In-N-Out Burger (35 page)

Read In-N-Out Burger Online

Authors: Stacy Perman

“In-N-Out Burger was meeting the industry giant's revenues on a store-to-store basis.”:
Stacy Perman, “Fat Burger,”
Los Angeles
, February 2004.

“the average In-N-Out location came ‘pretty close' to the volume”:
“In-N-Out to Build New Warehouse,”
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
, February 11, 1986.

“Before long, the company launched its own newsletter”:
“A Legacy of Great Service,”
Grapevine Gazette
(Spring 2003), http://www.betternewsletter.com/newsletter/spring_2003.html.

“In-N-Out could save a ‘ton of money'”:
Donald McAuliffe, “Family Affair,”
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
,” May 12, 1984.

“establishing an expansive set of benefits”:
In-N-Out Burger corporate website, http://www.in-n-out.com.

“the state of California raised its minimum wage”:
California Department of Industrial Relations, “History of California Minimum Wage,” http://www.dir.ca.gov/Iwc/MinimumWageHistory.htm.

“the
Orange County Register
called Rich Snyder”:
Andre Mouchard, “Common Sense,”
Orange County Register
, December 17, 1993.

“Rich had already boosted In-N-Out's starting wages”:
Ibid.

“If you lose your workers, you lose your customers,”:
Ibid.

“Famously, around the time of President Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign,”:
John Love,
McDonald's: Behind the Arches
, rev. ed. (New York: Bantam Books, 1995), 357.

“The fast-food chain's detractors were further angered”:
Ibid.

“February 2008, when starting pay for all new In-N-Out associates”:
In-N-Out corporate website, http://www.in-n-out.com/employment_restaurant.asp.

“Two years earlier, the chain raised its own minimum wage”: Morning Edition
, NPR, October 18, 2006.

“At the time, the minimum wage in the state of California was $6.50”:
California Department of Industrial Relations, “History of California Minimum Wage,” http://www.dir.ca.gov/Iwc/MinimumWageHistory.htm.

“By contrast Wal-Mart, a company with $375 billion in sales”:
Wal-Mart sales for fiscal year ending January 31, 2008, from Wal-Mart,
2008 Annual Report & Proxy to Shareholders
, April 22, 2008.

“some ten times greater than In-N-Out's annual revenue”:
In-N-Out's 2007 sales, $395 million, estimated by Technomic Inc.

“was paying its full-time hourly workers $10.51,”:
Jeffrey Goldberg, “Selling Wal-Mart,”
New Yorker,
April 2, 2007.

“By 1989, top store managers earned about $63,000”:
Ellen Paris, “Where Bob Hope Buys His Burgers,”
Forbes
, June 24, 1989.

“We're blessed with good employees,”:
Richard Martin, “In-N-Out Pulls Away,”
Nation's Restaurant News
, June 19 1989.

“Some twenty years later, store managers were pulling in”:
In-N-Out Burger corporate website, http://www.in-n-out.com/employment_mgmt.asp.

“roughly 75 percent of employees staying on beyond six months.”:
These figures are repeated in numerous places, including Robert W. Van Giezen, “Occupational Wages in the Fast-food Restaurant Industry,”
Monthly Labor Review
(August 1994).

“In the case of In-N-Out Burger, its managers maintained”:
In-N-Out corporate website, http://www.in-n-out.com/employment_mgmt.asp.

“We try and maintain the highest quality level possible,”:
Mark Sachs, “In-N-Out: A Short Menu Means Steady Growth,”
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
, August 24, 1992.

“I believe in you. You are the best.”:
Rich Snyder Dedication DVD, Hillview Acres Children's Home, Rich Snyder Cottage, October 30, 2007.

“Times are tough,”:
Ibid.

“We want them to share some of their insights,”:
John Brinsely, “Motivation and Money,”
Los Angeles Business Journal
, July 3, 2000.

CHAPTER
13

“In 1989,
Forbes
magazine featured In-N-Out”:
Ellen Paris, “Where Bob Hope Buys His Burgers,”
Forbes
, June 24, 1989.

“a group of eight San Francisco friends famously ordered”:
The story of blogger What's Up Willy and the famous 100 x 100 was first posted on his blog and then picked up widely elsewhere, http://whatupwilly.blogspot.com/2006/01/in-n-out–100x100.html.

