Surviving/Thriving Amid COVID-19: A&W/KFC Continuously Busy, Even With Lobby Closed

When you're looking for fast food, there are only so many locations in Whitehall. The A&W/KFC, which has been open for decades and owned by Michelle & Curtiss Lafountaine for the past twenty-four years, is a bit of rarity when it comes to a population such as Whitehall's. Most franchise locations are in bigger cities, but Whitehall has held its own – even throughout the current crisis of COVID-19.

For nearly a year, the Whitehall location's dining room and lobby have been closed due to the pandemic, yet none of us have gone crazy craving their chicken and Papa Burgers – because the drive-thru is busier than ever.

"We just didn't have enough staff to keep everyone safe when this first started," Lafountaine said, in regard to what Corporate wanted accomplished in order to keep the dining room/lobby available to the public. Since the original closure in March, Corporate has since closed all dining rooms and lobbies and gone to drive-thru only.

"We were really lucky – we had no loss of employees. We actually hired more," she said, noting that running only the drive-thru is much easier, but requires more staff to keep things flowing smoothly. "It's definitely been different, but not bad."

Lafountaine added that during the pandemic and the eventual closures, quarantines, and ever-changing directives, people told her that the drive-thru was one of the only senses of normalcy they had in life.

"Customers told me they were glad we were open because they could still come through the drive-thru and get their ice cream, and it felt "normal", which they needed," she said.

KFC has temporarily tabled their slogan "Finger Lickin' Good" due to Coronavirus, but we all know the 64-year-old slogan still rings true. While there are no new entities on the menu (remember the Double Down?) the fast-food giant is always a favorite for a great burger, fries, and a family size bucket of chicken. Lafountaine added that while the hours have been shifted to 11am- 9pm, the location is currently hiring, and applications are available.