Business
10 Sad Truths Why In-N-Out Isn’t Coming to a City Near You
In-N-Out Burger was founded way back in 1948 in Baldwin Park, California by the husband and wife team of Harry and Esther Snyder. It marked the very first drive-thru restaurant in that state and it has its merits as being one of the first to introduce the two-way intercom system used in many drive-thru windows to this day. But as popular as it is, it isn’t very likely that you’ll be seeing one of these locations pop up near you, and we’ve got some pretty interesting reasons as to why.
10. The Menu May Be Too Simple For Certain Regions
With a plethora of restaurants offering countless items on their menus, perhaps one of the biggest issues with In-N-Out is the size of their tiny menu. Definitely quaint, this menu offers very little in terms of change, rarely venturing away from the classic menu they have always offered since their inception. A few items were added over the years, like the lemonade and the hot cocoa, but these items appeared only every so often and with a lot of years in between. The reason for this is quite simple to get to, as they, both the owners of the past and the current owners and administration want to keep this restaurant quaint and homey. Of course, also added to this are the many standards they have. And we all know that the less you have to do, the better you can keep your standards of operation and service. You’ll see this in many of their approaches as you go on in this list; standards seem to be very important to them, as you’ll learn. This tiny menu might be a definite drawback to many diners and possible consumers out there, as a choice, and a wide variety of choice is a huge selling point for many restaurants like this. The In-N-Out family seems to recognize this, thus the decision refraining them from serious global expansion.
9. Standards Ar Quite High … Which May Be Difficult To Keep Up With So Many Locations
And as we touched on earlier, it’s the standards that seem to make expansion quite difficult. With too many locations to oversee, these standards can suffer quite severely, and it’s this reason specifically why you won’t be seeing many In-N-Out locations opening up at a lot near you. You are likely to see fifty more McDonald’s locations before seeing a single In-N-Out, as the standards at McDonald’s are considerably lower, as is to be expected. With so many locations under their corporation, it’s probably hard to keep an eye on everything. Here, with In-N-Out, the smaller the reach, the better it is to manage appropriately, and the more they can monitor their precious standards that we the consumer appreciate so much.
8. The Don’t Have Healthy Options … A High Selling Point For Many Other Restaurants
And they don’t really offer much in terms of healthy food options. Even McDonald’s offers some healthy options on their vast menu: like their grilled chicken fruit smoothies. These products do well; especially for locations set up near gyms and other athletic business-oriented places. Also, healthy food is quite popular in general these days. With everyone counting macros and calories and carb and sugar content, this is to be expected. But if health buffs such as this decision to go to In-N-Out, it better be a cheat day altogether, because they won’t be able to stay on the old diet there. The menu hasn’t changed much over the years as we’ve said, and the regular burgers and fries are pretty much what they can expect to find there. This too is a reason not to expand that far out of their range, as they cannot cater to the health buffs out there. In-N-Out is more of a treat place, and the fewer locations there are the better. As you’ll see in this piece, there’s a certain appeal to that.
7. They Pay Their Staff Well … Maybe A Little Too Well
This sure isn’t a negative thing, as who doesn’t want to be paid well? This is obviously redundant, as everybody wants to be paid well. Duh, as they were fond of saying in the nineties. The reason that In-N-Out pays their employees so well is quite simple, however. Each employee in the restaurant brigade has a specific task that they are required to learn in training and after said training, they apply what they’ve learned specifically to their given positions, ranks and job title, rarely wavering away from their position. This enables them to work effectively as a team and as a machine, as a kitchen brigade should. Does this mean that their service is better than the next place? Probably so, as they essentially become specialists of their own domain. And it doesn’t stop at the pay. The salary is just the tip of the iceberg, as they are all taken care of quite well in terms of health packages and other benefits, and that goes from the fry cook and all the way up the corporate ladder. So as it turns out, it’s a pretty decent place to work, if you so choose to enter the food industry. But one other question remains in terms of this point … do you think they’d be able to afford to take care of their employees as well as they do if they had as many locations as McDonald’s? We didn’t think so.
6. They Make Many Of Their Products Daily At Distribution Centers, Which Can Be Problematic With Too Many Locations
This here too can be attributed to why you don’t see that many locations around the States … as it makes a lot of sense: Everything in their restaurants is made fresh and daily. Like the buns are baked fresh and are prepared to satisfy one and all. This is, of course, a great thing, as clients can expect to have the best bang for their buck, so to speak, and trust us when we say that these burgers do create quite the explosive bang when eaten. The ingredients and items of food prepared are actually made daily at distribution centers set up near the locations. But this is where the trick is … they can’t be further than 500 miles from the particular restaurant or restaurants they cater to, as the staff must arrive fresh and ready to serve. So a particular distribution center may prepare the items and ingredients for a location or two at most if that particular location rests within the five-hundred-mile radius. So, with that said, can you imagine how many distribution centers there would have to be if the company would expand and set up locations on every street corner like so many other fast-food chains? It would be pandemonium, and of course, their precious standards would no doubt plummet. They seem to have really thought about everything, haven’t they?