“gobbled down Double-Double burgers at the In-N-Out drive-through”:
Nancy Verde Barr,
Backstage with Julia: My Years with Julia Child
(Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2007), 274.

“minutes later I drove back 'round and got the same thing again”:
Jill Scott, “Gordon Ramsay Admits Secret Passion for Fast Food Burgers,”
Sunday Mail
, April 20, 2008.

“uncopyable advantage”:
Paul Westra, a restaurant industry researcher for SG Cowen, quoted in Mike Steere, “A Timeless Recipe for Success,”
Business 2.0
, September 1, 2003.

“The burger Goliaths doing business in Southern California”:
Richard Martin, “In-N-Out's Size No Measure of Its Stature,”
Nation's Restaurant News
, May 7, 1984.

“Reported estimates on In-N-Out's advertising budget ranged”:
Rebecca Flass, “T&O Group Triumphs in Review for In-N-Out Burger,”
ADWEEK
, July 31, 2001.

“After appearing in over eight hundred commercials”:
Douglas Martin, “Dave Thomas, 69, Wendy's Founder, Dies,”
New York Times
, January 9, 2002.

“the magazine reported that In-N-Out sold fifty-two thousand burgers per month.”:
Ellen Paris, “Where Bob Hope Buys His Burgers,”
Forbes
, June 24, 1989.

“A year earlier, in 1988, he had told the
San Gabriel Valley Tribune,”: Brian H. Greene, “In-N-Out Eyes Opening Up in San Diego,”
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
, October 22, 1988.

“We aren't striving to become a household name.”:
Deborah Silver, “Burger Worship,”
Restaurants & Institutions
, November 1, 1999.

“If you have to tell somebody you're something, you're probably not.”:
Mike Steere, “A Timeless Recipe for Success,”
Business 2.0
, September 2003.

CHAPTER
14

“You believe in God and you still enjoyed science?”:
Snyder family home movie; Esther Snyder, interview by Rich Snyder, circa early 1970s.

“It began in 1965 as a congregation of about twenty-five parishioners”:
“Brief History of the Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa,” http://www.calvarychapel.com/?page=about; Chuck Smith, “The Complete History of Calvary Chapel,”
Last Times
, (Fall 1998), http://www.calvarychapel.com/assets/pdf/LastTimes-Fall1981.pdf.

“Smith was a leading figure in the grassroots ‘Jesus Movement.'”:
David Di Sabatino,
Jesus People Movement
(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999).

“In time, the Calvary Chapel would boast over one thousand congregations”:
Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, http://www.calvarychapel.com/?page=about.

“In 1984, they established the Child Abuse Fund”:
In-N-Out Burger corporate website, “In Loving Memory of Esther Snyder,” http://www.in-n-out.com/esther/; In-N-Out Burger Foundation, http://www.in-n-out.com/foundation.asp.

“Each April, canisters were placed in all of the chain's stores”:
“Burger Promotion Aids Abused Children,”
San Gabriel Valley Tribune,
June 6, 1986; In-N-Out Burger Foundation, http://shop.in-n-out.com/innout/dept.asp?dept_id=110.

“on June 6, 1986, a photograph in the
San Gabriel Valley Tribune”: “Burger Promotion Aids Abused Children,”
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
, June 6, 1986.

“Over the years, the fund distributed millions of dollars.”:
In-N-Out Burger corporate website, “In Loving Memory of Esther Snyder,” http://www.in-n-out.com/esther/.

“Hamburgers are so popular,”:
Stacy Perman, “Fat Burgers,”
Los Angeles
, February 2004.

“It gets the Christian community pretty excited”:
Tracy Weber, “Religion Is the Meat of Burger Chain's Ad,”
Orange County Register
, December 24, 1991.

“not everybody that listens to you is a Christian,”:
Ibid.

“It would be a real drag to die and be up in front of God”:
Ibid.

“In 1980, he backed Republican David Dreier”:
http://newsmeat.com, aggregation of federal filing political contributions.

“Soon Rich began contributing tens of thousands of dollars”:
http://newsmeat.com, aggregation of federal filing political contributions.

“When he was a child, she told him to always smile,”:
Comments made by Esther Snyder during her eulogy at memorial for Rich Snyder, Phil West, and Jack Sims, held at the Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, December 23, 1993 (videotape).

