I had a good moment at the In N Out near Santa Anita years ago. It was Bayern's Breeders' Cup and I had a media pass that year. I realized they were serving breakfast early but only served lunch around like 1pm which meant media folks had like 6-7 hours with no food.

Since I had a product to promote at the time, I decided to walk down to the In N Out around the corner and buy everybody lunch. It was only like 11:00am and the place had just opened. I told the guy taking the order it was for the travelling press, many hadn't had In N Out before

So the guy who took the order turns to the teenage kid next to him and says (not for my benefit) "We just had a big order come in, a lot of people who've never had In N Out before - let's make these extra special." 30 double doubles all at once - tall order for real.

They wind up giving all the burgers to me in like 4 or 5 large boxes and I'm trying to walk these back to the track when Dennis O'Neal (who I had never even met) pulls up in his truck and says "you going to the track with those? Hop in!" Saved me 1m walk in that parking lot.

Walked into the media area and just started handing out burgers. Even the dude who threw me out of the press area the year before (for not having a pass) got a couple free ones. Everybody was happy and full of burgers. But I kept thinking about the people working there.

The next day, I e-mailed In N Out corporate and told them about how it went down and they got back to me like 10 minutes later thanking me and saying they would pass it along to the store and regional managers. A year later - same dude took my order. His name tag said "Manager"

I off-handedly mentioned about what happened back in the previous November and how they went above and beyond for us all and he remembered - looked me straight in the eye and said "Thank you for that!"

In N Out pays their people really really well for work that many people consider to be superfluous. But making good burgers with a great attitude really does matter. That's why I'm jazzed they pay their people so well. 30 burgers and a ride from Dennis O'Neal can add up to a lot.