Am too from Europe, and never heard about it until last year when visiting my colleagues in LA and was taken to a In-n-out. It was packed and I agree that it’s tastier than Mcdonald’s. My colleagues were very surprised that I didn’t hear about that company because “everyone knows it”.

What they don’t understand (until explained) is that what we get in a European countries are just a small selection of big franchises (McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks etc) and maybe a handful of other ones. In America there are dozens and dozens of restaurant franchises where you can eat for weeks each time in a different fast food restaurant in the same city without going to the same place twice. This is what always amazes me as a European, that huge amount of choice of everything you can have there.

In-N-Out isn’t a national franchise, it’s mostly just a California one. There are different franchises in different parts of the country.

Even a ton of Americans wouldn't know In-n-Out. They only really recently started expanding a lot. Until a few years ago its was pretty much a Southern California only thing. There are no locations east of Texas, and even then there are only locations in the core triangle of Texas. If you're in El Paso or Corpus Christi or Amarillo or Lubbock or McAllen or Brownsville you're several hundred miles from the closest location despite there being many locations in Texas. There are zero in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, or Washington. All of New England is about a thousand miles from a location.

These people acting like "everone knows it" essentially have the same world view that the entire world that matters is Southern California.

Respectfully, I’m not sure what you are asking for. In-N-Out is only in a small fraction of the US so most people from the US wouldn’t know much about it either. I believe that’s why the GP comment provided a little more context which was more or less sufficient for me to understand the comparison.

Initially the In-N-Out example was made without explaining what it is, and even with the added context i think it doesn't really explain how In-N-Out differs from McDonalds. Their operations are better, what does that mean, how does that impact customers, how does that impact cost, etc.

If you ever go to one, you'll understand. They're like the Rolls-Royce of fast food burgers.

I wouldn't say Rolls-Royce, more like Lexus. Fuddruckers would be closer to Rolls quality as they actually allow for something other than well-done, preformed, meat pucks.

I’ve been. It’s nothing special.

In-n-Out has saturated the southwestern coast, which is a pretty significant fraction of the United States.

The key is they have an absolute ton of employees in the restaurant (a busy McDonald’s might have four or five, In-n-out can have double or triple that. I’ve seen other fast food with two employees, never an In-n-Out) and they work exceptionally hard on specific tasks.

They also only deploy in areas where they’ve determined they’ll be able to keep the store busy enough.