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The ‘Birthday Disaster’ That Cost Five Guys’ Founder $1.5 Million (and Why He’d Do It Again)
Five Guys distributed $1.5 million in bonuses to frontline crews after a 130% sales surge overwhelmed 1,500 U.S. stores during its 40th birthday BOGO promotion.
- Five Guys CEO Jerry Murrell distributed about $1.5 million in bonuses to staff after the chain's 40th anniversary BOGO promotion on Feb. 17 overwhelmed store operations.
- Designed to celebrate the milestone, the giveaway caused immediate issues as locations ran out of food and app ordering systems crashed under the unexpected customer surge.
- Murrell wrote checks to 1,500 employees, jokingly telling Fortune he issued $1,000 bonuses because he was "worried about his safety" following the rollout.
- To address the mishap, the chain hosted a "40th After Party" from March 9 through 12, providing customers a scheduled do-over for the failed promotion.
- The family-run company typically donates 20% of sales from community events to local organizations, reflecting a long-standing philosophy of supporting its workforce through operational challenges.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Five Guys CEO rewards workers with $1.5M after anniversary deal chaos: 'We really screwed it up'
Five Guys is rewarding employees after an unexpectedly overwhelming promotion put heavy pressure on store crews.The burger chain said it was distributing about $1.5 million in bonuses to workers following a buy-one-get-one (BOGO) deal on Feb. 17, which was launched to celebrate its 40th anniversary but quickly exceeded expectations."The promotion spread far beyond what we anticipated, and our hardworking crews were placed in a difficult situatio…
Five Guys CEO Gave $1.5M Bonus To Employees After Botched BOGO Deal: ‘I Didn’t Want Anybody Shooting Me’
Five Guys CEO Jerry Murrell recently gave his employees a bonus, but the reason behind it may surprise you. Back in February, Five Guys offered a BOGO offer as a way of celebrating the chain’s 40th anniversary. Because the deal turned out to be a lot more popular than anyone expected, the offer was ended early, which, of course, disappointed customers. At the time, Murrell released a statement, apologizing to customers, saying in part, “The prom…
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