works at one), but there’s a reason the selection process is so long~

I’m kinda interested in finding out how many possible subway sandwich combinations there are, and how many would even taste good?

Hey matpat, at 1:57 you say "provided they sell 3 million in gross sales" but on screen its 3 billion and not million, great video overall just pointing things out

Me coming to watch this from the goodbye episode🥲

As someone who works at McDonald's, the original franchise owner had 8 restaurants and split it between his two sons in his will so MatPat's actually pretty accurate with this kind of stuff.

A lot of ppl have found that sticking with a fast food job and making your way to owning a chain is actually pretty rewarding They're even offering at Dominos Work a couple years (actually work not show up just to complain till closing time) and the opportunities layed out from there kick the benefits from scrambling through college to the side. Plus if you learn to cook, manage yourself under pressure as well as financially and you're set to take on almost anything else since you have the background to back up your skill set I say take a look around your neighborhood, find the most popular chain that people always go to, return service is key, and make your way to the top my loves

I really wish I could learn to do research like this. Learn how to find sources. Piece things together. And find actual answers. So far I have trouble discerning a good source from a bad one.

I worked at Chic-fil-a for about half a year and I will say they definitely have the highest standards for everything. They are constantly micro managing

My teacher legit had this idea as well, I can't wait to show them this video

There's one thing that you overlooked @Matpat. And it's pretty big too. One of the pre-requisites of becoming a Franchise owner, Location Manager, or similar, is to have a Bachelor's degree. Experience doesn't matter to potential employers, including the Chic-Fil-A Brand, if you've never shelled out the 4 years and tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars for that piece of paper named a Bachelor's Degree. And claiming that owning and operating your own business for 4 years makes you more likely to get a high-level job is just flat wrong. Employers care about degree as a minimum requirement and won't even consider your 10+ years of experience in owning and operating a restaurant or any business for that matter if you never got even a 2 year degree. Trust me. I've found this out the hard way. I've helped start 4 different businesses, studied for 6 years under 3 different organisations to do so, Started and ran 4 of my own businesses as well (2 of which I'm still running btw), and yet still no employer anywhere wants me and all of my successes and experience and knowledge gained from experience because I never went the route of getting a college degree. Take from that what you will. And maybe someone can learn from my experiences.

Worked at a CFA for a while and we had a guy come in who had done over 20+ interviews at CFA HQ, countless papers and he was working in our store for few months to try and get a store. After 9+ months of being interviewed and going through the entire process he was just randomly denied. If you want to own one the best was is to do the leadership program through working at CFA. You fly to grand openings and help new stores for 2 years and you have a 80-90% chance to get your own. Rough program though you work open to close Mon-Sat almost every week.

Franchisees only profit as long as there's no saturation. Whether a franchise is better than a college degree really depends on what degree it is. (We're severely short on medical professionals, for example.) So if you want to be an artist or something, be a franchise owner and use the profits to fund your most likely dead end art hobby, but an engineer or doctor is going to out-earn a franchise owner after a certain point (but they'd also need to invest their savings)

As someone who worked at a chic-fil-a honestly the work is not that bad yes its fast paced but it's a good job btw "I got to be the cow mascot quite afew times as well 🤩"

I've worked at a chicfila and it was honestly one of the better jobs I had growing up. The operator was one of the nicest guys. The 12-24 month process probably does a good job of weeding out the people who aren't good leadership material.

I love the videos about the business side of restaurants, keep this up👍

5:10 you accidently said "taco bell" when showing jack in the box, but still pretty great video! I really love watching your theory videos, especially food theory lately lol

“What does that have to do with the price of rice in China?” I have grown up hearing this throughout my childhood. So, Food Theory, please find out how rice prices in China affect the world/ any aspect of someone’s life.

I love how Food Theory makes videos about things nobody else would even think of

I’d like to thank this video for being my inspiration for starting a franchise business

Actual thanks mst I was thinking about applying for the job this helps

It would be so fun if Matpat and Steph made an online "Theory School" I would come everyday!!!!!!!

