Name: Why In-N-Out Isn't Coming to a City Near You
Uploaded: 2019-09-18T10:39:16.000Z
Duration: 11 min 1 s
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Anyone whose ever been to In-N-Out knows to expect, no matter where you are, the same,

consistent burger, smiling cashier, and long lines.

Residents of Portland, Oregon were known to drive four hours each way to the nearest restaurant

and before there were any in Phoenix, locals supposedly flew to Ontario, California, had

And yet, despite seemingly unlimited demand, In-N-Out is one of the smallest major fast-food

chains in the world, with only 347 locations.

There are over twice as many Whataburgers, almost four times as many Five Guys, and forty

times as many McDonalds, just in the U.S.

Since it began in 1948, it's only opened an average of five restaurants a year - two

less than Subway opened in a single day, at its peak.

In other words, In-N-Out deliberately leaves money on the table, refusing to expand even

Profitable, high-margin industries are often, kind-of… boring.

How do you make money selling toothbrushes?

Plastic handles with bristles on the end, as it turns out, don't cost very much to

make, and therefore, have healthy margins.

Someone, of course, will try to turn them into a subscription, make them out of aluminum,

oooh, and call it the Youthbrush, but most of us don't have a passion for consumer

dental products, so the business model is simple: You hand me a couple of dollars, I'll

Things get interesting when companies have to get creative.

When competition is high, or consumer willingness to spend money low, they have to find some

For restaurants, it's all about selling drinks.

With printers, the money's really in the ink.

Those are offset by annual membership fees.

Selling millions of french fries for a few cents each isn't a bad business for McDonald's,

but it's found something even better: real estate.

While the company only owns and operates 15% of its restaurants and the rest are franchised,

it owns almost all of their buildings and the land beneath them.

Franchisees pay about 8-15% of their revenue as rent to McDonald's, who makes money whether

they're profitable or not, and that's on top of the normal franchise royalty.

After going on a huge shopping spree during the 2008 recession, McDonald's now owns

more than $30 billion worth of real estate.

Not only is its business diversified but much of that income is tax-deductible.

In other words, McDonald's is actually more real estate investor than fast-food franchise.

Likewise, if you think of In-N-Out only as a burger chain, it doesn't make much sense.

Why not change and perfect the recipes, or add new menu items?

But, if In-N-Out is really about serving a predictable, familiar experience more than

the food itself, opening new locations and trying new things are huge risks.

In-N-Out's secret ingredient, the thing it's really selling is: consistency.

Nearly every location has the same, familiar layout, drive-thru lane, and iconic crossed

palm-trees, a reference to the founder's favorite movie.

Unlike other fast-food restaurants, the interior is clean, well-lit, and easy on the eyes.

Most importantly, the menu is dead simple: hamburger, cheeseburger, french fries, three

flavors of shakes, and the two hamburger patty, two slices of cheese, double-double.

To drink, there's milk, hot cocoa, coffee, classic and diet Coke, root beer, Dr. Pepper,

Even with a few, secret variations, like grilled cheese, animal fries, and the Neapolitan milkshake,

there's nowhere near the selection of, say, a Dairy Queen or McDonald's, which have

about twice as many drinks alone as everything at In-N-Out.

Its menu changes not seasonally, or annually, but, maybe once a generation.

In 1958, bottled sodas became fountain drinks, Milkshakes were added in '75, Dr. Pepper,

21-years later, Lemonade, in 2003, and hot chocolate fifteen years after that.

When a fourth beverage size was proposed, a fight reportedly broke out inside the company.

And, in 2018, it closed all 37 locations in Texas for a full 48-hours when it found buns

The downside of this consistency is that it can't respond to changes in the industry.

In 2015, McDonald's was able to turn around declining sales with its all-day breakfast.

And, caught off guard by Chipotle's success, many chains have tried capturing that market

by introducing more healthy alternatives.

On the other hand, by keeping things simple, In-N-Out can carefully optimize every ingredient

Inevitably, new items mean longer lines, confused employees, and added complexity.

The McCafé Coffee, for example, required each store buy a $15-20,000 espresso machine

At In-N-Out, there are five levels of employees: Level 1, the janitor and counter handout,

2, for the drive-thru, 3 and 4 who make french fries, 5, who is allowed to assemble burgers,

and 6, the only person authorized to man the grill, which requires at least 3-6 months

Not only does this ensure well-trained cooks, but it also turns fast-food into a proper,

Level one employees are generally paid more than minimum wage, and managers make an average

of $160,000 a year, with some making well over a quarter of a million dollars overseeing

It's not hard to see why they stay with the company for an average of 14 years.

Almost all current and ex-In-N-Out employees say the same thing: it's a stressful, chaotic,

Everyone, full and part-time, receives 401k plans, dental and vision coverage, and paid

Even more impressive, it does all that despite having some of the lowest prices in the industry.

A hamburger, fries, and milkshake costs just $6.85, about half the price of the same order

Any other company would, without hesitation, export this formula of highly-skilled employees,

a simple menu, and consistent quality, across the country, and then, when that worked, across

The fact that it hasn't is, more than anything else, a reflection of its values, set 70 years

ago in Baldwin Park, California by husband and wife founders Esther and Harry Snyder.

It was the first place ever to use a two-way speaker system, allowing drivers to place