In-N-Out President: Company Will "Never" Go Public
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — In-N-Out just opened it's 304th store in Medford, Oregon, marking the first time the fast food chain opened up a restaurant in the Pacific Northwest.
Naturally, many loyal fans came from all across the state in order to wait in line for their burgers.
Danise Lee drove three hours, stayed a night in a hotel, and showed up the following day at 7 a.m. to get in line.
When she was asked why people in line were so devoted to the burger chain, Lee said, "You sound like someone who has never had an In-N-Out burger."
In-N-Out burgers have long been popular with celebrities as well.
In fact, Paris Hilton even got a DUI attempting to get a burger from In-N-Out.
"I was just really hungry and I wanted to have an In-N-Out burger," Hilton said after the incident.
In-N-Out has maintained basically the same menu since its inception in 1948.
They have stuck to the basics of burgers, fries, sodas and shakes, and it's certainly worked for them.
Lynsi Snyder, the 33-year old president of the company, said to "CBS This Morning", "It's about the quality, the friendliness and the cleanliness. We keep it simple."
The Synder family has long been an enigma to the public, purposely shying away from the media every chance they can get,
"We back away from it." Snyder said. "We don't want to be in the spotlight, we don't want a bunch of attention. And we want to do what we do best, and that's serve some good burgers to our customers," she added.
In-N-Out began in 1948 when Synder's grandparents, Harry and Esther, opened a burger stand in Baldwin Park, California.
Harry installed a two-way speaker and ultimately created the first drive-thru burger joint in the entire state of California.
Today, while McDonald's has over 14,000 stores in the US, In-N-Out has stuck to it's original business model of slow growth, and has just 304 stores in the US, all of them being owned by the Snyder family.
One reason In-N-Out can be found in just six states despite it's enormous popularity, is that any In-N-Out must be within 600 miles of their three distribution centers where their burger patties are made.
At In-N-Out, nothing is every frozen or microwaved.
The Snyder family has done things their own way for decades, and have turned down Wall Street offers several different times.
While the company is valued at over $1 billion, the Snyder family has seen their fair share of tragedy as well.
Lynsi Snyder's uncle Rich, who ran the company for 17 years, died in a plane crash in 1993.
After Rich Snyder's passing, Guy Snyder, Lynsi's father, took over the company, but died of an overdose of painkillers six years later.
Lynsi Snyder became the only heir left, and will take full control of the company when she turns 35.
Snyder later said that she could "never" see a point in time where she would franchise or go public with In-N-Out.
So in the foreseeable future, fans of In-N-Out will have to get their fix from the 304 locations they have across California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, and now Oregon.
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