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Why Isn't The Best Burger Stand a Nationwide Chain?
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Mar 31, 2025
Weird History is ordering a Double Double telling you the History of In-n-Out Burger. The famous burger chain was founded by Harry and Esther Snyder. Harry first visited a local market to buy fresh ingredients for his 10-square-foot-wide hamburger stand. From there, In-n-Out has exploded in the West and Southwest with a rabid, almost cult-like following. You're gonna want this video Animal-Style, so sit back, relax, and enjoy.
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Southern California is home to sunny beaches, gorgeous views, and one of the most iconic signs
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in America. No, not that one. That one. If there's one Los Angeles icon that shines brighter than the
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brightest Hollywood star, it's that red and yellow promise of double-double burgers and
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cheese-covered french fries. Today on Weird History Food, we're serving up the history of
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In-N-Out Burger. Okay, let's make this video animal style. In 1947, Harry Snyder and Esther Johnson, both young veterans of World War II, were working in the food industry
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Esther was managing a restaurant in the now-closed Fort Lawton, an army base located in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle
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while Harry was delivering boxes of food in the area. One fateful September day, Harry dropped some of the food off at Esther's restaurant
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The two hit it off, and they were married by 1948. They then relocated down to Baldwin Park
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then just a small village in California's San Gabriel Valley, where they opened the very first In-N-Out Burger that very same year
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At first, it was just a food stand with a footprint of about 10 square feet
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but the couple sold 2,000 burgers in their first month alone. With that, they were well on their way to stardom
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For a time, the Snyders were the stand's only two employees. Harry would cook the food while Esther would cook the books
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uh, keep the books. But they did have a little bit of help slinging all those beef patties
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Their stand featured what many today believe to have been the world's first two-way speaker system for drive-thru ordering
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This is an underrated invention. It's hard enough looking the drive-thru worker in the eye
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Don't make us do it twice. Up until then, the car hop was the typical drive-up-and-order model
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where waitstaff would come directly to your vehicle's window, typically on foot, but sometimes on roller skates
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In-N-Out's newly designed drive-thru model was a hit, as it allowed faster service and, because fewer employees were needed, lower prices
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Likewise, customers back then could get a hamburger for 25 cents, a cheeseburger for 30 cents, or an order of fries for just 15 cents
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It caused more than that to mail a birthday card. You can't even eat those. Well, you can, but at that point, just buy the hamburger
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Needless to say, In-N-Out soon became a primary pit stop for people heading in and out of Los Angeles
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And as the likes of Lucille Ball and Bob Hope drove back and forth between their Hollywood homes and their Palm Springs getaways, the restaurant also developed a celebrity culture all its own
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The original In-N-Out stand was so successful that the Snyders were able to open up a second location in 1951, less than three years after opening their first
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And in 1954, they updated their sign, forever giving In-N-Out that aforementioned iconic yellow arrow
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You can almost hear all the angry honks of the cars waiting in line
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Still, as the 50s wore on, in and out's growth was relatively slow compared to the explosive
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rise of its primary Los Angeles County competitor, McDonald's, as the Sniders refused to build
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their business on credit or to franchise it out They wanted to keep it family owned and they wanted to own every single bit of the business themselves They didn want no corporate cloud wetting his big red beak in their success
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So by the decade's end, In-N-Out had a modest half dozen or so locations in the region
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Over the same time period, McDonald's, which opened up its first location the year after In-N-Out
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grew to about 200 locations. Still, the Sniders kept trucking along. In 1961, they changed the game forever
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with the introduction of the animal-style burger. It was cooked in mustard, served with tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, and grilled onions
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and slathered with a special sauce. And just two years later, In-N-Out changed the game once again
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with the introduction of the Double Double, a double cheeseburger that was originally sold for just 60 cents
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While it didn't become an official menu item for years to come, it did boost sales enough to require the creation of an off-site patty-making facility
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No longer would Esther need to manually press the patties for Harry to cook
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They had a factory to do that for them, laying the groundwork for continued growth into the 1970s
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In 1965, Harry invested in the development of Irwindale Drag Strip. And in 1971, that investment finally paid off
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In-N-Out became central to the racetrack's opening, providing the venue with concessions and even fielding their own lineup of cars
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And the association forever tied the brand to hot rods and fast cars and spilling ketchup all over the upholstery of your fast car
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Then in 1972, inspired by the plot of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
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in which characters hunt for buried treasure hidden beneath four crossed palm trees
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Harry planted crossed palm trees of his own out front of the Palm Springs In-N-Out location
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This practice soon became an In-N-Out tradition, and most locations still have crossed palm trees on their property today
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It was around this time, too, that the company adopted their classic red aprons
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a style choice that's stuck with the brand ever since. The good times were indeed rolling
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But sadly, Harry Snyder succumbed to lung cancer in 1976, leaving In-N-Out's 18 locations in the hands of his family
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While Esther would go on to live for another 30 years, the family business would be passed down onto one of their two sons
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The only question was, which one? The oldest son, Guy, was by all accounts a wild man
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Wild and crazy guy, if you will. Inspired by his own father's love of hot rods
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he raced cars, motorcycles, and partied hard. While his younger brother, Rich, was just 24 years old
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Guy seemed much less capable of keeping the business afloat. And since Rich had taken over his mother's bookkeeping job
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when he was just a teenager, he was already well acquainted with the ins and outs of In-N-Out
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So the decision was made to give him the presidency over his older brother
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with Guy serving as vice president. Rich made his mark on the company right away
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In 1979, In-N-Out opened their 21st restaurant, the first ever In-N-Out location with a sit-down dining area
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This new model was so successful that they would open only 13 more In-N-Out stands
