Chick-Fil-A Sits Atop Restaurants Sales List

Bentonville’s Chick-Fil-A, in its first full year of operation, has moved to the top of the city’s restaurant revenues pecking order with about $2.4 million in sales.

(Note: Eurest Dining, the Walmart home office cafeteria, with $4.8 million in sales, was intentionally excluded. Also excluded from the top 10 were Sam’s Club and Walmart Supercenter Deli, due to the fact their primary business isn’t as that of a restaurant.)

Chick-Fil-A opened its Bentonville location in April 2008 and finished that year with $1.8 million in sales. Given a full 2009, it moved past other fast-food heavyweights like McDonald’s, Sonic Drive-In, Taco Bell and Burger King.

Plenty of people ate at McDonald’s, though, as three of its locations were among the top four and totaled more than $6.3 million in sales. That represents an increase of about 0.4 percent over 2008 totals.

Among sit-down restaurants, Lin’s Garden Chinese Restaurant again ranked tops, with more than $1.6 million in sales. That was the fifth-highest sales total in Bentonville. Shogun Steakhouse of Japan ($1.55 million) and Panera Bread ($1.48 million) ranked eighth and 10th, respectively.

As a group, the 10 restaurants totaled more than $18 million in sales, an increase of 2.2 percent over 2008. All totals were based on figures obtained from the Bentonville A&P Commission, which collects a 1 percent tax on prepared foods and non-alcoholic beverages.