Great story about sticking to your ideals, and how to manage growth. I think it's amazing how easy it is to enter the food business compared to selling software.
If you make food, someone will be hungry and buy it. If you make software, there is no guarantee that anyone will ever use it.
edit: I guess what I hadn't considered was that they were making good food and still serving it to people, despite competition from faster, cheaper companies. People tend to flock to good software, so maybe they aren't that different?
I think it's amazing how easy it is to enter the food business comparing to selling software.
I've done both and AFAIC, you couldn't be further from the truth.
I've never had trouble finding customers with problems to solve with information and always earning what most others would consider a very nice living.
In foodservice, you will work your ass off at all hours (especially nights and weekends), you'll sweat, be filthy, have very slim margins, and often face brutal competition.
And if you think computer users are fickle, just try feeding people. You have no idea.
I wish I could understand what's behind the 5 Guys hype - has anyone seen an analysis of that? It's definitely not the food quality. I've eaten at a few of their locations and their burger patties are thin and utterly flavorless. Even factoring that its a fast-food burger, it still pales in comparison to say, NYC's Shake Shack or DC's Elevation Burger, and of course if you're not talking fast food burgers, all bets are off (e.g. Ray's Hellburger in VA).
I'd like to understand why they're so popular, just to understand what makes the business really tick. I don't think it's about the food quality; I'm guessing it's a sort of social status thing - being "in the know" by going there?
NoVA and the DC metro area is huge, we have lots of restaurants. Yes, some are chains, but there are a ton of awesome local places as well. I cringe when you suggest there are no good, local places to eat here. Yelp is decent for finding some of them.
I actually like Five Guys, their Cajun-seasoned fries are amazing. There's also Ray's Hell-Burger, Foster's Grille, Tuskie's (amazing lamb burger), and others in Alexandria, Arlington, and DC.
I'm totally willing to believe that I'm an out of touch yuppie. I've been living in the city way too long... heck, I'm one cinnamon soy latte away from getting an electric bike.
(Wait, if people upvote this, does that mean I AM an out of touch yuppie? Uh-oh.)
They're totally not similarly priced. A friend and I went to 5 Guys last year, and got pretty much the same order as we'd get at McDonald's or Wendy's (biggest burger, biggest fries, biggest drink meal), and not only was the food not better (though there was more of it), two orders of the largest size meal cost more than $20. It was insanely expensive.
S/he has a point. I spent four years in college in DC eating at various Five Guys in the DMV area and they were all great. (And it had nothing to do with price--I'd spend $8-10 every time I went there which was fairly often.) Then, I started venturing out after graduation to other places like NC and suddenly, you could tell the difference between Five Guys closer to their home vs. newer franchises that folks have open and begun to run like more familiarly crappy fast food chains. I sometimes think (and of course, I could be wrong) franchising seems to be the death of a good thing and it's funny how the founder says he was against it because of the very thing I'm finding has slipped--quality. (When people are involved and so crucial to a process, does quality always scale?)
I haven't had a decent Five Guys experience outside of the NoVA/MD area yet. It's always the worst things--the fries are often cold (I remember having to wait for them to be cooked fresh in NoVA), they'll mess your order up some other kind of way such as leaving something off your burger or forgetting a part of your order entirely (more common if you order lots of food at once), etc. The experience just isn't the same. No one I've taken there in my local area has been impressed unless they'd already eaten there in DC and just dealt with it--like I've stopped doing.
You can't compare it to burger joints in different regions. I like In n' Out better than Five Guys, but I can't exactly fly to CA to get my burger fix. Five Guys is the best fast food burger in their respective locations.
I also prefer In-N-Out to Five Guys, although they do have superior fries and you gotta love being able to munch on peanuts while you stand in line.
In-N-Out's deducation to quality and top-notch customer service is actually quite similar to Five Guys. The reason they're only in the Southwestern US is to ensure that each restaurant is close to a food distribution center. That way all their food is made with the freshest ingredients. They've been family-owned and operated since the 50's.
Like the article says, anybody can make money in the food business if they do a decent job. They don't have to be the best burgers on the entire east coast. They just have to have good food at reasonable prices. And I think they've got pretty good food. Definitely better than most other fast food in my area.