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before phasing them out entirely. It was around this time that Rich began
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discreetly printing Bible verses on In packaging To this day customers can still find John 3 tucked away on their soda cups Revelation 3 on their single burger wraps
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Proverbs 3.5 on their milkshakes, and Nahum 1.7 on their double-double wrappers
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You can collect them all for a prize. The prize? Salvation. In 1984, Rich would then open the In-N-Out University
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a manager training facility built right on the site of his childhood home. That same year, he and his mother also started the Child Abuse Fund, which later became the In-N-Out Burger Foundation
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which, to this day, raises millions of dollars every year to aid in the protection of vulnerable children
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By the end of the 80s, In-N-Out had well over 50 locations
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For comparison, McDonald's had around 6,000. So the plucky little burger stand that could wasn't exactly conquering the world just yet
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Still, the Snyder family kept the growth coming. In 1992, they opened In-N-Out's first-ever non-California location, their 80th restaurant
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located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Their slow expansion seemed as unstoppable as an approaching lava flow
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Their growth into the rest of the nation, inevitable. But in 1993, tragedy struck
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Rich Snyder and four other passengers were flying into John Wayne Airport when, following
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too closely behind a Boeing 757, their plane caught wake turbulence from the larger craft
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and crashed. The accident left no survivors, and the incident led to a change in FAA policy regarding how far smaller crafts need to be from larger crafts at any given time
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In his brother's absence, Guy was finally made to step up to the head of the company
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He oversaw the opening of In-N-Out's 100th location, and he led the company through its 50th anniversary
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But in 1999, Guy succumbed to an accidental overdose, leaving his mother Esther childless, husbandless, and in charge of the family business
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Despite being suddenly left alone to run In-N-Out, she successfully grew the company to 200 locations by 2005
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and passed away just one year later. While Mark Taylor, an hourly associate
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who had worked his way up through the company and into Esther's vice presidential spot
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ran the company for the few years that followed, the company was eventually passed down to Guy's daughter
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Harry and Esther's only grandchild, Lindsay Snyder, making her the head of her very own burger empire
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at the age of 28, which is the year most people join an adult kickball league
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Despite its squeaky clean image, In-N-Out is not without its share of legal trouble
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The company has filed a number of lawsuits over the years for trademark infringement
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including a legal battle against one very blatant copycat called Chatters in Utah
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and a series of whack-a-mole style litigations against several unauthorized In-N-Out pop-up locations around the world
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And the Berger joint itself was sued in 2012 by a Berkeley law firm on behalf of two men
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alleging discriminatory hiring practices against Black people and anyone over the age of 40
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More recently, the California landmark made waves by refusing to comply with federal COVID
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vaccine mandates, which led to the temporary closure of several locations that were restricted
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to takeout service only in 2021. One former employee filed suit alleging he was unlawfully terminated after five years of working as a butcher for In and Out after reporting the company for several labor code violations related to coronavirus protocols
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And the company made headlines in July of 2023 when it forbade its employees from wearing face masks in every
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state it does business in, except for California and Oregon, where those kinds of mandates are illegal
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Only workers with a valid medical condition and a note from their doctor are allowed to wear facial coverings
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or potentially face termination. Why so serious? Well, according to a company memo
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we are introducing new mask guidelines that emphasize the importance of customer service
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and the ability to show our associates' smiles and their other facial features
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while considering the health and well-being of all individuals. Lindsay Snyder took over the big spatula in 2010
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and she has run In-N-Out ever since. According to Forbes' billionaire list
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She became America's youngest female billionaire in 2013. Prior to taking this position, though, Lindsay said she'd tried to keep her life private
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as she claims to have nearly been kidnapped twice, once when she was 17 and once when she was 21
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Each time she got away from the would-be hostage takers, successfully avoiding becoming this generation's J. Paul Getty III, or Patty Hearst
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Lindsay has kept the tradition of placing Bible verses on In-N-Out products
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and has even expanded the practice to their coffee and cocoa cups. In-N-Out today features all sorts of secret foods that aren't actively on their menu
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Sure, they have their already mentioned animal-style burgers, but they also have animal-style fries
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which are french fries covered with cheese, grilled onions, and pickles. They also have the triple meat, which is a triple hamburger
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along with the 4x4, which is a trip to the hospital. Customers can also order their burgers protein-style
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which replaces the bun with a lettuce wrap, Or they can order the Flying Dutchman, which is just two patties with two slices of cheese
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No bun, no lettuce, no frills. And no knife and fork. They can also ask that their fries be well done, which will get them a basket of fully crispy fries
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Or they can ask that their fries be light, which will get them a basket full of soft, undercooked fries
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Presumably, anytime someone orders that, the manager immediately calls the police. Today, In-N-Out has nearly 400 locations
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They've expanded into Texas, Utah, Oregon, Arizona, and Colorado. And they are actively pushing their way into Tennessee and Idaho
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They attribute their ongoing success to two core principles. Don't change anything about the restaurant and focus on making the same old products as good as humanly possible
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By keeping this simple formula, they managed to take in about $4 billion in revenue each and every year
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And it doesn't hurt that the franchise's fan base has a near-rabid devotion to the house the Double Double built
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Several reverential nods in the cult hit Coen Brothers classic, The Big Lebowski
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as well as ringing endorsements from respected celebrity chefs like Julia Child, Gordon Ramsay, and Anthony Bourdain
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have cemented In-N-Out as an indispensable part of American culture. The late, great Bourdain even famously declared In-N-Out to be the best restaurant in Los Angeles
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