A lot of us heard of In-N-Out Burger. This fast food burger joint has a huge number of ravenous fans. Yet, the company almost seems like a myth to many of us.
We’ve heard how great the burgers are, but we’ve never had one, nor have we ever seen one of the restaurants.
Well, that is because In-N-Out Burger only operates in 5 states: California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah.
In-N-Out Burger States
At the time of this writing, there are 301 total locations. 221 of those are in California, the company’s home base. Twenty-nine are in Arizona, 25 in Texas, 16 in Nevada, and 10 in Utah.
But, they are going to expand to other states, right? No. Slated to open, at the time of this writing, are five more locations, two in California and three in Texas. Those of us on the East Coast may never see a store, as there seem to be no intentions by In-N-Out to expand to the East Coast, or even to another nearby state. When a Denver politician expressed a hankering for a ready supply of In-N-Out burgers, the company said, in essence, we appreciate the compliment, but no thanks.
There are several reasons for this lack of expansion. One of the major reasons is that nothing is frozen at In-N-Out Burger. There are no freezers in the stores. The patties are fresh made and delivered daily to the stores. This means that they need to be near the two plants, either in Baldwin Park, California, where the first In-N-Out was opened, or Dallas Texas. The company has absolutely no intention of changing its policy on fresh burgers, never frozen. Another is that there is no In-N-Out Franchising. All the stores are owned and operated by the company. They have no intention of changing this policy either. To expand aggressively, a whole lot of cash would have to be put into the expansion, up front, by the company. For some other reasons why In-N-Out Burger may never expand to the East Coast, see Business Insider.