Anyone else catch that? 9:25 "You must be willing to participate in group prayers during training and management meetings and although you don't have to be a Christian, you must be willing to promote Christian values." So yeah you can own a CFA, as long as you're not an atheist or LGBTQ. But you're right, requiring you to be "hands on" is the really important part of those requirements.

as an employee at cfa i can talk for HOURS about the pros and cons of working / operating a cfa. also, my operator runs two cfas in our town which is like pretty cool

This video is already worth it after you read a 403 page novel on a corporate franchised restaurant gotta love the "Coles Notes" version

What's ridiculous is, @ 9:24 its says - You must be willing to participate in group prayers during training and management meetings and although you dont have to be a Christian, you must be willing to promote Christian values....... So, anyone who's Atheist, LGBTQ+, other religions who may not be comfortable are not allowed here..... lol

I LOVE YOU AND YUPR CONTENT MATPAT!!!😊😊😊 (Ur amazing, a big part of my childhood)

I have an idea for a Food Theory video and apologies if it’s already been done but I’ve always wondered what the ideal pasta is as a vessel for sauce to cling to, so what if you and steph tried a bunch of different pasta shapes with a control sauce and do a bunch of research on the amount of starches that are in the pastas because more starch=stickier (I think) and then at the end, design and possibly create and eat the ULTIMATE PASTA SHAPE.

This all seems to be very accurate. In high school, about 6 of my friends worked at the same Chik-fil-a and they all knew the "operator" personally. Enough to the point that he came and talked at our high school and he mentioned everything you talked about Chik-fil-a's model.

MatPat: “Own a restaurant instead of going to college.” Me, who isn’t attending college at the moment: 👀

I like how you showed one my favorite channels, Corridor.

I must say this: I'm sure for a fact I learned more in the 5 years I watched this channel than anything my school would even dream of

I worked at CFA in high school & loved it. Still talk to some of my co workers to this day. And my operator was great, he certainly earned his money as he was constantly serving the community through school fundraisers & stuff, & serving customers himself when he could be in the back watching Netflix

As a Google employee, I can say it is hard to land a job there but I didn't know it was THAT hard.

Mattpat is the type of person to read the TOS to look for hidden lore

"And tap notifications to join honor roll" Me: *taps notifications* Also me: MOM! DAD! IM IN HONOR ROLL!!

I was literally just thinking “man, I don’t understand how those multimillion food industries only pay minimum wage when they’ve got hundreds of millions of dollars under their belt”

I haven't had much fast food in a few years now so right now I could go for that after watching this video. And this really got me thinking about my career for reals. I remember even when I did entrepreneurship in university as a course the teacher mentioned that he actually went to become a franchisee up in Canada I can't remember the name of the restaurant but he said it was very profitable so this just underscored what he was saying to me and all the other people in the class. It is worth considering I will say

“Ah… that’s too bad kiddo. Although, Harvard still wants you!” “Forget it, I guess I’ll become a youtuber” MatPat, 2022

These videos are amazing at research topics

I'm actually surprised he didn't talk more about the impact of the religious stance of this place and how much that may also play into this, both for owners and workers.

10:47 "I also imagine it's probably a lot more stressful being an employee in that sort of environment" I don't know if this is the case for everyone, but at least in my experience it was fantastic. When I was working at a small business, the owners were there nearly 100% percent of the time. You get to know them well, they get to understand the stress levels of their employees and will sympathize and help where they can, and the best thing, you get to have crap done that needs to be done that only they can do faster. Need to get a schedule adjusted? Done. Need more hands on a particular order? You got it. I say all of this after being with two different owners at the same store when the previous owners were ready to sell and retire. Both owners were easy to work with and get along with the employees and customers; and the customers tend to remember them better for them and come back for more orders. Currently, I've move onto a job at a bigger company and... well... the management isn't as good as it was in the small business. At the company I'm at, it takes forever to get simple things changed or new schedules worked out or even getting replacement parts and systems. All because the task needs to be escalated to the next guy on the ladder, to the next guy and so on until it reaches the budget guy who decides if we should do it and then plan out how we should do it and so forth. It's to the point where I seen computers still running friggin WINDOWS 2000. And on actual hardware, not a virtual machine on a modern system. By the time the plan and budget and everything is approved, the plans are years out of date. I miss the small business owners sometimes due to this.

I know this is late but the 2 year operator program CFA has is pretty interesting too. Basically when you are picked to be an operator you have to spend 2 years travelling the country helping open up other CFA's before you are given your own restaurant to run.

