ATLANTA — Rumors were swirling on social media earlier this year about one of Atlanta's most beloved fast-food restaurants.
A viral social media post claims that Chick-fil-A charges customers more when they pay for food in the drive-thru rather than going inside and ordering at the counter.
11Alive looked into this claim by paying a visit to one of the Atlanta locations to see for ourselves in order to see if the rumors were true.
THE QUESTION
Does Chick-fil-A charge customers more if they pay in the drive-thru versus if they pay inside?
The post that got the rumors started on X this Monday has been seen more than 9 million times and has 35,000 likes, over 4,400 retweets and over 500 comments.
SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, Chick-fil-A does not charge customers more for food in the drive-thru rather than paying at the counter inside, at least at the Piedmont Road location in Atlanta.
WHAT WE FOUND
On Friday, four days after the viral claim was made, I decided to pay a visit to the Chick-fil-A off Piedmont Road.
I decided to keep it simple: To start, I went inside and ordered one Chick-fil-A Sandwich at the counter, for which the total price rang up to be $5.43 after tax. After grabbing my food, I hopped in the iconic speedy drive-thru line and ordered one Chick-fil-A Sandwich, for which, once again, the price rang up to $5.43 after tax.
I even grabbed photos of the menu inside the restaurant and the menu in the drive-thru, for which all prices are exactly the same:
You can even see in the photos above that a single chicken sandwich in the restaurant and in the drive-thru is $4.99 before tax, and a medium-sized meal is $8.85 before tax.
In addition to that, I even grabbed the receipt for the exact same chicken sandwich order in both the inside and the drive-thru that shows the identical prices.
So, 11Alive can verify that, no, the prices don't change whether you're going through the drive-thru or into the restaurant.