CHAPTER
15

“He hired a specially outfitted passenger train”:
Brian H. Greene, “In-N-Out Eyes Opening Up in San Diego,”
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
, October 22, 1988.

“His goal was to open the first San Diego–area In-N-Out”:
Ibid.

“San Diego is a totally new market area for us,”:
Ibid.

“Perhaps more important, scores of residents”:
Sharon K. Gillenwater, “Burger Fixation,”
San Diego
, March 1990.

“And the chain's revenue,”:
Sales figures estimated by Technomic Inc.; average growth rate calculated based on average from annual sales figures.

“McDonald's had about 8,576 domestic restaurants”:
Store data compiled by Technomic Inc.

“Why pay $2 million for a property”:
Ellen Paris, “Where Bob Hope Buys His Burgers,”
Forbes
, June 24, 1989.

“In-N-Out was classified as an S-Corporation,”:
“Petition of co-trustee Richard Boyd,”
In Re the Matter of Esther L. Snyder Trust–1989
, BP095380 (S.C. Calif. 2005), 16.

“In fact, by the summer of 1989, the chain was selling twelve thousand T-shirts”:
Ellen Paris, “Where Bob Hope Buys His Burgers,”
Forbes
, June 24, 1989.

“On January 31, 1989, the Snyders established an irrevocable family trust:”: Esther L. Snyder Trust–1989
, January 31, 1989.

“A separate trust, the Lynsi L. Snyder Trust, was set up”: Lynsi Snyder Trust–1989
, January 31, 1989.

“to make provision for my two sons and other lineal descendants,”:
“Declaration of Esther L. Snyder in Support of Petition to Reform Trust Instrument to Conform to Trustor's Intention,”
In Re the Matter of Esther L. Snyder Trust–1989
, KP 005531 (S.C. Calif. 2000).

“the Esther L. Snyder Trust was made up of 44,147 shares”:
“Petition of co-trustee Richard Boyd,”
In Re the Matter of Esther L. Snyder Trust–1989,
BP095380 (S.C. Calif. 2005),11.

“The Lynsi Snyder Trust held 4,370 shares”:
“Respondent and Counter-Petitioner Lynsi Martinez's Verified Petition,”
In Re the Matter of Lynsi Snyder Trust–1989,
BP 095 640 (S.C. Calif. 2006), paragraph 19, page 4.

“For purposes of this instrument, Traci Lynette Taylor and Terri Louise Perkins”: Esther L. Snyder Trust–1989
, January 31, 1989, paragraph 14.1.1, pages 29–30.

“Rich was to receive 89.82224 percent”: Esther L. Snyder Trust–1989
, January 31, 1989, paragraphs 5.1–5.15.3, pages 3–13.

CHAPTER
16

“Then, in 1990, PepsiCo purchased a six-year-old, Michigan-based double drive-through hamburger chain”:
Eben Shapiro, “Coke and Pepsi Skirmishing in Restaurant Trade Press,”
New York Times
, May 8, 1992.

“During the next seven years,”:
“Onetime PepsiCo chain Hot ‘N Now sold for $17K,”
Nation's Restaurant News
, March 14, 1005.

“For those of us who don't always go to the awards show,”: Late Show with David Letterman
, CBS, http://www.ktnl.com/latenight/lateshow/wahoo/index/php/20041029. phtml.

“in the company of such notables as Kenneth T. Derr,”:
Donnie Radcliffe and Dana Thomas, “Night of the Dancing Bear,”
Washington Post
, June 17, 1992.

“I love history, I love our country, and it was all there.”:
Karen De Witt, “The Executive Life; A White House Dinner: The Thrill of a Lifetime,”
New York Times
, June 21 1992.

“There we were, dancing with the President and Mrs. Bush,”:
Ibid.

“‘So that in years to come,' he explained,”:
Ibid.

“Following Rich and Christina's wedding,”:
Richard Martin, “Top In-N-Out Burger Execs Killed in Calif. Plane Crash,”
Nation's Restaurant News
, January 3, 1994.

Other books

Forever Fae by L.P. Dover
New Title 1 by Lee, Edward, Pelan, John
Tell Them I Love Them by Joyce Meyer
The Christmas Bargain by Shanna Hatfield
Daiquiri Dock Murder by Dorothy Francis
Wives and Champions by Tina Martin