Customer Reviews

In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Lots of people love In-N-Out hamburgers, and Stacy Perman would tell its history. Although well written with a fine job of documenting the company after Harry Snyder's sons, Rich and Guy, took over, it omits the story of the risk and drama of its origination and contains errors and omissions.

For example, Perman only alludes to Charles Noddin but, without him, there would be no In-N-Out. She says, "it was just Esther and Harry. The Snyders did everything themselves." Not true. Charlie and Edith Noddin devoted as much time and effort as Esther and Harry. Although Harry, being younger, did more labor. As to the secret sauce, after some minor adjustments, Harry never "spent years perfecting" it.

But the greatest omission is the lack of explaining why the first In-N-Out was built in a place as isolated as Baldwin Park. It was a desperate place to start a business. And the story is untold.

She states that, "in all probability it was the country's first (drive through)". That's not so either. Enterprises evolve and the lunch wagons of the 1890s passed food to carriages driving in the street and to customers on the sidewalk. Surprisingly, about 1898, there was a drive up for carriages.

Harry Snyder did invent the two-way speaker. The reason he installed it was because when two or three cars were lined up, ordering by hand signals and shouting just didn't work; it was not so "motorists could order at one end" and "pick up their food at the other end." Also, the speakers were installed later, about two years when the need arose.

Perman states that Snyder was a savvy businessman who established Snyder Distributing. He actually divided the business into several independent units but it wasn't his idea; it was suggested by a CPA. Her statements about making a burger are not factual either nor that "five-wide tomatoes in a special designed box" were used. He used five by sixes and they were cut thinner in winter when the price escalated. Harry was a frugal man.

Snyder did not own the property of No. 1; it was leased. When the I-10 freeway was built over No. 1, the state offered Harry some surplus property across Garvey Blvd. He happily bought it for a song. Perman says that when Snyder and Noddin broke the partnership, Snyder kept the In-N-Out name. Not true. There were four stores then and each took two, and each had the In-N-Out name. She says that Noddin opened another burger chain in Pasadena but he didn't. Snyder took over the Baldwin Park and Pasadena stores. Noddin took the San Gabriel and Azusa units and did not build any others.

In spite of such errors and omissions, the book provides a fine history of fast food and is well worth reading.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has great insight into the Snyder family and the beginnings of In-N-Out. It also includes some simple but outstanding business principles that can be learned from the way Harry and Rich did business. The story has plenty of drama, too. Whether or not you are a fan of their hamburgers, I recommend this book has a great read on family-owned businesses and the story of an entire era of americana.

This is the life story of Harry and Esther Snyder and their family... and their one of a kind AMERICAN-SUCCESS-STORY IN-N-OUT-BURGER. The reader is taken from the Snyder's humble family beginnings... their falling in love... both their military service... the birth of their children... and their personal doggedness that led from one small fast food burger shop... to the current "cult-classic" chain that numbers over two-hundred locations. And it all started with Harry's mantra... do just one thing and be the best at it... and his entire system was based on three simple words: "QUALITY, CLEANLINESS, AND SERVICE". The author's exhaustive research pays off in spades as this is not only a tale of the amazing growth and success of "IN-N-OUT-BURGER"... but an insider's look... right from the middle of the action in the unparalleled escalation of the fast food culture in the United States from 1948 to the present. The Snyder's were not only right there with the birth of McDonald's, Burger King, Carl's Jr., etc. but In-N-Out beat them at their own game in the local market place that In-N-Out competed with them in. In fact even though they competed in the same area as Carl Karcher the owner of Carl's Jr. ... they were lifelong friends to the day they died.

