In-N-Out Burger, despite "only" being a regional chain of burger joints (with locations primarily
in the American Southwest) is known around the Western World as a place that serves delicious
hamburgers, even if most people have never had the chance to sink their teeth into one
of their juicy delights.
Founded in Baldwin Park, California back in 1948, In-N-Out is headquartered in Irvine,
California and served primarily in Southern California until it began to expand to the
rest of California, then to Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas and Oregon.
It's hesitancy to open itself to franchising has kept an air of mystery around the restaurant
to those who aren't lucky enough to live in one of the six states it operates in.
It is amazing, though, as basically everyone has heard of In-N-Out Burger and there are
actually people that travel to the above-mentioned states simply to try the burgers.
Should they ever open themselves up nationally they'd make a killing, although they'd lose
their vice-like grip so it probably will never happen, unfortunately.
Still, let's help lift the veil of mystery and drop 10 Facts about In-N-Out Burger that
you may not know!
In-N-Out Burger is still Family Owned
When it comes to other fast food burger chains, going public is typically the way to go as
it opens up the restaurant to a flood of new cash and allows for rapid expansion that is
often needed in the dog eat...
Burger world that is the fast food game.
However, the Snyder family that opened the first In-N-Out Burger back in 1948 still owns
every restaurant, with Lynsi Snyder, the only grandchild of founders Harry and Esther Snyder,
being the sole owner.
The reasoning behind this is simple, the Snyders like money!
Actually, it's because they like to retain ownership of each restaurant to ensure that
a certain level of quality is being met and that seems to have worked for them thus far,
as they not only have a very loyal customer base but also because they've been rated as
one of the top fast food restaurants in several major customer satisfaction surveys.
If you go onto any site like Yelp or Glassdoor, which rank the quality of each location from
the perspective of both the customer and the employee, In-N-Out Burger is basically the
highest ranked fast food joint in the game.
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In-N-Out Burger isn’t a Franchise
Part of maintaining ownership as a family also means that the Snyders have rebuffed
the typical model of Fast Food restaurants which is to open up their brand to franchising.
That allows for rapid expansion as most of the money that it'd take to open and market
new restaurants is the responsibility of the franchise, with the restaurant basically just
collecting a portion of the profits and shouldering the responsibility of some of the marketing
(especially on a national level).
Beyond maintaining quality for its customers, keeping things privately owned also allows
In-N-Out to ensure a certain level of quality for its employees as well.
Of all Fast Food restaurants, In-N-Out is particularly known for its employee-centered
personnel policies.
Because of that, In-N-Out Burger currently has a 4.5 out of 5-star rating on the employee
ranking website GlassDoor.com as well as the same ranking on Indeed.com, something that
is nearly unheard of in the industry.
Outside of pay, they also offer a ton of flexibility when it comes to the hours it offers employees,
which helps create a positive work-life balance and good employee retention.
That means that their employees tend to be happier and that is reflected in the food,
as employees who feel respected and rested tend to work harder than ones who don't.
In-N-Out Burger Pays Really Well
As touched on a second ago, In-N-Out Burger bucks the industry trend of paying its employee's
low wages, with starting wages being on average about 20 percent higher than its competition.
That's important as during the "Fight for 15" set of strikes that fast food workers
embarked on a few years ago, it was reported that upward of 40 percent of fast food workers
actually lived in poverty, with just 14 percent of non-union restaurant workers receiving
benefits from their employers.
In-N-Out Burger, though, starts off its hourly workers at $10.50 an hour, which is where
that 20 percent comes in (compared to the median hourly wage nationally for similar
positions which clocks in at just under $8.95 an hour).
That's also 44 percent above the national minimum wage, which goes against the typical
insults that those that work at fast food restaurants have to deal with.
Beyond that, most front-line employees at In-N-Out Burger make $14 dollars an hour (on
average), with store managers with a certain amount of time under their belt bringing in
an insane (for the industry or even just in general) six figures!
So perhaps people need to stop using the insult "McJob" and go hand in a CV at In-N-Out!
In-N-Out Has its Own Non-Profit
That money sharing doesn't just extend to employees, either, as the Snyder family believes
in giving back, so much so that they established the In-N-Out Burgers Foundation back in March
of 1995.
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, it's classified as a "Human Services: Fund Raising and Fund Distribution"
organization under the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities classification system.
Also based in Irvine, California, the foundation "Supports organizations that provide residential
treatment, emergency shelter, foster care and early intervention for children in need."
In the most recent year where financial reporting was available publicly, the foundation contributed
over $1.5 million to 231 grantees in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah with typical
grants being between $2,000 and $20,000 and going to other certified non-profits.
While other fast food joints tend to work with non-profits, like McDonald's and their
Ronald McDonald house, outside of McDonald's this makes In-N-Out different in that it has
its own direct 501(c)(3).
In-N-Out was Opened by a Pair of Newlyweds
When the first In-N-Out opened in October of 1948, it was the first drive-thru hamburger
stand in the State of California and allowed people to place orders via a two-way speaker
system.
Its owners, Harry and Esther Snyder, were newly married and are credited as two of the
first people to develop the idea of a drive-thru anything.
