A couple of days ago, information was posted about the minimum wage and state of the economy in Australia vs the minimum wage and state of the economy in the USA. The argument in the US against increasing the minimum wage is always the same, that it will cause businesses to close and reduction in jobs. As one who has repeatedly said that if a business cannot take care of its employees then it has no business being in business, I took note.
The answer from the naysayers, the negativists, the tax whiners would be that what works in Australia does not translate to what works in the USA. To that, I say bullshxt.
Case in point, In-N-Out restaurants, headquartered in Irvine, CA. In-N-Out is a fast food hamburger joint founded in Baldwin Park, CA in 1948 by Harry and Esther Snyder. It was an instant hit. When Harry died in 1976, there were 18 In-N-Out restaurants, clustered in Southern California.
Under the current management, Lynsi Torres, the Snyder's only grandchild, there are now 282 restaurants in five states, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Texas, which means that in the 65 years of its existence, In-N-Out has averaged opening only about four new restaurants per year.
Despite cutthroat competition from national chains like McDonalds and Burger King, business is booming. Why?
1. Loyal customer base, derived from the Snyder's original business plan: Give customers the freshest, highest quality foods you can buy and provide them with friendly service in a sparkling clean environment.
2. Expertise. The menu at In-N-Out is exactly the same as it was in 1948. You can get a hamburger or a cheeseburger, from a single hamburger up to the "Double-Double", which contains two hamburger patties and two slices of cheese. Your choice of lettuce, tomatoes, onions and "spread" which is a variant of Thousand Island dressing. Fries. Shakes. Drinks. That's it.
If you go to a national fast food place, you will almost always find something listed as "New…limited time", which means that they have just thrown something into their mix in a desperate attempt to increase revenue. If you think through such offerings from the past, you will find that the vast majority were very temporary indeed.
There is a "secret menu" at In-N-Out. If you are "in the know", you can order a "4x4", four hamburger patties and four slices of cheese. Or get cheese sauce on your fries. Or even order a grilled cheese sandwich, for those who are vegetarians, but not vegans.
A few years ago, someone ordered a "100x100" and the local restaurant made it. But the owners were so embarrassed by the resulting vulgar publicity that now you can get no more than a "4x4".
3. But the ultimate success comes from the same place that it always does, loyal employees. All other fast food chains and our #1 retailer, Wal*Mart, pay their employees barely minimum wage, and severely restrict the number of full time employees, thus leaving we taxpayers to provide them with partial support, and thus contributing to corporate profits at taxpayer expense.
In-N-Out has been different from the start. Today, the bottom wage at In-N-Out is $10 per hour, part time or full time. Part time workers receive dental and vision insurance and a paid life insurance policy. Full time workers get full medical and disability insurance as well.
Tell me all about how your business cannot afford an increase in minimum wage or benefits or $21 per year per employee more for unemployment insurance. Please tell me.
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Of course, In-N-Out is run by a bunch of liberal communist atheists, as opposed to the "real American Christian" owners of Chick-faux-A. Chick-faux-A exercised their right to "religious freedom" by pouring profits into their private foundation which supports bigotry in the area of gay rights. When they were found out, their brand rating plummeted to barely half its former level.
Guess what. The owners of In-N-Out are Christians too. And they make an effort to promote Christianity. Everyone who has ever eaten there and actually pays attention to what is going on about them knows it, yet it has not had any effect on their brand rating, positive or negative, because that is the way they want it.
On selected wrappers and containers, In-N-Out prints, in tiny type in tiny out of the way spots, references to Christian Bible verses. Not the verse itself, just the reference, as in Revelation 3:20, or Nahum 1:7 or Proverbs 24:16.
And there is a tremendous difference in what they do with their excess profits. The In-N-Out Burger Foundation, also known as the Child Abuse Foundation, supports organizations that provide residential treatment, emergency shelter, foster care and early intervention for children in need…white, black, brown, red, yellow, male, female, heterosexual, homosexual, whatever.
As Patrick Henry might have said, "Give me freedom…political, religious, economical, ethnic or sexual…or give me death!"
