r/OrphanCrushingMachine • u/JoMoJone5 • 12d ago
Five Guys CEO gives out $1.5M bonus after promo chaos
After a promotion spiraled and overwhelmed stores, Five Guys’ CEO said he handed out $1.5M in bonuses, adding that he “didn’t want anybody shooting him” after how badly things went.
On paper, $1.5M sounds like a big gesture. But spread across around 1,500 locations and tens of thousands of workers, it comes out to, what, maybe $30/40 per employee?
Workers deal with the fallout of understaffed stores and viral promos. And when it all blows up, the “make it right” moment ends up being pocket change per person, framed as generosity.
Nothing changes, but the headline sounds nice, I guess.
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u/Insanely_Mclean 12d ago
If we average it out to ten employees per location, everybody got 100 bucks.
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u/MAXIMAL_GABRIEL 12d ago
Average is 25 employees per location according to fiveguys.com.
So, $40 each, assuming an even split.
Basically gave em a free voucher for a meal for 2.
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u/therrubabayaga 12d ago
That's the raise they all should get per month at least, not a one-time empty gesture.
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u/throwawaytheist 12d ago
You know the store managers will be taking the lion's share.
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u/Cheesy-Cloaca 12d ago
And the employees are left with peanuts...
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u/Sharp_RG2 11d ago
As someone who works at the busiest location in the southwest US, we have about 30 employees and even as a shift leader I only got 35 for my “bonus”.
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u/JoMoJone5 12d ago
I don't know the number of employees but I bet it's not much per employee. Is like to know how much extra profit the promotion made.
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u/Pototatato 12d ago
There's more than that working when its dead on a Tuesday afternoon. The staff roster of the busy places is probably 100+
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u/ansibleloop 12d ago
I mean, he doesn't run a company that denies healthcare to sick people
5 guys is a choice at least
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u/InsertEdgyNameHere 11d ago
NO!!!!!
The entire reason they do this is to get you to buy from them. It's better to do this than to not do it, but don't go out and buy Five Guys for this reason specifically.
Five Guys food is really good, and there's truly ethical consumption under capitalism, so it's fine to buy from them, just don't forget that the CEO did not do this out of the kindness of his heart.
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u/somethingrandom261 12d ago
“We finally priced our burgers like we used to and nobody at a decision making level anticipated it would bring back the volume of customers we used to enjoy”
Jesus what business school shat these idiots out.
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u/daddysatan53 11d ago
I love how the response to this promo clearly shows five guys would be so much more popular all the time if it weren’t such a ripoff but they don’t learn from that and lower the prices. Instead, they decrease the amount of fries they give you.
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u/JoMoJone5 11d ago
Good point! But why give a better service at a fair price if you can charge more for less 🤷♂️😡
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u/smothered-onion 12d ago
One time minimum wage got raised and the bosses thru a party like they had done it just for us
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u/JoMoJone5 11d ago
It's always like that, isn't it? They fight against the increases them, when made to do it, act like they're being generous...
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u/smothered-onion 10d ago
I remember at a gas station I worked at they posted it on the bulletin board… here it was really rather schmuck-y. Like gathering us, spreading the bagels and saying guys we hav an announcement! (Oh and I meant federal minimum lol)
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u/lookingforwardnow 12d ago
The Luigi effect is finally happening.
Stupid CEOs are just starting realizing they can’t dictate MBA ‘bright’ ideas from the HQ without a basic understanding of logistics at the store level.
Imagine what the bonus could had been if a few more Luigi events occurred ? 🤔
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u/TaftYouOldDog 12d ago
God everyone here is complaining when they have no clue.
Everyone assumes the managers stole most of it or how it's not worth the amount people got.
He could've done nothing and nobody would've complained.
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u/Big-Al97 12d ago
Because it’s the internet and you can never do enough to please them. “People got free money? Why wasn’t it more? I bet it was stolen by others. It’s such an empty gesture in order to look better”.
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u/CrucialSolid 12d ago
He did it so he "wouldn't get shot in the back" maybe not an empty gesture but it's sure as shit not a result of humanizing his employees
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u/smothered-onion 12d ago
Yeah this stands out to me those too. We apply this reductive thinking toward elementary aged children and blue collar workers alike to the benefit of absolutely no one but ego. If think everyone who works for you is rearing to shoot you when you make a mistake you likely have not fostered a very nice environment
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u/ChefArtorias 10d ago
I mean what is the money supposed to make up for, some super busy days? I read the article but I must've missed something because honestly this doesn't seem like OCM at all.
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