As the rest of the industry spent every waking moment and dollar on lowering costs... whether through automation... or figuring out how many different ways they can freeze meat and potatoes... Harry refused to worry about lowering costs... he worried about "everything"... and I mean "everything"... being fresh. Only fresh meat... only fresh potatoes that they peeled and cooked themselves... every single day. They made their own buns... and made their own "secret sauce"... and they never spent money on advertising (not until the next generation of Snyder's... and then only minimally.)... because they didn't have to. The unbridled love of a meal from In-N-Out Burger... was passed from customers to their relatives... from relatives... to friends... from friends to mere acquaintances... like sharing a secret treasure. Lines of customers would wrap around the block and cause traffic jams. As they grew Harry got his own butcher to actually prepare the meat that came directly from a farm. Harry took care of the product and Esther handled the bookkeeping. Harry built a reputation with all his suppliers that his word was his bond. He never pressured them for better prices... he just let them know if he needed their help in a crisis they better be there. He inspected every truck of potatoes and meat. One bad potato and the whole truck was sent away. I can personally vouch for the Snyder's integrity that the author writes about, because in the early 1970's I was the sales manager for a computer company in Los Angeles that sold In-N-Out Burger a computer system to handle their burgeoning accounting needs. They were very happy with our system and wrote us a letter of recommendation on their "famous" In-N-Out-Burger letterhead. We put it in a nice frame in the lobby of our Wilshire Blvd. showroom so every potential customer that came to our office for a demonstration could read how we helped automate this unbelievable fast food hamburger company that was literally taking Southern California by storm.

As In-N-Out grew there were always rumors that they were going to sell the company to a conglomerate or go public but that was never the case. They also were only interested in very slow controlled growth. The Snyder's were always very private and kept things close to the vest. After Harry died... the younger son Rich took over and did a tremendous job. Unfortunately Rich died early in a plane crash and the older brother Guy who battled drugs took over and subsequently lost his fight with those demons. Esther's will and trust were changed so only a blood heir could inherit her stock... and there was only one such heir... Guy's young daughter Lynsi Snyder Martinez... who was not yet an adult. Regrettably... an ugly legal battle broke out between the trustees and Lynsi... and a company that kept family business private for over forty-years... was exposed through the media in ways that they had totally avoided through two prior generations.

Just as important as their unique "always-fresh" product is to In-N-Out Burger's storybook success... is the way they always treated their employees like family. In fact Harry and Esther never let anyone call them employees... and they would literally interrupt you in the middle of a sentence and tell you "THEY ARE NOT EMPLOYEES... THEY'RE ASSOCIATES!"

This is an absolutely engrossing story that weaves together an All-American-family... business... fast-food-mania... tragedy and success... and I am glad I dealt with this wonderful family personally... and I'm also glad I read this book... and even though I live in Northern California now... there is an In-N-Out Burger seven-tenths of a mile from my front door.

You don't have to be an In-N-Out devotee to enjoy this meticulously researched and well-written book.

Stacy Perman writes a compelling story of entrepreneurship, an unwavering focus to be the best, success, tragedy, and the struggles of passing a family business to new generations.

By the end of her book, you too will have a hankering to drive (or fly) to the closest In-N-Out restaurant. There, along with a diverse socioeconomic customer base that includes celebrities such as Sammy Hagar and Tom Hanks, as well as acclaimed chefs like Gordon Ramsey (the late Julia Child was also a fan), you'll enjoy one of the best hamburgers on this planet.

As an avid reader of books on business strategy, business organization, leadership, finance, etc, I was more than a little disappointed. This book lacks the substance needed to put it into the informal "business book" category. It is a good story, and entertaining to read, but you will not learn from it, feel inspired by it, or gain any more information about how the company is run than you had before you began reading the book. There are pages and pages of flowery descriptions where the book sounds more like an advertisement for the food they serve than anything else. There is more than enough information on the details of the people's personal lives involved in the company, but very little about the operations of the company. I do love to eat at In-N- Out, and it was interesting to read about the people who started the company and learn some of their history. The business information in the book, however, could have been summed up in a short magazine article.

A few years ago I read "Behind the Golden Arches" which was the story of McDonalds. That book spent a lot of time talking about developing the great systems that McDonalds put in place in order to expand world wide. Until I went to In & Out I thought McDonalds had the best fast food system. However In and Out puts McDonalds (and all the others) to shame. The simplicity of the menu, being able to observe the preparation, not allowing long lines before taking the order, having a spare trash container next to the existing ones, the layout of the restaurants (I could be blindfolded in a new In & Out and find my way around), paying employees a bit more to get the good people. I'm dissapointed because this book doesn't address any of these in any detail. Who developed these systems? How long did it take? How have they changed over the years? In & Out is my favorite place to eat, but this book is not worth reading unless you like family gossip.

As a lifelong loyal consumer of In-N-Out, like my craving for Double Doubles, I couldn't wait to pick up the book. Like visiting In-N-Out itself, the book didn't disappoint. I thought I knew everything about In-N-Out Burger, but I gained some wonderful new insights about the starting of the business, the founders and their descendents, the fast food industry as a whole, the behind the scenes turbulence of In-N-Out, and its mission of doing a few things extremely well. I can hardly wait to get back to the West Coast for a steady diet of Double Doubles, strawberry shakes, and animal style fries. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.