11:19 under the surface I feel berserk as a tightrope walker in a three-ring circus Under the surface Was Hercules ever like, "Yo, I don't wanna fight Cerberus"? Under the surface I'm pretty sure I'm worthless if I can't be of service A flaw or a crack, the straw in the stack That breaks the camel's back What breaks the camel's back? .... *Enjoy your earworm*

I'm going to send this to my history teacher, and I *100%* know that he *will* call *both me* and *MatPat* a *nerd.* (because it's true)

imagine someone watched this while studying for a difficult harvard exam and just said: screw it i'm a own a McD's.

5:11 MatPat: Taco Bell at 1.6 Background: *Proceeds to highlight Jack in the Box*

You guys earned the sub. Very cool content.

you know it's a good day when matpat uploads

Okay, let's create a bootleg Chik-fil-a that's only open on Sunday

What you said about colleges teaching theory rather than practice is so true. The majority of education systems today are Greek style teaching (theory, AKA Learning for its own sake). Whats far better is Hebrew style teaching (learning useful things with the intent of application). Just thought I'd chime in with that. Carry on

I'm amazed I didn't hear more about the Christian aspect of Chill Fil A in this video.

9:20 Requirement for operators: "You must paticipate in group prayers during training and management meetings." What kind of a cult is this?!

this made me respect my locations operator even more. especially when you said that it’s hard to even get one location and mine operates 2 locations. however, my operator is rarely at my location so i wouldn’t say they have to be super hands on.

Theory idea: what is in shamrock shakes? And how do you make them?

I enjoyed the video. I think this video will remain as a good memory for me. I hope that only good things will always happen.

There is one other factor you haven't touched on: owning a Chik-Fil-A franchise means you're working for people who continuously show they are queerphobic and willing to fund -- using money you, as a franchise owner, help earn them -- behaviors that harm queer folks. I think that's something that counts as an important decision-making consideration.

just looking at the title i can tell that this is going to be weirdly convincing

I still love your videos. I haven't watched them all, but I will eventually.

You know how you have been dealing with burgers mat? Do a video on what chip goes best on a sandwich/burger please?

Next food theory should be about how Takis literally has a taki version of everything

The thing is you have to have a college degree to qualify as an operator.

Great time to drop out of highschool next year I already started mine as well finish

So glad Mat Pat over here is talking about alternatives to college. There are SO MANY out there, which exclude debt and can be even more rewarding in the end! It just takes creativity and a little thinking outside of the box.

Okay but ive had a question for quite a long time - what makes cheese stretchy and how can we make the stretchiest cheese in existence?

What you really should be doing is going to Harvard and starting 10 McDonald’s as a side hustle

The face when he said guess I'll be become a RU-vidr it's glorious

Honestly working at CFA sounds like any college student’s dream. I only ever hear good stories and reviews from people who previously worked there

He’s my favorite channel I’m in love with food now knowing someone talking about it like you out there

Hey MatPat!!!! I’m actually an Operating Partner for Whataburger corporate store! I’d love to answer any questions you might have about inner workings of the QSR business! (Also I decided to not go to college to pursue this!)

Food Theory mini-episode idea: do banana stands (those suspended hooks that keep bananas from browning) actually work? Maybe use it as a segue to the best way to keep apples and avocado from browning?

something that is a very important point that kinda cooks these numbers that I don't think was brought up in the video is the fact that harvard has a prestige to it so it inherently doesn't get many applications from lower for lack of a better word "skilled" people due to this. Where a franchise to the common is perceived as a relatively low end business venture in comparison. So it will give an incentive for applications of people who wouldn't make the cut given the criteria to be accepted. Which leads to a far larger number of people that will be nearly immediately denied. making it appear that hard to enter. When it's not really that it's harder to join than Harvard but that the variables in play aren't similar enough to get an accurate read.

I love when the team does voice overs its adds a great kick to the episode No pun intended

Love how Jason is portrayed as MatPat's dad in the beginning of the episode hahaha

I worked at a Chickfila for 6 years, one thing that I was told by the operator where I worked is that CFA requires a bachelor's degree to be an operator. Whether this is true or not is up in the air since I can't find any documents stating this requirement online.

Bless the Theorist

Will you ever start a theory channel dedicated to finance? The theories that delve into the inner workings of businesses are my favorite.