Five Guys’ chief executive officer, Jerry Murrell, said he gave a $1.5m bonus to employees of his US-based burger restaurant chain because “I didn’t want anybody shooting me” after the company recently “screwed … up” a buy-one-get-one-free promotion.
Murrell did not elaborate on the comment, which he gave to Fortune in an interview published on Wednesday – but it came a little more than a year after the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead on a midtown Manhattan street in what was widely considered a murderous rebuke of the US health insurance industry’s profit-driven practices.
Fortune’s conversation with Murrell revisited a two-for-one promotion that Five Guys organized in February to celebrate its 40th anniversary that proved to be much more popular than the chain expected. Five Guys’ app crashed as customers sought to take advantage of the promotion, and many overwhelmed chain locations discontinued the offer early, inviting backlash on social media.
Another example of the real Free Market at work. He was worried about backlash from both employees and customers, and came up with the only solution a Sociopath Oligarch can - throw money at it. But the point remains, he was responding to threats from the marketplace.
Luigi is another great example. That CEO’s policies hurt enough people that it eventually spawned a customer angry enough to take action. In the wake of that action, his company, and OTHER health insurance companies loosened up their denials, and a lot of people got health care that had previously been denied.
THAT’S a perfect example of the Free Market working the way it’s supposed to. MAGA should be thrilled, right? Nah, the LAST thing they want is a Free Market. They want a market that they can easily manipulate for their own profit gains.