Mill Valley, CA: Workers at In-N-Out location behind counter take orders. (Photo: David Tran Photo, Shutterstock)
Backlash to In-N-Out Announcement to Leave CA Sidesteps the Real Issues
‘Doing business is not easy here now,’ Lynsi Snyder said of California
By Katy Grimes, July 23, 2025 2:51 pm
As predicted, following the Globe’s article about In-N-Out President Lynsi Snyder’s announcement that she’s moving her family and corporate office to Tennessee, we received an email from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Bull Terrier Brandon Richards (He/Him), Deputy Director of Rapid Response, accusing us of spreading misinformation and demanding a correction to our article.
Here is what the Globe reported:
California ranks dead last once again in Chief Executive Magazine’s Best & Worst States For Business 2025. Tennessee ranks #1 once again, and now “The Volunteer State” is getting another of California’s oldest and one of the best known businesses in the country: After 77 Years in California, In-N-Out Is Moving to Tennessee.
Lynsi Snyder, President of In-N-Out is moving her family to Tennessee, and plans to open Tennessee In-N-Out restaurants by 2026.
California Governor Gavin Newsom and the state’s Democrat Marxist class have sent yet-another successful California business packing, looking for greener pastures, lower taxes, fewer regulations and a family-friendly environment.
“There’s a lot of great things about California, but raising a family is not easy here,” Lynsi Snyder said during a recent appearance on the Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey podcast.
“Doing business is not easy here now,” Snyder said of California.
Snyder said that in addition to moving her family to Franklin, Tennessee, a significant portion of the company will move as well. Some corporate employees will move to Tennessee, and others will remain in Southern California.
Snyder said they are making a long-term moving plan to give employees time to make their plans, as well.
Snyder shared her frustrations with California policies including the crime issues the stores have had in San Francisco and Oakland. She also the shared frustrations with the impossible policies during Gov. Newsom’s Covid lockdowns – “so many pressures and hoops we were made to jump through,” Snyder said. Masks, plastic shields, and the state made restaurants check customers’ vaccine cards during the Covid flu era.
“You’ve got to do this, you have to wear a mask, you gotta put this plastic thing up between us and our customers and it was really terrible you know. And I look back and I’m like, ‘Man, maybe we should have just pushed even harder on some of that stuff and dealt with all of the legal backlash.’”
This is the email from the governor’s office:
The CEO has since made very clear that In-N-Out is not moving out of California – she was speaking about her family. Since you spend so much time covering California, and pay attention to the Governor and what he and the office say, I am a bit surprised with the misinformation you pushed given this information was available prior to your article.
A new KCRA article includes additional comments from the company: “We’re not leaving California” In-N-Out says HQ isn’t changing with owner’s move to Tennessee
- Statement including in the article from the company:
-
- “We’re not moving In-N-Out Burger’s corporate headquarters. In addition to our Baldwin Park office, we’re expanding with an Eastern Territory office in Tennessee to support our growth.”
- “We’re not leaving California, or leaving our roots behind. Each one of our locations is here to stay.”
It’s also been addressed via a statement on social media by the CEO.
Appreciate your quick action on your end to correct the article and help your audience receive accurate information about a company they likely enjoy!
Best,
Brandon
BRANDON RICHARDS (He/Him)
Deputy Director for Rapid Response
Office of Governor Gavin Newsom
The Globe replied:
Thank you for your concern Brandon. There is no “misinformation.” My article came out ahead of the KCRA article, and was solely based on the details of Lynsie Snyder’s interview with Allybeth Stuckey where she states she’s moving her HQ, along with a lot of In-N-Out employees who asked her to leave the state.
She’s reacting to the blowback and now states they will maintain the Baldwin Park location and the Tennessee location. She’s leaving California and taking her family and some employees with her. The reasons remain the same. We will do a new updated article.
Thank you again for your concern.
Clearly because of the blowback she received, Ms. Snyder posted on Instagram a note acknowledging the company’s origins:
“I’m very proud of where In-N-Out started. Anyone who knows me knows how often I talk about our beginnings and how our Customers here in California helped bring us to where we are today. We’ve been expanding into new states since 1992, and we’ve stayed consistent with our standards for growth. Opening an office far from our roots is something new and exciting. It brings incredible opportunities for the people we love and the Customers we serve.”
I’m betting that she’s quite anxious to get out of this state. She got blowback for her announcement, rather than inquiries about her concerns, about why she is leaving.
