In-N-Out Burger: A Behind the Counter Look

When I got the book In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules by Stacy Perman for Christmas, I was excited to read it, not only because I love the food, but because I have worked there for the past few years to pay my way through college.

Perman does a good job of not only tracing the history of In-N-Out; she shows the connections between In-N-Out and a distinctly Southern California style of living. The Synder’s interest in the Double-Drive Lane and their connection to early days of drag racing and surfers made In-N-Out a kind of Southern California Icon that slowly spread across California and today also finds homes in Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.

Perman praises In-N-Out for its low turnover rate, its high pay to associates (she notes particularly Harry Synder’s distaste for referring to his workers as employees or “hired help”), and its commitment to staying family-owned in a world of franchises and over-saturation.

She also does not shy away from the many problems In-N-Out has faced over the years: Harry’s early death from lung cancer, the rivalry of Guy and Rich Synder after their father’s death, and the tragic death of both Guy and Rich young in life (one from a drug overdose and the other in tragic plane accident). Perman also tried to guide the reader through the lawsuit that bogged down In-N-Out’s elite early in the first decade of the new millennium.

The book is a must-read for those who want to know how In-N-Out maintained its small business model while still growing at the rate of eight to ten stores per year for basically the last 30 years. It is a book about a business model that almost seems to have vanished, and the book ends wondering if In-N-Out’s heiress Lynsi Martinez-Synder will continue the family owned tradition or turn to something else. Perman’s style make the book easy to read and very informative.