He Closed His Doors on Sundays — and Built a Billion-Dollar Business

Truett Cathy and the People-First Philosophy of Chick-fil-A

There’s a Chick-fil-A in almost every mall in America. And on Sundays, every single one of them is dark. Locked up. Not a single chicken sandwich sold.

That was Truett Cathy’s decision. And it cost the company real money — an estimated $1 billion in annual missed sales by some counts. But Cathy didn’t see it as a loss. He saw it as the whole point.

Cathy grew up poor in Georgia, crediting his success to hard work and trust in God. He opened his first restaurant in 1946, and from the beginning, his faith wasn’t decoration on the outside of the building — it ran the whole operation. He was a Baptist Sunday school teacher for over 50 years. He believed the Bible spelled out how you should treat your employees and your customers. And he acted like it.

He always said he wasn’t in the chicken business. He was in the people business. His grandson recalled that Truett would take food from the restaurant after closing, stop by the hospital to drop some off for sick patients, and check in on widows in his neighborhood. As the business grew, so did the giving. He provided college scholarships for his employees and donated significantly to programs for disadvantaged children. He and his wife took in over 150 foster children over the course of their lives.

The Sunday closure wasn’t a PR move. It was a conviction — that his workers deserved a day that the company couldn’t touch. In an industry built on maximizing weekend traffic, that’s countercultural. It’s also deeply theological. Rest matters. People matter. Profit is not the ceiling.

Cathy once said plainly: “I see no conflict between Christianity and good business practices. People say you can’t mix business with religion. I say there’s no other way.”

He built a billion-dollar company by treating people like they were worth more than their labor. Turns out, that’s pretty good business too.