That’s because the people in elected office running California don’t want to have that conversation. They just want more and more from California’s business owners, whether it’s Chevron and Vallero, a small manufacturing company owner, or the independent contractors who have fled the state just to be able to work.
The KCRA article reports, “Snyder’s interview led some to characterize the move as the latest example of a company retreating from California because of liberal policies. That drew the attention of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office, which pushed back on the narrative.”
This is the Gov’s press office snarky X post in reply to Ric Grenell’s:
For those interested in the facts, rather than fiction, In-N-Out is expanding East — creating a second HQ in Tennessee. The are consolidating their TWO SoCal offices into one — creating a Western Regional HQ to go along with their yet to be built Eastern Regional HQ.
Ric Grennel posted:
The primary point of our article is that Ms. Snyder’s reasons for leaving California, and taking as many of her corporate employees as want to join her, are the same as every other company leaving: punishing taxes, punitive regulations, hundreds of new anti-business policies and laws every year, failing public schools which have become indoctrination centers, erasure of parental rights – as well as the highest housing costs in the nation, one-third of the country’s poverty in California, most of the country’s homeless live on California streets, and most of the country’s illegal aliens reside here as well.
California is losing more workers than it’s gaining, new report shows, the Globe reported Nov. 26th. “Businesses are leaving because it is no longer economically feasible for them to stay within California,” the Hoover Institute says. “Businesses that remain in California are hiring much less, and California now has the country’s second highest unemployment rate,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Nov. 19, 2024.
We’ve written countless articles about businesses leaving the state for low income and corporate tax states, or no income tax states.
We even did a series called “Leaving California” and interviewed many individuals and business owners who moved out of California, going back to 2019:
Leaving California: Interviews With Californians Who Moved To Greener Pastures
Leaving California: Interviews With Californians Who Moved To Greener Pastures, Part II
Leaving California: Interviews With Californians Who Moved To Greener Pastures, Part III
Leaving California: Interviews With Californians Who Moved To Greener Pastures, Part IV
Leaving California: Interviews With Californians Who Moved To Greener Pastures, Part V
Leaving California: Interviews With Californians Who Moved To Greener Pastures, Part VI
Leaving California: Interviews With Californians Who Moved To Greener Pastures, Part VII
Leaving California: Interviews With Californians Who Moved To Greener Pastures, Part VIII
If California is So Totally Awesome, Why Are So Many Residents Leaving?
New Poll Finds That More Californians Than Ever Are Considering Leaving The State
and then we stopped counting…
More Businesses Leaving California In 2021 Than In Any Other Year Prior According To New Analysis
Leaving California Interview With Mark Snyder: ‘Is Sacramento and California in a Post-Hope Period?’
Leaving CA: Tech Giant Oracle Leaving California for Texas
Leaving California: Oracle Co-Founder Larry Ellison Announces Move To Hawaii
Leaving California: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Move to Texas
I am very sad that these businesses left the state, and equally sad that Lynsie Snyder has to move to Tennessee for her children, and so her employees can afford to purchase a home.
Economist Dr. Art Laffer did an interview a few months ago on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show on why he lives in Nashville, having moved from Southern CA: “Now why am I in Nashville? We are the lowest-taxed state in the nation and earning income is a lot more fun with lower taxes, lower regulations.”
Tennessee has no income tax, no death tax, has low property taxes, and is the lowest taxed state in the nation. Laffer said, “earning an income is a lot more fun with lower taxes.”
If you haven’t watched Lynsi Snyder’s interview with Allie Beth Stuckey, do – she’s compassionate, cares about her employees, and greatly appreciates her family heritage.
A California native and Navy mom, Katy lives in Sacramento, CA.
- Newsom and Team Go Lower than Squid Poop on the Bottom of the Ocean - December 12, 2025
- No More ‘Paper or Plastic:’ Bring Your Own Bags to the Store Jan 1 - December 11, 2025
- Gas Prices Plunge to Lowest Levels in Years… Except in California - December 11, 2025
RELATED ARTICLES
-
February 15, 2022 -
-
Who knew the Ministry of Truth would be run by a pathetic he/him wienie?
Brandon(he/him) has outdone himself again.
He wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped him in the face.
I suggest people watch the interview snd come to their own conclusions. Brandon(he/him) most likely did not watch the interview. She talked about family legacy, yes! What he fails to mention is her struggle to do business here because of increasing crime and mandates and expenses for employees.
