In-N-Out Unveils Plans for an Eastward Footprint Expansion

Living in California, our family road trips were always punctuated by stops at In-N-Out Burger, unanimously acclaimed as the best burger joint on the road, at least by its numerous fans. Disappointingly, after moving to the East Coast, it turned out there’s not a single In-N-Out east of Mississippi. There are, surely, great local market leaders, but while Chick-fil-A sells outrageously delicious chicken sandwiches and killer waffle fries, nobody can really compare with In-N-Out in the roadside burger category.

Well, it looks like our prayers were heard. After decades of only slinging its burgers west of the Mississippi, California chain In-N-Out has announced plans for an eastward expansion and will open its first “territory office” in the eastern United States in Tennessee in the coming months, with plans for In-N-Out’s first locations to arrive in the state starting in 2026.

It’s a major move for In-N-Out, which has long vowed that it would only expand to states where it could offer the same quality of burgers and fries that it has served in California since 1948.

A “territory office” of the popular West Coast chain should open in the coming months in Franklin, Tennessee, south of Nashville. Just where in Nashville and its surrounding suburbs In-N-Out Burger is targeting to open restaurants has yet to be determined, or whether the burger chain’s expansion plans could eventually include other Southern states like Georgia. We hope it will cover the rest of the states not yet included in the chain’s domain – currently California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Idaho and Oregon.

Wherever the chain’s expansion plans are going to take it, Ticon looks forward to helping our favorite burger maker with proven and reliable site selection data. Our acclaimed C-Site Insight™ reports work as well for Quick Service Restaurants (QSR), as they do for gas station markets and convenience stores (c-stores). From our experience in site selection traffic analytics in Tennessee and neighboring states we know that traffic conditions vary dramatically on the East Coast. Significant variation in traffic patterns is observed even between sites with similar environment due to a number of factors, and said variation is easy to explain but hard to predict. That is why wise c-site selection should be based on traffic analysis performed specifically for exact place of interest.

Have a look at our sample reports and contact us at info@ticon.co to benefit from ample and accurate traffic analytics specially tailored for effective site selection.