Poll finds Whatcom wants a Chick-Fil-A or In-N-Out. The businesses respond
The Bellingham Herald asked readers what store or restaurant they wished was in Whatcom County and received over 750 votes for businesses such as Chick-Fil-A, Dunkin’ Donuts and Nordstrom Rack.
The business readers want to see the most in Whatcom County was Chick-Fil-A with 145 votes, followed closely by In-N-Out Burger with 144 votes.
The closest Chick-Fil-A location to Bellingham is at 8810 36th Ave. NE, in Marysville, approximately 53 miles or about 55 minutes from downtown. Chick-Fil-A also has locations in Lynnwood, Bothell, Bellevue and Seattle.
Chick-Fil-A has a real estate team that selects where new locations will be placed, “based on corporate goals for expansion in specifically targeted markets and other relevant business factors,” Chick-Fil-A’s website states.
“While we hope to serve the Bellingham community in the future, we cannot confirm a location at this time,” a Chick-Fil-A representative wrote in an email to The Bellingham Herald.
If you’re wanting a restaurant in your area you can fill out a suggestion form on Chick-Fil-A’s website, but the company receives hundreds of these requests according to Chick-Fil-A’s website. You can also fill out a real estate suggestion form to try to sell a piece of real estate you own to Chick-Fil-A for a new restaurant. You could also attempt to start your own restaurant by becoming a Chick-Fil-A franchisee.
Washington state has no In-N-Out locations, with the closest In-N-Out to Bellingham in Keizer, Oregon, approximately 303 miles (or about five hours) south of downtown Bellingham. In-N-Out restaurants can be found in California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Oregon and Colorado.
“While we do not have any immediate plans to open stores in northern Washington, we are delighted to hear that a number of your readers voted for In-N-Out as a business they’d like to see in the area,” Denny Warnick, In-N-Out’s chief operating officer, wrote in an email to The Herald.
In-N-Out currently has locations in progress in California, Colorado and Nevada according to its website.
“There are many factors that contribute to our selection of new restaurant locations, but requests and feedback from prospective communities are definitely important ones,” Warnick wrote.
One factor that determines where an In-N-Out restaurant is located is the proximity to distribution centers in order to have food stay fresh from the centers to the restaurants.
“We deliver fresh product to each In-N-Out location at least every other day. Our hamburger patties are de-boned and ground from whole chucks by our own team of butchers, so we can never build and open a new restaurant that is too great a distance from one of our facilities,” Warnick wrote.
Getting an In-N-Out in Bellingham might be more difficult than getting a Chick-Fil-A, as In-N-Out is a family-owned business and does not have any franchising opportunities.
In the reader poll, following In-N-Out with 134 votes was the “other” option. Some readers commented on the story wanting Red Lobster, Shake Shack, World Market, Aldi and Crumbl Cookies.
Readers also voted for another Trader Joe’s to come to Whatcom County, as well as Nordstrom Rack, The Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Chang’s.
