[nonameiguess]

Don't know about all small businesses that provide quality employment and a quality product at low price while remaining in business, but In n Out is famously family owned by an extremely religious family with no desire to grow fast, take over their industry, or go public to turn investors into multibillionaires. They don't even have investors. Perfectly happy to just be ordinary millionaires and share the value of the company with their employees.

Rents might be high in Southern California, but the bulk of their rapid expansion was in the 70s and 80s when land was still reasonably cheap and they may actually own many of their own buildings.

[jeffbee]

Maybe they do, but I checked the ones in my county and the sites are owned by East Coast REITs. I'm sure they are able to negotiate reasonable long-term leases, of course.