Chick-fil-A CEO Says He's Never Calculated How Much Sunday Closures Cost the Chain

Chick-fil-A CEO Andrew Cathy says the chain's longstanding policy of closing every Sunday isn't up for debate, and that he has never actually calculated how much revenue the company forfeits by staying shut one day out of every seven. "I never have because it's never something that we're entertaining," Cathy said in a rare interview with NBC's "Today." "It's just too important for us."

A policy tied to family ownership

Cathy, the grandson of Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy, has led the company since 2021. He framed the Sunday closure as something only a privately held, family-run business can afford to maintain, saying "we're not trying to scrape out every penny that we possibly can," and that staying private lets Chick-fil-A "make those types of investments because we know it means so much to our team members."

The stance comes even as Chick-fil-A continues to outperform much of the fast-food industry despite the lost day. The chain posted an average annual sales volume of roughly $9.16 million per restaurant in 2025, ahead of chains including Wendy's and Burger King that operate seven days a week. Cathy's comments suggest the company sees the closure less as a financial sacrifice to be measured and more as a core part of its identity that isn't subject to a cost-benefit calculation.