Ever since its inception, In-N-Out has prided itself on only serving a small menu, with only the freshest ingredients. First starting in California, they have slowly migrated East, but still have no locations beyond Texas. In Oakland, CA, the city has only ever had a singular location, just two miles from the Oakland International Airport, but as of Match 24th, that location will be gone for good.
In a statement from In-N-Out chief operating officer Denny Warnick, he said the company didn’t want to close the location but had no choice. “Despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our Customers and Associates are regularly victimized by car break-ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies…Additionally, this location remains a busy and profitable one for the company, but our top priority must be the safety and wellbeing of our Customers and Associates — we cannot ask them to visit or work in an unsafe environment.”
Local patrons are upset to hear of the closing, but they also have an understanding of why it’s happening. They see the crime that is plaguing their city and watch helplessly as the Democrats they elected to lead the city stand by and do nothing. With the Oakland PD largely pinned up on other crimes, companies like In-N-Out are forced to hire private security, but they also share that security with other businesses in the area.
The vehicle break-in crime at In-N-Out is so rampant that one anonymous security officer told the San Francisco Standard, “On a regular day, I’d say five. On a bad day, I can’t even get a report in because it’s back-to-back.”
Given that level of crime and horrible dangers to employees, you can’t blame In-N-Out for closing their doors in Oakland. Especially since they took the unheard-of step of offering all employees the option of taking a position at other Bay Area locations or a severance package. A simple but effective step in ensuring they did everything right. Bet you’ll never see McDonald’s do this.
