History of In and Out

Within the In and Out website, you can see a historical timeline of the In and Out restaurants. I like the timeline because it provides an understanding of the history and expansion of the In and Out brand. In this post, I am going to highlight some of the most important years and happenings for In and Out.

It started in 1948 when Harry Snyder and his wife, Esther Snyder, opened the first In and Out restaurant. This was the first drive-thru hamburger stand in California. Harry spent most of his evenings in his garage; making a homemade two ways speaking system for the drive-thru at the restaurant to improve the service and efficiency. When the In and Out restaurant opened their restaurant, hamburgers were sold for 25 cents, french fries for 15 cents and cold drinks for 10 cents.

The logo with the arrow was first introduced in 1954 and has stayed that way since then. Harry started making maps for customers in 1971; showing In and Out locations and how to get around town. This was a great way of marketing In and Out and the locations. It is common for In and Out to have palm trees crossed in front. This started in 1972 after Harry’s favorite movie “it’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world” was shown. In the movie, it is a treasure under each crossed palm tree and the restaurants was Harry’s treasures.

In 1974, In and Out Burger held a large cookout event with a grill loaded onto a pickup truck. Today, they have more than 10 fully self-supported cookout trucks ready to serve at venues and events. Harry Snyder died in 1976 and the two sons took over the company as presidents and vice presidents. In 1988 the 50th location was opened, all located in California. It wasn’t until 1992 In and Out went out of state opening their 80th location in Nevada. In 2000 they expanded more, opening a restaurant in Arizona. Today they are located in California (212 locations), Arizona (28 locations), Texas (18 locations), Nevada (16 locations) and Utah (9 locations).