Extreme Policy of Fast Food

The flavor of freshly made burgers, the crunch of recently fried fries, and the sweet cooling taste of thick creamy milkshakes, are said by most to be at their supreme at the In-n-Out burger joint. Sadly to most, this place only exists on the west coast of America. Those on the east coast, have no idea what they are missing, because the In-n-Out chain runs only on the west coast of America. Now, the question is why don’t they expand their chain to more states so that more people can enjoy this their delicious food? Forr those with a greater understanding of business and economics the reasons are meaningful and logical to not expand.

According to Business Insider, the lack of quality control, exclusivity, competition, and no franchising are the reasons this burger chain will not plant its restaurants on the East coast.

In-n-Out is known for its fresh food, and according to the owners and those who work there, there are no refrigerators or freezers for “preserving” the food inside these restaurants due to the strict policy of only serving fresh food to its customers.

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This means that each In-n-Out restaurant needs to be close to the sources where they receive their food, which happen to be in Baldwin Park, California, and in Dallas, Texas. This is why this burger place is found in only five states, being California, Nevada, Utah, Texas, and Arizona. More recently one was opened in Oregon as well making expanding their chain to six states.

The owners have stated that they have no intention of expanding to more states, and are focusing on opening restaurants in these six states alone. This is an example of a private company in the economic market, being that it has lots of small sellers, the products are the same no matter which restaurant you go to, there is no long run profit, the restaurants are efficient, the information is not advertised, making it perfect. This company is part of the burger industry of monopolistic competition, because each seller sells a different version of almost the same thing. For example Burger King sells the Whopper, McDonalds sells the Big Mac, and In-n-Out sells the Animal style Burger. All are burgers, but different versions.

The extreme policy of serving only fresh food is what sets this burger place aside from its competitors. McDonalds, Burger King, Burgerville, and other such places may have a wider variety of food choices to choose from, but they are not fresh and have a ton of preservatives. Due to the new widespread “striving for healthy” thinking and eating in the United States, people prefer fresh over preserved food, and In-n-Out delivers this to its customers.

The chain also prefers to be exclusive, meaning that due to the smaller amount of places where this delicious food is available, people will appreciate it more when they do get the chance to eat it. Economically, they are making a smart move. By this I mean that they are using their condition of being a small enterprise to bring in more business by appealing to the buyers with their prices and exclusivity, and being able to buy the food at a low price due to their small list of sources.

Another important reason they are not moving to the east coast is due to the competition over there. 5 guys and Shake Shack are very popular over there, and already have been there for years, securing their place in that market. Introducing a new company into that secured market, would offer very tough competition, which in turn would cause their sales not to be as high as in places with less competition. In-n-Out is a family owned business, and the owners, the Snyder family, have no intentions of making it public or allowing franchising. If they were to expand to the east coast, such a huge expansion would require massive capital from the company.

All in all, due to business strategies and economic problems that come with expansion, In-n-Out as steady reasons as to why they are not expanding to the east coast. “You need a sharp agent with a marketing strategy that creates the most demand” (Unknown), and that is exactly was In-n-Out has and has managed to accomplish.