Pity This Canadian Chicken Chain

Canada's Chick-Felays, which has four locations in Ontario, is getting complaints from customers who mistake it for Chick-Fil-A, which currently only has outlets in the United States.

“It shocks me that people would ask ‘How can you discriminate?’ How could you think that? We’re brown people,” chuckled [CEO Nabeel] Khan, who has found humour in the angry customers’ outbursts. Now, when patrons inquire on a possible relation between Chick-Felays and Chick-fil-A, Khan says his employees point out that the spelling, the menu and the logo are all different. But most importantly, the beliefs are different, he says. “We welcome everyone, customers and employees, with our arms open and our hearts open,” he said, sitting in a booth at Chick-Felays’s newly opened Mississauga location on Latimer Dr. “Working in the service industry, it’s nonsense to publicly say what (Dan Cathy) said. It’s not good for business.” He said the situation became so severe at Chick-Felays’s Listowel restaurant that a sign had to be placed in the window indicating “We are pleased to announce that we are not affiliated with Chick-fil-A.”

Chick-Felays opened its first store in 2010 and Khan doubtlessly hoped to cash in on Chick-Fil-A's name recognition. (Tipped by JMG reader Reality Bites)