Five Guys CEO Jerry Murrell is paying up after a promo that went way bigger than expected.
Things took a turn when a February 17 buy-one, get-one offer was meant to celebrate 40 years of Five Guys. Instead, it flooded stores nationwide, stretched staff thin, and left locations scrambling to keep up. So Murrell stepped in with a major gesture, handing out 1,500 checks totaling $1.5 million to employees across impacted stores.
“I didn’t want anybody shooting me in the back or anything after the first day, because we really screwed it up. We had no idea that we were going to get that kind of response,” Murrell told Fortune.
He kept it real about how bad the rollout hit operations.
“I always think it’s funny when people go to sales. I never thought they worked. We tried this one, buy one, get one free. Holy smokes. I couldn’t believe all the people that jumped on that. I thought maybe increased sales like 20% or something—that was like 130%. So I felt I screwed up.”
Murrell also joked about where the bonus money came from, saying it was originally meant for a fur coat for his wife.
“She still looks at me like I’m stupid,” he said. “But I thought it was worth it. They worked so hard. They were so overwhelmed.”
The company later admitted it “didn’t meet our own standards” and promised to do better. So they ran a second BOGO promo from March 9 to 12, this time fully prepared. According to Murrell, the redo went smoothly, and the crew still pushed hard, which made the bonus decision feel even more necessary.