Before this first In-N-Out Burger, people would park at drive-ins and give their orders
to carhops, who would then walk, run, or roller-skate their orders into the restaurant.
The Snyders managed and monitored their restaurants closely to ensure that quality was maintained
with Harry often driving himself to local markets to pick up fresh ingredients and Esther
handling the accounting books.
They opened their second location three years after the first on the west of the intersection
of Grand Avenue and Arrow Highway in Covina California.
When Harry Snyder died in 1976 at the age of 63, they had opened 18 locations.
So while most newlyweds are looking for houses, or planning their family, the Snyders were
basically revolutionizing how people ate food.
They are given a lot of the credit for creating the two-way speaker drive-thru.
It was really Harry and Esther - still driving around with 'Just Married' on the back of
a '57 Chevy - that changed the world forever!
In-N-Out Used to Only Sell Bottles of Coke
It may seem unheard of, but for its first decade, In-N-Out Burger actually didn't sell
fountain pop to its thirsty customers.
Instead, they'd sell ice-cold bottles of coke, which for whatever reason just seems to taste
a lot better.
However, it was a huge inconvenience to all involved, especially if you were trying to
open one with hamburger grease all over your hands, so in 1958, In-N-Out Burger finally
relented and started selling fountain soda.
What's even more strange (to people today) is that the price for a 12-ounce pop or soda
was only ten cents and you were able to purchase either (or both) Coke and Pepsi at the same
location!
It was a simpler time where restaurants didn't have exclusive contracts with soft drink companies,
so people were able to try competing sodas at the same restaurant.
While that sounds great, they also didn't have six kinds of Mountain Dew so perhaps
we've got it better now after all.
It is true, though, that Coca-Cola or Pepsi Cola taste best when they're nice and cold
and coming out of an actual glass bottle.
While it probably wasn't the most convenient thing back in the day when people didn't have
cup holders, it does sound delicious enough for us here to wanna take a road trip not
only to the American Southwest but also to the late 1950's!
The Crossed Palm Trees
If you've ever seen the 1963 film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World or the Cat Burglar Episode
of the Simpsons (Where there's "millions of dollars" buried under a Large T) then you're
familiar with the concept of a treasure being buried underneath trees or a sign shaped like
a letter.
That idea stuck with In-N-Out Burger co-founder Harry Snyder, as most of his restaurants have
two palm trees that intersect one another in the shape of an 'X'.
In the films, characters hunt for that X to find buried treasure and the idea is that
the treasure at In-N-Out Burger is the food, so it's just one of the more subtle and cool
ways that the original Snyders branded their restaurants and made them feel extra special.
The true question becomes how many people have actually started digging between those
trees because you never know, there could be a hamburger down there.
Yum.
That also probably explains why they haven't expanded beyond the Southwestern part of the
country as they can't keep palm trees alive in the Rocky Mountains or the frozen tundra
that is states like Minnesota.
In-N-Out Loves to Drag, Baby
Being a Southern Californian company, perhaps it should come as no surprise that In-N-Out
Burger has a long association with drag racing, a sport that is quintessentially So-Cal.
Co-Founder Harry Snyder helped build a new drag racing track in Irwindale in 1965 by
putting up 50 percent of its cost, which was more than just an act of kindness as he also
ended up stocking all the concession stands with his burgers.
That love of racing must be genetic as the Snyders only grand-child and current sole
owner of In-N-Out Burger, Lynsi Snyder, spends a lot of time at the track as well, but not
solely as someone who loves watching the sport but as a driver too.
According to the National Hot Rod Association, she has competed in the Super Gas and Top
Sportsman Division 7 categories.
Of racing, she says "I like an adrenaline rush", and said that it was her father’s
love of the track that got her into it.
She also is an adept mechanic, fixing up her own cars, so if you ever want a delicious
burger and an oil change, you know where to shop!
In-N-Out University
You now know that one of the reasons that In-N-Out has resisted franchising its restaurants
is that it wants to maintain a certain level of quality and control over its products.
Beyond that, they tend to pay their employees a lot better than their competition does and
now we know why: because they're all college graduates.
Which college, you ask?
Well, the University of In-N-Out Burger.
That's right, In-N-Out Burger has its own "University", which aims to train service
staff and managers on how to maintain that quality across the board and was established
in 1984.
According to Bloomberg Business, about 80 percent of In-N-Out Burger managers graduated
from In-N-Out Burger University, and considering that managers can (and often do) make six
figures a year, it looks like the investment was well worthwhile.
In-N-Out Burger was the Muse for a Classic Rock Album
We've saved the most interesting piece of information for last as it turns out that
In-N-Out Burger was responsible for one of the best Rock albums of the 1980's.
In the book In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain that Breaks All
the Rules, it stated that Van Halen's 1986 chart-topping album, 5150, was basically fueled
by nothing but In-N-Out Burgers (and we assume some illicit drugs).
Former Van Halen lead singer Sammy Hagar said in the book:
"When I first joined the band, we must have eaten there at least three days a week.
We were in the studio recording 5150, and we'd send someone to go get food, and we'd
talk about sushi or pizza and always end up with In-N-Out."
Talk about Rock-N-Roll...
Wait...
Rock-N-Roll, In-N-Out...
It all makes sense now!
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