Mar 27, 2026
A milestone promotion meant to celebrate a major anniversary didn’t go as planned. A 40th anniversary special at Five Guys proved more popular than expected, overwhelming locations, crashing the app and forcing some restaurants to close early as supplies ran short.
Rather than deflect blame, Five Guys CEO Jerry Murrell quickly took ownership: He apologized first to staff, then to the public. He also took an unusual step: The 82-year-old used his own $1.5 million bonus to cut checks to roughly 1,500 employees.
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“I didn’t want anybody shooting me in the back or anything after the first day because we really screwed it up,” he told Fortune magazine (1). “We had no idea that we were going to get that kind of response.”
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While most CEOs would offer a canned response through their communications team, Murrell took the helm and steered the ship in a familiar direction: one of family and charity.
Where’s the beef?
Five Guys has been a private, family-run company since its inception in 1986 at the Westmount Shopping Center. The Murrell family, including father Jerry, and sons Jim, Matt, Chad and Ben, first turned on the grill in Arlington County, Virginia. A fifth son, Tyler, joined the team in 1988.
Five Guys acknowledged customers’ beefs through their website a day after the February 17 promotion, admitting they did not expect such a strong turnout.
“The response to our birthday BOGO offer was unlike anything we’ve seen,” they wrote. “You visited our restaurants in overwhelming numbers to share in the milestone, and for that, we are genuinely humbled. Forty years is a long time, and the outpouring of support yesterday reminded us why we love what we do.”
Murrell took ownership of the miscalculation and distributed the $1.5 million in bonuses ($1,000 per store) to the frontline staff who hustled on at restaurants.
“We did it over again,” he said, as they did another BOGO event from March 9 to March 12. “The crew did good that day because they were prepared, but they worked so hard that I thought, now I better give them a bonus (2).”
Murrell is known for giving back to the community and often takes on challenges with a side of wry humor. Though it’s no laughing matter, Murrell infuses levity as a way to lighten the mood when talking to customers and employees.
He joked to Fortune that he was going to, “buy my wife a new fur coat, and I spent it on [the bonus] instead… She still looks at me like I’m stupid. But I thought it was worth it. They were so overwhelmed.”
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The secret sauce? Family
On its website, Five Guys highlights in bold letters, “We love our crew.” That’s not just boilerplate; that’s the secret sauce for the 40-year-old business (3).
According to the Family Business Alliance, there are 5.5 million family-owned businesses in the United States. The tenure of CEOs in family businesses is often four to five years longer than that of their counterparts. Family-owned business also contribute 57% to the country’s GDP, and employ 63% of the U.S. workforce.
Five Guys also gives back to the community, donating 20% of all sales from in-store events to local organizations and charities. Corporate and franchise teams donate their time in groups like Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.
Further to the Family Business Alliance’s review, more than 30% of all family-owned businesses survive into the second generation, while 12% make it to the third generation (4). Murrell and his wife Janie have five sons, 14 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
“I think nine or 10 of the grandkids are in the business too, so they seem to like the business,” he said. “Looks like it’s going to carry on the way we have built it.”
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
Fortune (1); Men’s Journal (2); Five Guys (3); Family Business Alliance (4)
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Brian Baker is an Associate Editor with Moneywise. He has been a media professional for over 20 years.
