potential. Around the time Kroc visited McDonaldâs, he approached the Snyders, hoping to sell them one of his Multimixers.
Certainly Kroc wasnât alone. In 1952, an elementary school dropout, onetime farmhand, insurance agent, and railway fireman namedHarlan Sanders opened his first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant near Salt Lake City, Utah. Within ten years, Sanders (now known as the Colonel) had become a national phenomenon and his restaurant, with six hundred franchises, was the largest chain in the country. In 1964, Sanders (who had begun opening outlets in Canada and England) sold his interest in Kentucky Fried Chicken for $2 million to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr.âthe future governor of Kentucky. Seven years later, in 1971, Heublein Inc. acquired the company for $285 million. At the time, there were over thirty-five hundred Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants dotting the globeâbut Sanders never saw a penny from the sale.
Â
That was the fast-food game in the 1950sâstart, grow, franchise, sell. The decade is widely considered the industryâs boom time. The dominant chains of today began in the 1950s. While the original chains were wholly owned, franchising offered operators a way to grow with moderate financial risk. Owners could replicate a successful business and at the same time the franchisees had a stake in the continued success of the enterprise. Both sides could potentially profit by mitigating the risk; the franchisor through charging licensing and other fees and sharing in profits, and the franchisee by investing in a system that already had a proven track record. The numerous family-owned fast-food stands that had sprung up following the war were now in an arms race of their own. Any number of mom-and-pop outfits were cherry-picked and greatly enlarged through franchising into regional, national, and later global chains. Few holdouts remained in the game for long. Those who didnât franchise or sell out were soon swallowed up by bigger organizations or simply disappeared. Some, like Harlan Sanders and Dick and Mac McDonald, sold out but realized only a small portion of the vast profits that the chains that they started eventually made.
In-N-Out Burger could have easily been one of them if not for Harry and Esther Snyderâs steadfast philosophy. The couple was unmoved when Ray Kroc more than made good on his promise to openone hundred new McDonaldâs stores a year. Actually, the Snyders remained remarkably unconcerned. Harry Snyder had an extraordinarily lucid vision for In-N-Out Burger, and Esther Snyder shared her husbandâs view. If anything, the couple had demonstrated time and again that they were as practical as they were astute. They had no interest in selling or franchising In-N-Out Burger. If you did that, Harry insisted, youâd lose control and focus. And they werenât interested in using their small and growing fortune to create an even bigger pot of gold if that meant taking in investors or selling to a larger company. Early on, Harry Snyder had added another tenet to his management stockpile. He saw no point in sacrificing quality for profits. In the words of one longtime friend, âIt really never was about the money for them.â
CHAPTER 6
On February 22, 1951, Esther gave birth to the coupleâs first child, a son they named Harry Guy Snyder. The following year, Richard Allen Snyder, who was born on July 13, 1952, joined his older brother (whom everybody called Guy). The Snyder brothers were just two of the millions of babies born following World War II. American maternity wards were filled with armies of swaddled newborns while baby carriages stood guard at the gates of family homes and parks across the country. On May 4, 1951, a New York Post columnist named Sylvia F. Porter coined the term for the phenomenon of infant births by which this generation would thereafter be known: baby boom. âTake the 3,548,000
Certainly Kroc wasnât alone. In 1952, an elementary school dropout, onetime farmhand, insurance agent, and railway fireman namedHarlan Sanders opened his first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant near Salt Lake City, Utah. Within ten years, Sanders (now known as the Colonel) had become a national phenomenon and his restaurant, with six hundred franchises, was the largest chain in the country. In 1964, Sanders (who had begun opening outlets in Canada and England) sold his interest in Kentucky Fried Chicken for $2 million to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr.âthe future governor of Kentucky. Seven years later, in 1971, Heublein Inc. acquired the company for $285 million. At the time, there were over thirty-five hundred Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants dotting the globeâbut Sanders never saw a penny from the sale.
Â
That was the fast-food game in the 1950sâstart, grow, franchise, sell. The decade is widely considered the industryâs boom time. The dominant chains of today began in the 1950s. While the original chains were wholly owned, franchising offered operators a way to grow with moderate financial risk. Owners could replicate a successful business and at the same time the franchisees had a stake in the continued success of the enterprise. Both sides could potentially profit by mitigating the risk; the franchisor through charging licensing and other fees and sharing in profits, and the franchisee by investing in a system that already had a proven track record. The numerous family-owned fast-food stands that had sprung up following the war were now in an arms race of their own. Any number of mom-and-pop outfits were cherry-picked and greatly enlarged through franchising into regional, national, and later global chains. Few holdouts remained in the game for long. Those who didnât franchise or sell out were soon swallowed up by bigger organizations or simply disappeared. Some, like Harlan Sanders and Dick and Mac McDonald, sold out but realized only a small portion of the vast profits that the chains that they started eventually made.
In-N-Out Burger could have easily been one of them if not for Harry and Esther Snyderâs steadfast philosophy. The couple was unmoved when Ray Kroc more than made good on his promise to openone hundred new McDonaldâs stores a year. Actually, the Snyders remained remarkably unconcerned. Harry Snyder had an extraordinarily lucid vision for In-N-Out Burger, and Esther Snyder shared her husbandâs view. If anything, the couple had demonstrated time and again that they were as practical as they were astute. They had no interest in selling or franchising In-N-Out Burger. If you did that, Harry insisted, youâd lose control and focus. And they werenât interested in using their small and growing fortune to create an even bigger pot of gold if that meant taking in investors or selling to a larger company. Early on, Harry Snyder had added another tenet to his management stockpile. He saw no point in sacrificing quality for profits. In the words of one longtime friend, âIt really never was about the money for them.â
CHAPTER 6
On February 22, 1951, Esther gave birth to the coupleâs first child, a son they named Harry Guy Snyder. The following year, Richard Allen Snyder, who was born on July 13, 1952, joined his older brother (whom everybody called Guy). The Snyder brothers were just two of the millions of babies born following World War II. American maternity wards were filled with armies of swaddled newborns while baby carriages stood guard at the gates of family homes and parks across the country. On May 4, 1951, a New York Post columnist named Sylvia F. Porter coined the term for the phenomenon of infant births by which this generation would thereafter be known: baby boom. âTake the 3,548,000
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