Lynsi Snyder, outspoken Christian and president of In-N-Out Burger, revealed Friday that she is relocating her family from California to Tennessee, citing the challenges of raising children and conducting business in the Golden State.
“There’s a lot of great things about California, but raising a family is not easy here,” Snyder said during an appearance on Allie Beth Stuckey’s “Relatable” podcast. “Doing business is not easy here.”
The move comes months after the beloved West Coast burger chain broke ground on a new 100,000-square-foot office in Franklin, just south of Nashville, as part of its eastern U.S. expansion. Snyder confirmed she is moving her family to the area. “We’re building an office in Franklin, so I’m actually moving out there,” she said.
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Snyder, who has served as In-N-Out’s president since 2010 and is the only grandchild of founders Harry and Esther Snyder, emphasized that California will remain central to the company’s operations, even as the business prepares for growth in the Southeast.
“The bulk of our stores are still going to be in California,” she said. “It will be wonderful having an office out there, growing out there and being able to have the family and other people’s families out there.”
Founded in 1948, In-N-Out Burger has grown into a cultural phenomenon with more than 400 locations across eight states. Yet, despite the chain’s deep roots in California, Snyder acknowledged that the state has posed increasing difficulties for the company, especially during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
“There were so many pressures and just hoops we were having to jump through,” she said, recalling the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s mandate for restaurants to check customers’ vaccine cards.
“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 [back] even harder on some of that stuff and dealt with all of the legal backlash.’”
In-N-Out made headlines at the time for refusing to enforce the vaccine card checks, resulting in temporary store closures in San Francisco. “It was a brief moment, but it’s worth it,” Snyder added.
In another tough decision, she shut down a store in Oakland over safety concerns. “There was actually — gunshots went through the store, there was a stabbing, there was a lot,” she shared during a separate interview with PragerU. She described the area as “absolutely dangerous.”
In addition to building its Tennessee office, In-N-Out has plans to open its first restaurants in the state by 2026.
Snyder said the company will use its Texas warehouse to supply the new locations. “We’re not putting our meat facility — where we do all of our beef and send it to our stores [to] make patties — we’re not going to have that there. We’ll have a warehouse, but not do our own meat there, so we’ll be able to deliver from Texas.”
While Snyder has long declined offers to bring the brand to Florida and other East Coast states, she hinted that new markets could be on the horizon. “Texas can reach some other states,” she said, without naming specifics.
Snyder, a mother of four who has been married to Sean Ellingson since 2014, is also overseeing a major shift in the company’s California operations. In-N-Out will close its Irvine headquarters by 2030 and consolidate back to its original office in Baldwin Park.
“My uncle opened the office in Irvine … in the ‘90s,” Snyder explained. “When my dad came down to run the business, we had moved to Northern California. It was family over fighting with his brother and running the company. So when he came down and saw Irvine and all of that, [he] was just like, ‘This is not us. This is not our roots, this is not my dad,’ and he wanted to move everyone back to Baldwin Park. So he kind of did a hybrid.”
“In every decision about the future of In-N-Out Burger, I give strong consideration to what my grandparents and my family would think is best for our company,” Snyder said in a previous statement. “This move helps us bring our In-N-Out family back together in a way that strengthens our ability to serve customers, who are always our top priority.”
“Some of our associates will be relocating to Tennessee, which makes it even more important to centralize our western headquarters in one location,” she added. “Our West Coast family will be together in one place, where In-N-Out Burger began.”
Snyder has also been open about how In-N-Out’s deeply rooted Christian values have guided her leadership. Since the 1990s, the company has printed Bible verses on its packaging, a tradition started by her uncle Rich before his passing. She later expanded the tradition to add Bible verses to other items such as fry boats and coffee cups.
“It was my uncle Rich who put the Bible verses on the cups and wrappers in the early ‘90s, just before he passed away,” Snyder said. “He had just accepted the Lord and wanted to put that little touch of his faith on our brand. It’s a family business and will always be, and that’s a family touch.”
Snyder, who previously shared with The Christian Post how faith helped her overcome personal struggles, also founded Army of Love, a ministry focused on discipleship and spiritual mentorship.
“I knew that I would be a part of a ministry that would unify the Body of Christ into soldiers who would reach out to one another and to the lost in the last days,” she said. “Many people attend church, but the pool of discipleship is shallow.”
Using faith-based training modules, Snyder’s organization works alongside groups like Teen Challenge to help believers deepen their spiritual walk.
“Picture our lives being a power strip,” she said. “We plug so many things into the power strip — work, family, hobbies and God. But that is all wrong. God must be the power strip, and everything in our life should be plugged into Him as our power source.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
