In-N-Out Burger, Stacy Perman
- Substrat: humble simplicity; "Do one thing and do it the best you can"
- "We really have to have a place where people can get their sandwiches and go"
- philosophy: quality, made-to-order hamburgers, customer is always king; company motto: "Quality You Can Taste"
- Harry invested in drag racing strip, served burgers without (!) branding
- menu: 3 burger items, french fries, soft drinks, lemonade, milkshakes
- fresh, high-quality product: cheese/ice cream 100% dairy;
only inner 4-5 tomato/onion slices, inner lettuce leaves
- associates hand-peel potatoes, leaf lettuce by hand, bake sponge-dough buns daily
- Harry drilled into his workers the singular importance of quality and simplicity.
- shake salt at shoulder length; smile always; look customers in the eye
- Rich set up In-N-Out University to teach values in 1984 (rule no. 1: "The customer is always right."; rule no. 2: "If in fact the customer was not right, refer to rule number one.")
- rigorous quality control: only accept tomatoes that fit special box; employ butchers, starch tests, etc.; Rich set up secret shoppers with complex orders
- long-term, trust-based supplier relationships: dump unreliable suppliers
- no performance advertising: fastidiously private; no public company numbers; Rich started TV & radio in 1977 (100% focus on product); small parking lot sign "Coming Soon, In-N-Out Burger"; provided maps with store locations, bumper stickers; opened mail order catalog for company merch
- value associates: employees are associates; new stores for associates to move up; Rich at bottom of inverted pyramid (managers had 'your stores'); Burger Television (monthly internal video format; Rich interviewed colleagues with BTC mic); The Bulletin (internal newsletter); once a year, Rich did black tie gala (gave Harry Snyder award, named new managers, announced 100 Percent Club trips)
- slow growth: cash for expansion, bought land underneath stores (Rich changed it); 1st warehouse, semitrailer, mobile cookout trailer in 1973 (~10 years after first butcher); in 1976 (28 years after first store), Harry died with only 18 stores
- fresh, high-quality product: cheese/ice cream 100% dairy;
only inner 4-5 tomato/onion slices, inner lettuce leaves
- rest of industry: rapid franchise growth, quick-freeze cost-cutting measures, mass marketing
- waves they rode: car ownership growth & build-out of interstate highways; fast food growth; Hollywood celebrities (unintentional, due to proximity)
Notes:
- in 2005, an In-N-Out store brought in ~$1.79m, while McDonalds brought in ~$1.98m
- fanatic fanbase: "until In-N-Out first arrived in Arizona, many residents flew roundtrip between Phoenix and the Ontario International airport in California expressly for a $2.75 hamburger."
- opened first store in Baldwin Park in 1948 (25-cent hamburgers, 30-cent cheeseburgers,
fifteen-cent french fries, 10-cent soft drinks)
- early motto: "NO DELAY"
- didn't even have indoor seating
- first day: sold 47 burgers; first month: 2,000 (~$1,100 revenues)
- from the start, Badwin Park's locals lined up
- second store in 1951 (3 more in 1952)
- they do invitation-only, pre-opening parties that are final run-throughs
- for store openings with a lot of demand, they set up additional mobile kitchens on-site & send in veteran employees ("In-N-Out All-Stars")
- there is an inofficial, decades-old "secret menu" ("Animal Style", "Flying Dutchman", "4x4"; by now on the official homepage)
- chain's radio jingle: 'In-N-Out, that's what a hamburger's all about'
- Harry Snyder was born in 1913; in 1947, at 34, worked as a caterer selling boxed
sandwiches to a cafeteria; met wife Esther (restaurant's manager) there
- shared simple, principled beliefs; Harry tough/demanding; Esther gentle/in the background
- never doubted her husband; "Anything he decided to do usually turned out well because he would work quite hard."
- for more than 30 years, In-N-Out was run without any women except Esther
- 'the conversion': regulars brought first-timers