5. The Current President Doesn’t Think They Will Be Expanding Further Than East Texas Anytime Soon
Lynsi Snyder, the current president of the company hasn’t tried to deter the minimalist approach set up by her ancestors and founding members of the company. She isn’t at all hiding the fact that they will not expand to incredible lengths and levels of approach. A little at a time seems to be their corporate policy and it seems to be working quite well for them, especially seeing that they made an approximate 600 million dollars in 2017 or thereabouts. So no … they aren’t suffering in terms of profits, we’d say. What’s the old expression …? Slow and steady wins the race, right? Sure is, and it seems that this company lives by that policy. She recently stated that she doesn’t think that In-N-Out will be expanding further than East Texas anytime soon, and that’s a serious statement that proves our point beautifully. Just think of how many Subway, KFC and McDonald’s locations will open in that time (probably even close)! A minimalist approach indeed, especially considering she’s only in her thirties!
4. Sometimes, Being Exclusive Has Its Appeal
Like a rare gemstone or rare piece of art, being exclusive sure has its appeal. One of a kind art can sell for millions on and off the black market, and In-N-Out sure isn’t the cheapest place to get a burger if you’re so lucky to have one in and around where you live. But yet people still flock to the locations and like they’re going out of business, and never mind style! This is because people, in general, understand when something is good and of course a bit rare. We’re leaving this up to conjecture here, but please humor us … if something is too commonplace, readily available and offered as we said before at every street corner in the center of many towns across America, then it wouldn’t be as sought after. It’s called taking things for granted, and things are only taken for granted when there is a lot of a certain product or source. It’s human nature friends, and it’s been happening since the dawn of time, and especially so since the industrial revolution. We take our sources, natural and non, and our products way too lightly. What follows is waste, over-waste and of course the dropping of sales for many companies that provide these resources and of course products. The corporate policy set up by the good people at In-N-Out prevents this from ever happening. So next time you find yourself raising your fist to the sky and screaming that you haven’t had an In-N-Out burger in ages and can’t afford a trip to where you can get your fix, remember that they approach their business and reach with a keen and sage mind. You’ve got to hand it to them, folks.
3. They Will Never Go Public And Offer Franchise Locations
And yet another big reason as to why you don’t see so many of these out there is that they will never sell franchises to the general public, meaning that they will never go public. Places like McDonald’s offer out franchises where businessmen and women can go out there and purchase a location and work within the parameters of the McDonald,s corporation to some degree and earn profits off of the name and the product. But this lowers standards considerably, as many businesswomen and men have been known to cut quite the considerable corner every now and again. With so many franchise locations, salaries differ from place to place and of course the end result, being the food, differs from place to place. How many times have you gone to one McDonald,s location and had a Big Mac only to see that the middle piece of bread was missing! A travesty, indeed, but it happens. And why does this happen? because of a lack of standards … one owner cannot be like the next and this reflects badly on the McDonald’s corporation as a whole. Things such as this wouldn’t happen with In-N-Out, as they have set up the standard at which they apply their business and service and can keep an eye on all products and services at every single location. Not many fast food chains can claim this or even promise this.
2. May Be Too Much Competition Out There
And with the mention of all of these other franchises out there, the next reason why you won’t see very many In-N-Outs out there lies probably in that point as well. There is just so much competition out there. And not just in the fast food domain alone. These days most restaurants are fast food oriented and you as a consumer can pretty much get your burgers and fries just about anywhere. And although the standards of In-N-Out are so high, the fact that you can pretty much go anywhere else can hurt and place in the long run, even with a place where the quality is so high. At the end of the day, the price of a certain product speaks volumes especially in this fast-paced time and place in our economy and our society. The cheapest burger probably speaks volumes to the average consumer, and yes, quality starts to climb down the so-called ladder on our list of priorities. Perhaps the people at In-N-Out see this and understand it quite well. If they were to open up locations near other places like McDonald’s, KFC and even Burger King, perhaps they would do well for a time, but for the average consumer that hits the line at the local fast food joint, let’s say four times a week, there is no way they’ll be going to In-N-Out as often as they can go to McDonald’s, especially with the famed McValue menu looming at the back of their minds … especially considering the cost of living and their looming bills that keep coming in, this is more than understandable.
1. Grand Openings Are Too Big Of A Deal To Have Every Other Week
When it comes to the old Grand Opening, nobody does it bigger than In-N-Out. The president herself comes out and they have to call in star employees to get the new employees trained and make sure that all openings go off without a hitch. This means flying in employees from other locations, which obviously costs money. Plane tickets aren’t free, right? No sir, they absolutely aren’t! And what more, they need security and police presence to direct traffic in the take-out lines and monitors indoors to make sure everything goes smoothly. You don’t believe this … try to imagine an In-N-Out location opening near you. Do you really think everybody will behave themselves, especially Duke from down the street, the guy who can’t keep his calm waiting in line at the bank!? Really!? The logistics involved in making an opening like this go off without a hitch takes careful planning, and the people at In-N-Out definitely know what they’re doing in that regard. But this can’t happen every other weekend. In fact, this can’t even happen every other year. It takes a lot of money and planning and after everything we’ve just uncovered, it seems like In-N-Out themselves have no intentions to change their minimalistic approach anyways. It seems to be working nicely for them and all the power to them. Now if you’ll excuse us, we have a plane to catch. Seems as though we can’t seem to get over a craving for a Double, Double. Want to join us? You’re more than welcome.