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.

  • NotSteve_@piefed.ca
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    7 days ago

    And his wife still thinks he was stupid for that

    Murrell joked that he preferred the employees receiving the bonus over his wife getting “a new fur coat”.

    “She still looks at me like I’m stupid, but I thought it was worth it,” Murrell was quoted as saying by Fortune. “They worked so hard. They were so overwhelmed.”

      • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Yeah, totally agree… but what a shitty thing to say about your wife.

        “Haha, my wife is such a selfish bitch she would rather another fur coat than giving money to hard working employees! Hilarious!!”