Is it the best food I've ever had? No. I definitely like In & Out fries better. And I like the burgers better at Urban Burger (in MD).
Their burgers are pretty good, as I remember them (I've been a vegetarian for 2 years now). They're not as good as a really high-quality Angus-or-the-like burger that you'd get at some restaurants, but they're leaps and bounds better than any fast food burger.
Plus, have you had their fries? I'm pretty certain that they're the best fries I've ever had.
Wow... It's actually really nice to see how well the Five Guys franchise is doing. I remember going to one often senior year of high school in Northern VA. That would be like... 8-9 years ago.
It's really crazy because I drove around my old high school the other day and a Five Guys opened in a shopping center right next to it.
> "If you're in a hurry, there are a lot of really good hamburger places within a short distance from here."
This kind of thing separates different kinds of entrepreneurs very sharply. I'm not necessarily sure one is better than the other, but I know which kind I am. I like opinionated people, companies, and products.
I have to give this guy some respect as the only honest franchisor I've ever seen:
"We make 6 percent of sales on the franchises. All franchises work the same way: People say they want to sell your product. So you give them a Franchise Development Agreement that explains all the ways we can beat them down. I don't know if I would ever sign it. We can get out of the deal a million ways, but they are stuck."
Remember hearing from people for a long time about 5 guys before I tried it on a trip to D.C. Quite frankly I was underwhelmed and don't understand the hype.
The Wisconsin chain, Culver's, absolutely blows them away.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 49.4 ms ] threadIf you make food, someone will be hungry and buy it. If you make software, there is no guarantee that anyone will ever use it.
edit: I guess what I hadn't considered was that they were making good food and still serving it to people, despite competition from faster, cheaper companies. People tend to flock to good software, so maybe they aren't that different?
I've done both and AFAIC, you couldn't be further from the truth.
I've never had trouble finding customers with problems to solve with information and always earning what most others would consider a very nice living.
In foodservice, you will work your ass off at all hours (especially nights and weekends), you'll sweat, be filthy, have very slim margins, and often face brutal competition.
And if you think computer users are fickle, just try feeding people. You have no idea.
I'd like to understand why they're so popular, just to understand what makes the business really tick. I don't think it's about the food quality; I'm guessing it's a sort of social status thing - being "in the know" by going there?
They're popular because compared to similiarly priced fare (McDonalds/Wendy's) 5 Guys might as well be michelin rated.
A key reason for their success is this ability to retain the local burger feeling, while still being able to franchise quickly.
I actually like Five Guys, their Cajun-seasoned fries are amazing. There's also Ray's Hell-Burger, Foster's Grille, Tuskie's (amazing lamb burger), and others in Alexandria, Arlington, and DC.
(Wait, if people upvote this, does that mean I AM an out of touch yuppie? Uh-oh.)
I haven't had a decent Five Guys experience outside of the NoVA/MD area yet. It's always the worst things--the fries are often cold (I remember having to wait for them to be cooked fresh in NoVA), they'll mess your order up some other kind of way such as leaving something off your burger or forgetting a part of your order entirely (more common if you order lots of food at once), etc. The experience just isn't the same. No one I've taken there in my local area has been impressed unless they'd already eaten there in DC and just dealt with it--like I've stopped doing.
In-N-Out's deducation to quality and top-notch customer service is actually quite similar to Five Guys. The reason they're only in the Southwestern US is to ensure that each restaurant is close to a food distribution center. That way all their food is made with the freshest ingredients. They've been family-owned and operated since the 50's.
Is it the best food I've ever had? No. I definitely like In & Out fries better. And I like the burgers better at Urban Burger (in MD).
Plus, have you had their fries? I'm pretty certain that they're the best fries I've ever had.
It's really crazy because I drove around my old high school the other day and a Five Guys opened in a shopping center right next to it.
This kind of thing separates different kinds of entrepreneurs very sharply. I'm not necessarily sure one is better than the other, but I know which kind I am. I like opinionated people, companies, and products.
"We make 6 percent of sales on the franchises. All franchises work the same way: People say they want to sell your product. So you give them a Franchise Development Agreement that explains all the ways we can beat them down. I don't know if I would ever sign it. We can get out of the deal a million ways, but they are stuck."
The Wisconsin chain, Culver's, absolutely blows them away.