How much can your write about a hamburger chain whose menu lists just 3 items? Granted, in-n-out makes pretty good burgers, but using 352 pages seems a bit much. I was hoping that there much be some real interesting characters. After all: this subject has it it all: an all american success story, untimely deaths, family feuds and a burger you can relate to. But after reading it all I'm somewhat disappointed. Essentially, the story could have been told in a few paragraph.

The main problem is that there limited original material in this book. That's probably because the main characters are long dead and the chain is somewhat secretive. The author dutifully collected all material from newspapers and court proceedings, but did not conduct any interviews herself. She repeats ad nauseam that the founder was a quality-obsessed micromanager, but there are too little juicy anecdotes to back that up.

In short, the Snyder vision was too keep the menu minimal, only use the best ingredients and be a good employer. An origonal vision of slow growth in fast food. That's all, and that is pretty much the same picture that In-n-out's corporate marketing wants to project. This book could have been commissioned by the burger chain, except for the final part. The second part deals with the developments when the family-owned chain moves from the first to the second and third generation. The feud and lawsuits are messy and leave us readers confused about the truth. I was hoping that the research of the author would shed some light on this, more than can be obtained by reading the wikipedia page.

The author does a reasonable job in depicting the rise of the fast food industry from the 1950ies until now. Unfortunately, the main characters do not come alive from this book, mainly due to the lack of personal interviews with the people involved. Some key facts are omitted. For instance, the fact that the Harry Snyder had a business partner was only mentioned briefly at the moment when they split up. What was the role of this person, might he have been the real visionary? Another small error is that she confuses billion with millions when stating that Wall Mart has 10 times the revenue of In-n-Out burger (its probably closer to 10000 times).

Overall, this book is worse than the burger.

I've eaten at an In-n-Out Burger joint once when I was in So Cal a few years ago. It was OK, but frankly I didn't think it was that special. Maybe I just wasn't really in the mood for a burger that day and went because the family wanted to.

I didn't know how big their "cult" following was until I read this book. Based on the "formula" used to run the business I can understand why. This is a fascinating story about the beginning of the business, the owner's philosophy, the growth of the business, the challenges they faced, and the unfortunate family problems that occurred. My one eating experience apparently was during perhaps the most tumultous period, so maybe the food reflected the times?

I picked up this book because like many people outside of California, the cult phenomena of In-N-Out burgers is very strange and fascinating to me. Yes, I've had their burgers. Yes, they are better than what you get at McD's or Burger King. But I still don't understand the obsessions. I wanted an insight into a company that was able to create itself as a cultural icon.

I did get a little of this. It took until page 175 or so before you figure out that the desire of In-N-Out is it's mystique, and the shortage compared to demand. If there was one on every block, even if it was able to maintain its quality, I just don't see it maintaining such a rabid following.

But what I didn't get out of the book was a lot of business details. I understand now why we didn't get those - the family is very secretive. Rather, the book focused on the 3 generations of the Snyder family. When the author admits herself that the average In-N-Out customer doesn't even know who these people are, I have to question why there was a need to devote 300+ pages to them when precious few details are available. So much of the book was filler. Did I really need to know that the Snyder sons' milatry school uniforms were not considered "cool"? Every family has silly little memories like that and they are never of any interest to anyone not in the inner circle. There was an entire chapter devoted to Rich Snyder's political and religious views. I think the author was really trying to demonstrate how these conservative views shaped the way he ran the company, but how it seemed to me was how the company had put him in the position to have leverage with political parties, to create churches, etc.

The one part of this book that I think the author did really well was the frequent comparisons to McDonalds. She went out of her way to demonstrate that they were very different companies. While I was reading it, I'll admit to rolling my eyes a few times - while In-N-Out may not be a multi-international globalization giant, let's not forget that a Double Double is just as responsible for health issues in this country as a Big Mac is, just on a smaller scale. But through the differentiations of the companies marketing, growth, and corporate culture, by the end of the book, you completely forget that the Double Double still contains your daily recommended fat intake.

The book was a love letter to a burger, in many ways. What it lacked in business details it made up for in shedding light on a cultural icon for those of us who have only experienced it on short visits to California.