Murmurs of how Chick-fil-A customers can nab free sandwiches from the restaurant have been circulating the internet for quite some time. Reader’s Digest purportedly stated that whenever the franchise opens up a new location, the first 100 guests can get themselves free grub for an entire year. Mashed also wrote about how folks who are quick to complain about a location’s service on the Chick-fil-A mobile application can find themselves with a coupon for a complimentary sandwich for their troubles.
And a former employee of the chain, Gi (@moonluvrr888) wrote that they, too, have found a little trick for nabbing free grub while visiting one of Chick-fil-A’s many locations. However, her circumstances surrounding this discovery came from a rather frustrating place.
Gi says that while she worked for the retailer, she wasn’t given any discounts or free food while working shifts as an employee there.
Instead of bringing her own lunch from home, Gi discovered that customer receipts often came with the offer of a free sandwich just as long as someone was willing to complete a survey. Gi says she would fill out customer surveys, accruing around 5 of those receipts each day. She called this process an “infinite money” hack for free food.
“I just finished eating breakfast, but I got this receipt from Chick-fil-A,” Gi explains. “This receipt says that if you do this code, whatever, you get a free sandwich.”
Gi then elaborates on her time as a Chick-fil-A employee: “I remember when I used to work at Chick-fil-A, they would not give us free goods. They wouldn’t give us discounts, they wouldn’t give us free food, the only thing that they would let us have, being employees there, is getting a free drink.
She says the workers would bring their own cups and get free drink refills throughout their shifts. “That’s the only thing that they gave us,” she adds. “So since they wouldn’t give us free food, and I’d be there for 8 hours and we wouldn’t really like… We’d have to either bring lunch or pay for the food there.”
Gi then notes that when customers would refuse their receipts, she would use it to her advantage. “I’d be like, ‘OK,’ and I’d keep it, scan…do the code thingy, do the survey, and then get a free sandwich. Girl, since I worked there I was getting these, I would get like five of these a day. I was just keeping all of them. So, infinite money glitch.”
@moonluvrr888 ♬ original sound – Gi
Chick-fil-A writes about the free sandwich offer on some receipts on its website, stating that all folks need to do in order to get access to the free grub is complete a customer experience survey: “Chick-fil-A® restaurants may offer a free Chicken Sandwich to customers in exchange for taking a customer experience survey. If the survey is available, you will see it indicated either on your printed receipt or in your Chick-fil-A® App in the News tab.”
Free food policies for Chick-fil-A employees appear to vary from location to location. One former worker for the popular fast-casual franchise uploaded a social media post stating that they were given an $8.75 credit to purchase a meal for their shift, however, the amount wasn’t enough to cover a full combo at the chain.
A Redditor pointed out in a post uploaded to the site’s r/ChickFilA sub that establishments “are not required to provide free meals for team members.” Another TikToker and Chick-fil-A worker, Miri (@mirithesiren), frequently documented the “free” employee meal she received while working her morning shift. She has since stopped posting these videos at the request of Chick-fil-A corporate.
@mirithesiren Free Employee Meal Break Down @Chick-fil-A #chickfila #freefood #chickfilabreakfast #chickfilaemployee ♬ original sound – mirithesiren
Numerous commenters responded to Gi’s post who couldn’t believe that the free sandwich offers on Chick-fil-A receipts were genuine.
“So they work???? lmao imma start doing them then!” one user wrote.
Gi doubled down in a response: “Girl yes they do!!! super quick takes less than a minute and you get the free sandwich the same day like within 10 mins.”
Someone else, claiming to be a former Chick-fil-A worker, said that they were already privy to this hack and used to fill out the survey to benefit themself: “Yeah I used to do that and compliment myself and complain about my managers.”
However, other folks said that their free meal experiences at Chick-fil-A varied greatly from Gi’s own.
“That’s crazy when I worked there we had free meals up to 9.50$ for every shift worked,” one user claimed.
“Couldn’t be me i got 50% and free meals,” another wrote.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Gi via TikTok comment and to Chick-fil-A via email for further information.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.