By now most of you have heard that In-N-Out Burger has filed a lawsuit against DoorDash for delivering their delicious burgers without their permission.
On a side note I’ve been craving In-N-Out ever since this story broke. Double double animal style is near impossible to beat. Unfortunately, there isn’t a location within a reasonable distance to St. Louis.
Anyway back to business. I completely understand their stance on the issue. In-N-Out has built an amazing brand with a very loyal fan base. It’s built on simplicity, scarcity (outside of the west coast), delicious burgers, and “hidden” menu items. They don’t want another company representing their brand without any rules.
There’s a lot of control that is lost by handing your food off to a third party for delivery:
- Food safety – holding and handling properly.
- Food quality – nobody goes to In-N-Out for cold limp fries, thin milkshakes, and a cold burger on a soggy bun.
- Customer service – I’m not saying that In-N-Out is the Nordstom of the restaurant industry when it comes to customer service, but I’m sure they have standards that they train their staff to follow.
- They may not want delivery to be part of their model. Maybe part of their brand is the experience of going to a location and ordering a burger the old fashioned way.
All of this goes out the window when a third party is delivering your food, especially when the relationship wasn’t entered into mutually. It’s tough enough to outsource a portion of your business when you want or need to because of the control issue. But when you hire a third party you can put in agreements that will hold them accountable if they are in default.
In the In-N-Out situation they are putting a lot at risk with basically zero reward. If someone gets sick or gets cold food they aren’t going to blame DoorDash. They are going to look at the bag and see In-N-Out Burger, that’s who gets blamed.
In addition to potential brand damage with bad press there’s huge liability potential. If someone gets sick now In-N-Out is involved in a lawsuit for something that may have not been their fault.
The more you can control the better off you are in the long run. In-N-Out doesn’t need delivery to boost sales. They are doing the right thing by nipping this in the bud and stopping it before it becomes a problem.
Food safety is a concern for all of us, I would like to invite you to watch our Free Webinar on Writing SMART Pre-shift Inspections by clicking here.