In & Out

[storewanderer]

You see that's the thing..........................I'm not comparing them to other fast foods. Why would I? The others are pretty awful.

I'm just saying that it is NOT the tight ship that most folks believe them to be (and what they boast to be). And it is definitely not military inspired (as others have claimed) because their way wouldn't last 1 day at boot camp. There are things going on inside (that Managers will not share) that are absolutely ridiculous given over 75 years of experience. It is indeed chaotic, unnecessary and LOUD (loud for what reason, entertainment, nostalgia, what?).

They deliver what folks want, I get it. But the veneration, adulation is over the top. I would never let my kid work there. Again, I'm not comparing them to other fast food companies because they are worse.

An unbiased specialist in Fast Food operations would scratch their heads often and ask lots of questions as to why are you doing this and that, like that? You have the money, you have the experience, why?


Hubris expresses "if it aint broke why fix it", after all....................we're making Bank.

Five Guys is by design "loud." The employees are literally trained to make nonsense talk and yell all the time. It is supposed to create a light and happy atmosphere (just repeating the message here... not saying I think it accomplishes this). For instance when you walk in someone is supposed to yell "one in the door" or similar. Then all of the employees are supposed to verbally yell "welcome" to you. Then when you order the cashier yells back to the cook "one patty" or whatever. Then as you leave the employees are all supposed to thank you again very loud yelling. It is strange. Whether or not locations follow any of this depends on the manager. The Reno location currently has strong management and is currently following all of these "standards." It has had periods in the past where it did none of this (poor management).

Anyway back to In N Out the loud and chaos is not different from a typical busy kitchen in any very busy/time sensitive restaurant. Large high volume casino restaurant, buffet, etc. kitchens are just like an In N Out kitchen with the chaotic atmosphere.

I don't find them to be military inspired. Their behavior doesn't strike me like that. Though I think it would not be a huge stretch to say some aspects of the culture are militant.

Those "experts" in fast food operations- are those the same ones who consult chains like McDonalds, Wendys, Jack in the Box, KFC, Taco Bell, etc.? Where the food keeps getting worse and worse and they do everything they can to try to use technology to cut costs, cut corners, increase hold times, decrease the amount of food prep that occurs in the units, cut as much labor as possible, etc.?

I'll heavily promote the clean food at In N Out, or at least, as clean as fast food can be, procured and prepared the "dumb and simple" way. And for the volume they do, I think their units do an exceptional job handling the traffic they have. Also did you know their units have had significant volume increases since COVID? They are busier than ever yet they have been able to handle the increase in traffic without completely falling apart. Meanwhile I watch competitor fast food burger restaurants that do low volumes and staff 2-3 employees at a time reach crisis mode if they end up with a few customers who all show up at the same time with moderate sized orders... because they don't know how to handle any level of volume.

I think In N Out is throwing a LOT of labor at their operation. You seem to propose that they could use technology to make things better but wouldn't that also mean cutting labor? For instance I'd like to see them install order kiosks that actually work quickly (see: Steak N Shake and Taco Bell), then allocate some of the cashier labor to handing out orders faster or cleaning the lobby area constantly.

I also suggest you study Chickfila. Chickfila also throws a LOT of labor at their operation. Specifically the drive through. It is like an army of employees operating the Chickfila drive through. Yet somehow the In N Out drive through operates just as fast as the Chickfila one with far fewer employees visible to the customer out in the "lane" and "window" area. This seems to tell me that somehow In N Out is able to do something more efficiently with fewer employees and I don't know how, maybe it is wireless order technology the drive through lane person uses is better, maybe it is the smaller menu, maybe it gets smaller order sizes (pretty sure this isn't the case), maybe the people working inside In N Out are just really really really efficient and good at their jobs...?

Also the "secret menu" scam at In N Out. This scam actually increases efficiency. Instead of telling them I want a burger with mustard grilled onion, extra spread, and go through all that modifying, I just tell them "animal" and that modifying is all done. As you've pointed out there are some issues with their system and many other fast food systems (since their system is just a standard third party point of sale system like the IBM so many grocery stores use that work the same way; KFC uses the same one as do various other chains worldwide) and doing modifications.

[veteran+]

Okay, I give up, but I still disagree with your assessments and comparisons. They are better than the rest in their category, of course.

If you were a clerk (intelligent, educated, mature, observant, and business savy) on the inside your perspective would change.

I surrender

[storewanderer]

Okay, I give up, but I still disagree with your assessments and comparisons. They are better than the rest in their category, of course.

If you were a clerk (intelligent, educated, mature, observant, and business savy) on the inside your perspective would change.

I surrender

I'm just confused. If they're better than the rest, isn't that a good thing?

What have you heard from people who have worked at other fast foods besides In N Out about how it compares?

High volume environments are stressful and seem to be chaotic at least to an extent, and think of working in slow stores vs. busy stores. The dynamic. It is very different. Both slow stores and busy stores have pros and cons. And very different causes of stress. I see In N Out like the "busy" store that is smaller than it should be for its volume, has high employee turnover due to the sheer number of employees who work there, and has an undersized parking lot.

Another angle you could look at is given that they run their commissary and deliver to units daily are there additional things the commissary could do to make it easier on the locations?