After returning from a full day hiking trip with my dog yesterday where I burned thousands of calories, I had a voracious appetite, so I drove through the fast food row in a nearby town and stopped at a few places. Being a Friday evening, most locations were dead. The interior of the fast food restaurants were completely empty. The exteriors had either 1 car in drive through or no cars in drive through.
The sole exception was In-N-Out. The restaurant and parking lot were full beyond capacity. I initially pulled in to the parking lot before realizing that the drive through line extended out of the parking lot and around the surrounding block. I stopped at a different place minutes earlier and could eat in the car while waiting, so I did decided to wait in the long line. It took a little over a half hour, in spite of cars advancing quickly. Had I gone at a popular time, I expect it could have taken over 1 hour for service. There are reports of lines as long as 14 hours when an In-N-Out opens (see In-N-Out lovers line up for 14 hours outside new Colorado location - ABC7 Los Angeles ). While 14 hours may be an exaggeration, many people seem okay with waiting more than an hour to get “fast food” from In-N-Out. If it takes an hour for service, it’s not what I’d describe as “fast food.” In a shorter time one could go to a traditional restaurant instead.
I thought my In-N-Out burger was a good burger, particularly for fast food. It wasn’t as good as my preferred order from Habit Burger (chicken club) – my favorite fast food burger – but it was prepared well, with high quality ingredients, and I enjoyed it. While I don’t dispute that it was a good burger, I don’t get the hype around In-N-Out that leads to seemingly having 10x more traffic than any other fast food restaurant and customers waiting for hours to get their meal. Aside from the burger, nothing else on the very limited In-N-Out menu stands out as particularly good to me. Is it something about the brand name?
100%. I don’t eat burgers, but D21 just loves In-N-Out. She will drive miles to get it. And will wait in line forever to get her burger. I don’t get it.
They do have a secret menu, but it’s all based on what they have there. It’s not like they’re hiding steak or grilled salmon in the back room.
I don’t get football. I have FAD-football attention deficit. I just can’t see why it’s interesting. I don’t care if other people want to watch it but I won’t be joining them.
One observation is that there is a difference between a hyped product that I don’t like vs an appealing one that has an unjustifiably high cost. Of course those $4 cupcakes have a high cost (in money AND calories/sugar)… I have not tried any yet, but they look good.
It is possible that an appealing product is hyped beyond what it would actually be a fit for, resulting in increased demand and higher cost than otherwise.
You should try having to live gluten (and dairy) free. In our world, no price is too high to pay for a product that probably tastes crappy, but is gluten free. I can’t tell you how much I have paid for things I didn’t even like before I went GF, but because there is a chance to get a gluten free version, I somehow lose my mind.
We spend crazy sums to buy locally made pastries here. There is a store that butchers locally sourced meats and makes fabulous flaky pastries like croissants and other treats. Yes, it’s expensive but yum so good. I have paid $6.50 plus tax for chocolate croissants—heavenly!
But not just any $4 cupcake….it’s got look promising or be known to be great.
