3/18/2024: A Beautiful Family Business
I recently read The Ins-N-Outs of In-N-Out Burger: The Inside Story of California's First Drive-Through and How It Became a Beloved Cultural Icon by Lynsi Snyder, the third generation owner of In-N-Out Burger. This book is half corporate PR and half business and family history of In-N-Out Burger but I appreciate Ms. Snyder opening up to share her family story and her vision for In-N-Out. I am personally a big fan of In-N-Out Burger. Their burgers are good, the service is decent and their stores are clean. I have been to many fast food joints that I felt I was inhaling vaporized frying oil but all the In-N-Outs I have been to smell nice and fresh. They just get things right.
The restaurant chain has been around since 1948 and remains private despite many buyout offers and succession dramas. It appears that Ms. Snyder intends to keep the family business private and focus on serving their customers well while providing great careers for friendly and hardworking employees. In-N-Out is quite an outlier in today’s money driven world. The Snyder family could have made more money by going IPO or selling out their business but it appears that In-N-Out has become a precious family legacy that the family intends to hold onto as long as they can. I suppose if you are already a billionaire, there isn’t really a huge point of becoming even richer. You might as well build something that will last generations. As a customer, I hope they will never sell or IPO. Once a restaurant chain turns into a profit maximizing machine, food and service quality will inevitably go down.
The book also revealed the Snyder family’s painful history. The founder Harry Snyder died young and his son Rich had to take over the business at age 24. Rich died in an airplane crash at age 42. His brother Guy took over in 1994 and unfortunately died from drug overdose in 1999. Rich didn’t have any children. When Guy died, his only daughter Lynsi was only 17. Harry’s wife Esther was still alive when both her sons died but she eventually passed away in 2006. Lynsi Snyder was 24 when she inherited the family fortune as the sole heir. I couldn’t imagine the amount of weight she had to shoulder at such a young age. It took a lot of courage and wisdom to keep her family legacy intact. The books didn’t give many details but apparently some people were trying to take advantage of her young age and inexperience and many vulture investors were circling around. But she ultimately succeeded in protecting her family’s legacy and making it thrive further. It’s an amazing feat given the circumstances.
Overall, this is a pretty cool book. I am very glad there are still family businesses out there who care more about serving their customers and employees than maximizing profits. I wish there were more businesses like In-N-Out Burger. I am sure people will appreciate capitalism more if more businesses are like In-N-Out Burger than Goldman Sachs or Boeing.