Chick-fil-A’s All-You-Can-Eat Nuggets Disappoint Millions

People do crazy things for good food that’s temporarily cheap.They’ll camp out overnight. They’ll line up around the corner outside a Morton’s to get $1 steak.

So it’s probably no surprise that a widely circulated Chick-fil-A offer touting all-you-can-eat chicken nuggets and waffle fries almost broke the Internet. Now, it’s just leaving Chick-fil-A devotees — and no fast food restaurant breeds more fanatics than Chick-fil-A, with the possible exception of In-N-Out Burger — heartbroken all across America.

The unlimited chicken nuggets and waffle fries deal isn’t a complete hoax. Which just make it even more cruel. For the deal is available in one solitary Chick-fil-A only. And it’s not within 1,000 miles of Houston or Dallas. This simple but vital fact was omitted from the screaming headlines and gushing Facebook shares that started this viral sensation.

To be fair, the advertisement that triggered this whole mad food rush looks like a national ad. The mention that it’s at the St. Petersburg, Florida, Chick-fil-A only is also vague. So Chick-fil-A’s been left with egg (or chicken feathers) on its face, and its company office phone lines and national Facebook page are being flooded with fans who want to know why they’re not getting all-you-can-eat nuggets and waffle fries.

“This happens sometimes when individual restaurants do promotions,” Chick-fil-A spokesperson Mark Baldwin tells the Tampa Bay Times. “They have to be extremely clear that it is just one location.”

The deal doesn’t even seem that spectacular, if one truly thinks about it. It’s $12.99 for adults and $8.99 for kids under 12 for the unlimited chicken nuggets and waffle fries. How many nuggets and fries are you going to eat in one sitting? Plus, it’s only for a four-hour window (5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday night), making repeat visits out of the question unless one has the appetite of Homer Simpson.

Yet, this deal caused complete nugget mania. Multiple Facebook posts of the offer racked up more than 100,000 shares each. Don’t count your nuggets if the deal’s half hatched?

In some ways, this too-good-to-be-true “deal” is the story of the Internet today; It’s post first, share often and figure out what’s actually going on much, much later.