Katy is dialed in and sorry Brandon (he/him)
is not. No misinformation here, as I had watched the video in it’s entirety.
Rapid Response Brandon “He/Him” Richards and the rest of the Gov’s Press Gaggle would be smart to maybe be a little less nasty and unpleasant and maybe bring down the spiteful tone and demands when contacting the press, for corrections or anything else, especially when they are often wrong and not paying attention to the timeline of the story. The Gov’s policies DID in fact chase the In-N-Out CEO et al out of California when she and, presumably they, obviously would have preferred to stay in their home state, and is that not actually the gist of the story? The Gov’s nastiness is bad enough, when responding to a statement. Isn’t part of the job of his office to soften it up a bit and help to take the corrosive acid out of some of their boss’s impulsive rantings?
My daughter worked for the company for four years and moved up to position Sux but didn’t want to pursue a career in the business. She truly learned a lot working for In n Out.
I was a little disappointed as I called a counselor who counseled employees just to find out if they counseled someone if they used The Bible as a counseling tool and they replied not unless the person counseled wanted to.
Also I wonder how Christian based companies work with employees especially supervisors, manages and employees. I realize it’s not a church but was there anything offered to lead them to a relationship with Christ? None of my managers managers were Christian. I realize as a company hiring only Christian employees can’t be a priority.
Even in a Christian based company unmarried employees live together and have children. I don’t believe the company has control over these circumstances even though the founders don’t agree with unbiblical standards or do they?
Take Chik-fil-a for instance, they aren’t open on Sundays. God has blessed them for taking this stand.
Brandon Richards (he/him | 🏳️🌈 bi+), Newsom’s Deputy Director for Rapid Response, sounds like he’s a panic manic mode with Lynsi Snider’s announcement that she’s moving her family to Tennessee along with opening another corporate office there? If business conditions and crime to continue to get worse in California under Newsom and legislative Democrats, no doubt more In-N-Out store locations will close like the In-N-Out store that closed in the dystopian Democrat city of Oakland? It’s become ever more unrefutably evident that Gov. Newsom’s push for a $20 minimum wage for fast food workers has led to job losses, higher food prices, and increased automation in the industry?
BTW, what does the 🏳️🌈 bi+ identifier on Brandon Richards’s X account mean? It’s hard to keep up with the sexual proclivities of Democrats? (https://x.com/BrandonRichards)
These Democrat dumbasses that haven’t worked a corporate job in their lives can’t possibly read between the lines on such corporate subtleties in communications.
Much like biotechnology pioneer Amgen’s slow-roll exit to move their headquarters to FLORIDA from Thousand Oaks /Newbury Park, In-N-Out will be moving part of their core corporate office to Tennessee in the short term, ostensibly for their corporate tax mitigation and expense reduction purposes for both the business and its executives’ personal tax burden reduction, but also for the incentuves probably offered by a business-FRIENDLY state to relocate there, UNLIKE the snark and chippiness exhibited by Newsom’s poodle-boy Brandon and his rainbow flag.
In-N-Out has long been a positive outlier in terms of their corporate culture and business practices, and has probably chafed at California’s woke governance and considers Tennessse’s cultural norms and values to be more closely aligned with theirs than the rainbow-flag waving cabal that infests California “leadership” like Newsom, his Weinstein-trollop wife and her porno movie production grift-business and Scott Weiner, Buffy Wicks, Ricardo Lara and the rest of the pride crowd that governs for the benefit of the minority of the general population.
We wish Ms. Snyder and the rest of her team the best as they do what’s best for their business, as the California that enabled her grandparents to build an iconic brand to flourish has died long ago, causing them to make this business decision and causing the panic-response poodle of the Governor’s office to have the hissy-fit that it did…
Time for a change in policy and leadership in the Governor’s office when Newscum gets termed out and get Chad Bianco, Leo Zacky or Steve Hilton elected, along with a wholesale change in California governance if the state is to ever regain its status as “The Golden State” instead of the rainbow freakshow.
I have to say that it is good to know Hairdo’s henchmen-things actually read the Globe. Goes to show the reach that Katy and her team have despite their small size. It’s the only trusted California news site I rely on.
Also good to know Hairdo and his henchmen-things recognize that In-N-Out is a California institution and that it has a huge impact on our culture. Even if the CEO is “just” opening an East Coast HQ that, and the other comments she made, are an indictment of 20 years of terrible Democrat leadership.