Chick-fil-A’s opening date continues to be delayed
Winthrop announced the opening of Chick-fil-A over the summer, in response to the nation wide closure of Popeye’s on college campuses.
Aramark, the company in charge of food service through the school, and Winthrop have been working together to bring the new Chick-fil-A on campus. This is due to the amount of requests Winthrop and Aramark received from the students and faculty members.
The school originally claimed they would have the new edition to Markley’s open before the beginning of the fall semester, but they have not lived up to these statements and continue to push back the opening date.
The student body has received no explanations and the school has not communicated with the students since the original opening date in August.
The first delay in the opening occurred because of the incomplete construction in Markley’s center. At this time, Frank Ardaiolo told The Johnsonian that, “we expect Chick-Fil-A to be open by September 25th. Installers are working hard and we might even beat out September 25th date.” 
When September 25th came around and Chick-fil-A was still under construction, students began to wonder if and when the establishment would really open and why the delay continues.
Because of the delays, as well as the unknown opening date, many students feel frustrated and confused as to why the school is not confronting the issue nor informing students properly. Nicholle Lewis, a sophomore biology major said that she feels like Winthrop has not communicated with students well enough.
“Winthrop had a date set for the opening and while I understand that timeliness can be disrupted, I feel like they haven’t informed us why the schedule was thrown off, and that just leaves us hanging”, Lewis said.
The nearest Chick-fil-A is over three miles away from the Winthrop campus and is not accessible to some of the students living on campus. Therefore, the prospect of a Chick-fil-A opening on campus in the Digiorgio Student Center was a delight to many of Winthrop’s students. Ashleigh Scipio, freshman mass communication major, said that she hopes that Chick-Fil-A will be as good as people are expecting.
“I hope it will be worth the wait. If they have meal swipes then yes, but if not the food will have to be really good in order for me to continue going very often”, Scipio said.
The Chick-Fil-A at Winthrop will have eagle meal options for the chicken sandwich as well as the nugget meals. The menu is going to be a limited version of the regular menu, but is supposed to have all the main items from a typical Chick-Fil-A menu.
The lack of a dedicated chicken service since the closure of Popeye’s could deter many students seeking a university with multiple eating options. Although the school stands as a regionally renowned school, being number twenty five on US News’ top regional universities report for 2018, senior mass communication major, Emily Murphy said she thinks that Chick-fil-A would be a great addition to the many amenities the university has to offer.
“It’ll be great for publicity and to make Winthrop more of a choice for incoming freshmen”, Murphy said.
The sight of such a familiar and popular fast food restaurant could potentially influence more future students to join the Winthrop community. They might be more inclined to attend Winthrop over other universities in the area because of this well-known and loved food establishment.
Winthrop is still unsure of when the establishment will officially open. Chick-Fil-A job recruiters have been staked out in Markley’s for the past week, but when asked they said that they too were unsure when the restaurant would make its official opening.
