Chick-fil-A quietly closes several restaurants

01 Oct 2026, 10:49 · The Fresno Bee

Chick-fil-A has shuttered several established restaurants in recent years, and another location is set to close within days.

The latest closure is part of a broader pattern that is changing where some customers will be able to find the popular chain. Several locations have disappeared, including restaurants that had served their communities for decades.

Founded in 1946 by S. Truett Cathy, Chick-fil-A has grown into one of the largest quick-service restaurant companies in the U.S. The chain now has more than 3,000 restaurants across the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, the UK, and Singapore.

Chick-fil-A closes another mall location

Chick-fil-A is closing its restaurant inside Arbor Place Mall at 6700 Douglas Blvd, Suite 210, in Douglasville, Georgia, on Sept. 30, 2026, Tomorrow’s News Today reported.

The location has operated inside the mall since its opening in October 1999, marking the end of a nearly 27-year run.

The shutdown also follows the opening of another Chick-fil-A restaurant nearby. A drive-thru-focused standalone location was built at 9320 The Landing Drive, just off Chapel Hill Road near a main entrance to Arbor Place Mall.

The changes come amid a broader mix of mall food court closures and continued standalone restaurant openings across Chick-fil-A’s footprint.

Other Chick-fil-A mall closures

The Arbor Place Mall restaurant is not the only Chick-fil-A food court location to close.

The chain has shuttered several mall restaurants in the past year, including:

Town Center at Cobb Mall: The location at 400 Ernest W. Barrett Pkwy NW in Kennesaw, Georgia, closed March 31, 2026, after 40 years, Tomorrow’s News Today reported.
North Point Mall: The restaurant at 6085 North Point Pkwy in Alpharetta, Georgia, closed March 31, 2026, after 33 years, Tomorrow’s News Today reported.
Lehigh Valley Mall: The location at Lehigh Lifestyle Ctr, 826 in Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania, closed Dec. 31, 2025, after 27 years, Lehigh Daily reported.

Chick-fil-A has also closed other food court locations in recent years, including restaurants at Northlake Mall in Tucker, North DeKalb Mall near Decatur, Phipps Plaza in Buckhead, CNN Center in downtown Atlanta, Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, Valdosta Mall in Valdosta, and Peachtree Mall in Columbus, Georgia.

Other states have seen mall shutdowns as well, including locations at Great Lakes Mall in Mentor, Ohio, and Neshaminy Mall in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

The closures do not mean Chick-fil-A has abandoned mall restaurants altogether. The company continues to operate food court locations, and some existing mall restaurants have added options such as drive-thru or curbside pickup.

MDV Edwards / Getty Images

How Chick-fil-A is changing its restaurant strategy

The recent closures are occurring as Chick-fil-A continues to expand its standalone restaurant footprint.

The company’s latest financial and franchise data show a substantial difference in sales volumes between its traditional freestanding restaurants and mall locations, QSR Magazine reported.

In 2025, Chick-fil-A reported median annual sales of approximately $9.1 million for domestic freestanding restaurants or drive-thru-only locations that had operated for a full year. Its 201 domestic mall restaurants had a median annual sales volume of about $3.36 million.

Those figures do not establish that sales performance is the reason for every mall closure. Individual restaurants and their operators can have different circumstances, and Chick-fil-A has not announced a companywide plan to eliminate its mall locations.

Still, the contrast in sales between the formats provides context for Chick-fil-A’s continued investment in standalone restaurants as some mall locations close.

Chick-fil-A has said its own real estate team selects new locations based on corporate expansion goals and other business factors. The company also says it continues to expand internationally and into new U.S. markets.

Chick-fil-A continues to experiment with restaurant formats

Chick-fil-A has tested several alternative restaurant formats as it looks for new ways to reach customers beyond traditional dine-in and drive-thru locations.

In 2018, the chain launched delivery and carryout locations in Nashville, Tennessee, and Louisville, Kentucky, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.

The following year, it expanded its delivery efforts through a shared kitchen facility in Northern California in partnership with DoorDash.

Here’s some of my previous coverage on Chick-fil-A’s expansion strategyand experimental concepts:

In 2025, Chick-fil-A opened a ghost kitchen with CloudKitchens in Boston and expanded to Miami in 2026 to support delivery options.
In fall 2025, Chick-fil-A launched Daybright, a beverage-focused concept in Hiram, Georgia, through its subsidiary, Red Wagon Ventures LLC.
Chick-fil-A also introduced its first vending machine, a temperature-controlled refrigerator that allows customers to purchase menu items through a touchscreen.
In late 2025, the company also began converting its licensed locations, including restaurants on college campuses, in hospitals, and at theme parks, to its owner-operator model. Airport locations are excluded from the change, which aims to create a more consistent operating experience across its restaurants.
Chick-fil-A plans to close its final Little Blue Menu location at 7242 Baltimore Ave. in College Park, Maryland, in January 2027, ending the five-year experimental concept.

What this means for Chick-fil-A customers

For customers, the most noticeable part of the strategy may be where they can find their nearest restaurant.

A Chick-fil-A inside a mall food court can be convenient for shoppers and employees who already spend time at the property. But a standalone restaurant can offer features that many mall locations cannot, particularly a drive-thru and expanded options for mobile ordering, pickup, and delivery.

Chick-fil-A’s 2025 results also illustrate the scale of its restaurant business. Its restaurants generated nearly $24 billion in U.S. system-wide sales, placing it third among the largest quick-service restaurant chains by that metric in QSR Magazine’s 2026 ranking.

The company’s consolidated revenue topped $10 billion in 2025, QSR Magazine reported, while its system-wide sales reached approximately $23.9 billion.

Chick-fil-A also continues to expand outside the U.S. The chain opened its first permanent restaurants in the UK and Singapore in 2025, adding to its existing operations in Canada and Puerto Rico.

For customers, that means some familiar mall locations are disappearing even as Chick-fil-A continues adding restaurants in other formats. The closures are occurring alongside continued restaurant expansion, pointing to a changing mix of locations rather than a broader reduction in Chick-fil-A’s physical footprint.

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This story was originally published October 1, 2026 at 3:49 AM.