Chick-Fil-A is blowing out the competition in terms of annual sales numbers, making a huge leap from #7 to #3 in the restaurant chain rankings, as released last week by Nation’s Restaurant News analysis.

Outstanding! You gotta love it when the left shows itself as the gang that just can’t shoot straight. In the case of the renowned conservative restaurant chain, those wacky leftists did nothing but shoot themselves in the foot by trying to punish the Chick-Fil-A for their decidely un-progressive, Christian-based policies and practices over the past several years.

Instead, as shown by exploding sales numbers, those ill-advised protests against the chain for alleged LGBTQ offenses, has stirred up an amazing amount of free publicity for the chain winning an ongoing landslide of support from its targeted consumer demographic groups.

Most-often mentioned of the so-called offending behaviors by the chain involve their financial support for the Salvation Army and Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

The numbers don’t lie about the chain’s growing popularity and were seen as inevitable. The leap from 7 to 3 in the rankings means that, by bringing in $10.46 billion in U.S. sales, they leap-frogged Wendy’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Subway.

McDonald’s and Starbucks are numbers 1 and 2 on the list.

In a tepid fast-food marketplace, and even though Chick-Fil-A stores are closed on Sundays, Chick-Fil-A grew sales by 16.7% in 2018, up from $8.97 billion the previous year. Meanwhile competitors are struggling to maintain their sales numbers.

Most amazing is that the average Chick-Fil-A location tallied $4.6 million in annual sales–more than any other fast-food chain. As a comparison, the average McDonald’s store made $2.8 million.

“Can they double that? I think that is a very reasonable goal for them,” Kalinowski Equity Research founder Mark Kalinowski told Business Insider, talking about the chain’s nationwide annual sales number. “I would be surprised if they didn’t double that in the not-too-distant future. Can they reach $30 billion? I think that’s also a realistic goal if you give them enough time. And that should put them ahead of Starbucks.”

The analyst pointed out that the chain has a lot of room to grow as they are “severely under penetrated” in the U.S., as they continue to expand beyond their current base in the South.

It helps a great deal that the service afforded to customers is unsurpassed in the industry. The American Customer Satisfaction Industry has rated Chick-Fil-A the number one company for each of the last four years.

“The service is unfailingly at least good, but usually great or better than great,” said Kalinowski. “Little things like being told ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ — it feels like you’re appreciated as a customer and a human being at Chick-fil-A. And especially in today’s very complex world, it’s just very nice to be able to go to a place where you feel appreciated.”

One little piece of Chick-Fil-A trivia … next time you’re enjoying a visit to your local restaurant, notice how employees do not say, “you’re welcome.” They always cheerfully say, “my pleasure,” a kind of trademark they have to be known by, and that is said to have originated with the chain’s founder.

You won’t truly know despair until you’ve pulled into a Chick-fil-A drive thru on a Sunday. — Sean Lowe (@SeanLowe09) June 23, 2019

If I went missing, I think my parents would be the first to realize it. But very shortly after, the Chick-fil-A employees that I see nearly everyday would send out a search party. — Bailey Pankratz (@baileypankratz) June 23, 2019