In a tread on Next Door, it was noted that an eighty year old hamburger dive was going out of business. Some folk immediately blamed the advent of an In-N-Out Burger (since April 2021) as the cause, calling In-N-Out a giant corporation “sucking the life out of local business,” ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Here’s the truth of the matter:
In-N-Out Burger is an iconic California eatery. It is a privately (family) owned corporation. The stock is not traded on any stock exchange. To acquire stock you have to be a Snyder family member. In fact in order to get an In-N-Out here, a family member had to decide to relocate his/her family here, as management are always family members. They pay their workers $15 – $18+ per hour and supply above average benefits for a fast food restaurant – actually, for many local business.. All of their ingredients ae locally sourced, as much as possible. They seem to gear their hours for the stoner crowd. They are open until 2:00 AM every night. Their prices ae way below what they should be for the quality you receive. For example. for just under $8 you can get a cheeseburger, fries and a Coke. That’s the good news. The BAD news is that they include little Xtian bible verses on every cup and wrapper (not the whole verse, just the reference (i.e., John 3:16 rather than “For God so…”) and not overtly. You have to be looking for it. On the cups it’s written inside the bottom edge. On the French fry trays, it’s on the bottom. Probably the easiest place to find it is on the outer burger wrapper (on the back, near the bottom).
According to public records, as late as 2020, Snyder family members (not the corporation) had given money to both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party (See https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/in-n-out-burger/summary?id=D000072295). It should be noted that they gave money to Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Beto O’Rourke. Someone among them did donate $10,000 to the California Republican Party and $7,000 to Donald Trump.
I read an article that claimed the company was anti LGBTQ, but that charge was tied to a Bay Area locations anti-mask, anti-vax assertions, which turned out to be the preference of that particular manager, and not a company stance. How do you jump from an anti-mask stance to an anti LGBTQ one? Oh wait, it’s those bible versus. The Snyders are Xtians therefore they MUST also be anti-LGBTQ. Nice broad brush, written with no evidence.
This single article, an opinion piece in the SF Chronicle, contains these spurious allegations. In doing a little research into this, I have not found even one other article anywhere stating such. And here is the killer fact: I am acquainted with several employees at our local In-N-Out. Two of them are Gay. I wonder how they passed the “strict employee screening?” Or, perhaps the manager/family member of our local In-N-Out is a tad liberal? Maybe he/she is the one who contributed to Bernie and/or Elizabeth?
So, I guess what a handful of locals would prefer, is that In-N-Out Burger go out of business, and take the 100 (+/-) great paying jobs (with good benefits – it’s not likely In-N-Out will unionize, nor does it seem they would ever need to) with them.
Mike’s Hamburger King, the eatery going out of business, is well known for campaigning for Donald Trump and for supporting Rush Limbaugh.
