Opinion: In-N-Out and around the corner

I grew up in Bassett, California, just down the street from the original In-N-Out. We called it Store One. It was just a shack with a vaunted two lane drive-thru system, a red-and-white sign visible from the 10 Freeway and a lineup of cars that spilled onto Francisquito Boulevard. 

Tucked around the corner sat the fabled In-N-Out mansion, which was really just a warehouse with a fancy lobby. And In-N-Out University, the only school in the area to offer me a full-ride scholarship, called students far, hungry and wide.

Just last night, our family of four ate at our favorite location, Store Two, on Grand Avenue in Covina. Clean restaurant. Friendly staff. Economical meal. Now that’s what a hamburger (joint) is all about. 

That’s why it hits differently when the company’s CEO, Lynsi Snyder, makes noise about leaving California. She says the state has become “unlivable” for families. Taxes, crime and woke politics … the usual bullet points on the Fox News bingo card. Let’s be real: she isn’t just talking about the cost of living. She’s wealthy.  She’s talking about who’s living here. 

When folks complain about California being “too hard” or “too far gone,” they’re really grumbling about the cultural dynamics of a Mexican American majority-minority state. A place where Spanish is heard at every stoplight. Where taco trucks outnumber Teslas. Where immigrants make the cities move and the suburbs cook. So when the burger heiress winks at her conservative base with talk of “family values” and “a better life out of state,” she’s flashing the bat signal for the God, Guns and Grievance crowd.

I say: adios, amiga. Please. Pack up your biblically blessed paper cups and move the board meetings to Tennessee. Leave the burgers behind. We’ll keep those. We’ll keep the animal-style fries and the car club meet ups. We’ll keep the cooks who grill in English and Spanish. 

But consider taking your cultic practices with you. 

Brethren, In-N-Out is not a faith-based institution. I’m sorry, but what does the Kingdom of Heaven have to do with the Kingdom of lettuce, onion and cheese? 

Don’t answer that. 

“Just put the fries in the bag,” as the kids say. 

And for the record, In-N-Out’s aesthetic (white walls, neon palm trees and cherry-red hot rods) is Eastside car club nostalgia. That whole vibe? Lowriders and cruisers? That’s Mexican American culture, too. The same people you think make the state “too complicated” are the ones who made your brand cool in the first place.

Here’s a stat for Lynsi and her followers: yes, some Californians are leaving. But plenty more are arriving. According to 2024 census estimates, California lost about 75,000 people net—but gained over half a million new arrivals from abroad. And guess what? A huge number of them are Latino. That’s the state. That’s who’s eating your double-double-whole-grilled-onion-mustard-fried-chopped-chiles-hold-the-tomato, please. 

Lynsi, you’re not escaping dysfunction; you’re escaping diversity.

I’m not mad that a billionaire CEO wants to leave. I’m mad she wants to leave while throwing shade on the very people who built her brand and fortune. You don’t get to profit off our culture and then pretend it’s the reason you’re fleeing.

And where exactly can her ilk run? Tennessee? Between 2010 and 2020, over 80% of Tennessee’s population growth came from people of color. The Latino population alone jumped 55%, outpacing every other group. So if your concern is suffering through mariachi music blaring from a gray Altima in the supermarket parking lot, you didn’t move far enough. Consider Alaska.

But understand what you’re walking away from: not just overtime regulations or rush hour traffic, but a state that shaped your legacy. And a community, like mine, that still remembers when the only moral quandary about In-N-Out was deciding whether to complain about the fries while shoving them down your mouth or to suffer in silence.