Kids under age 16 banned from eating at this PA Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A in Royersford, Pennsylvania. This location prohibits children under age 16 from dining in the restaurant without an adult.
Street View Image from February 2023 © 2023 Google
Kids under the age of 16 are now banned from dining at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in southeast Pennsylvania without an adult chaperone.
The Chick-fil-A location in Royersford announced its new policy in a Feb. 22 Facebook post, adding that management “contemplated long and hard” before publishing the post.
“While we love being a community restaurant and serving guests of all ages, some issues need to be addressed,” management said.
Specifically, the fast food restaurant said that on Saturdays and other days when students are out of school, parents drop their teens and younger children off at a nearby bounce park “for several hours.” Those kids then walk over to Chick-fil-A without an adult.
Groups of children and teens left without a chaperone have behaved unacceptably, according to restaurant management. Behaviors include:
- Having loud conversations, often filled with explicit language around other families dining in the restaurant
- Throwing food and trash around the restaurant
- Vandalizing the tables and restrooms
- Stealing restaurant decorations
- Disrespecting the chain’s workers, including by making fun of the staff, treating them rudely and cursing at the employees
- Walking through the drive-thru lanes and parking lot in an unsafe manner
“As you can imagine, this is not a pleasant experience,” Chick-fil-A Royersford said in the post. “We want to provide a comfortable and safe environment for our guests and our staff, and also to protect our building. Therefore, we cannot allow this to continue.”
In an attempt to put a stop to the behavior, unaccompanied children under age 16 must take their food to go. They will not be allowed to eat inside the franchise location.
“Parents, we are not blaming you,” restaurant management said. “Children and teens are learning to navigate the world free from supervision and often push the boundaries. We simply can’t let them push those boundaries anymore at our restaurant. We encourage you to talk to your children and ask about behaviors they have seen and perhaps participated in.”
The restaurant also acknowledged that not all unsupervised children have caused problems while eating at Chick-fil-A.
“To those unaccompanied children and teens that have visited us and acted appropriately, we thank you,” management said. “But we also apologize. Due to the numerous extreme behaviors of many of your peers, we must make a blanket rule covering anyone under the age of 16.”
Royersford is about 30 miles northwest of downtown Philadelphia.
