Though it couldn’t shake an endorsement once thought to be unappetizing, this burger joint is set to conclude the calendar year a winner.
Shake Shack, the predominately East Coast chain known for its dairy treats and high-quality patties, filed for its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange Monday. Data from the company’s public filing give the investment a tasty appearance:
From the new S-1 filing. Shake Shack’s growth has been incredible. http://t.co/2s06b35Jse pic.twitter.com/wmUQaTxbfw
— Joseph Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) December 29, 2014
This comes despite a May PR visit from President Obama and his top lieutenant, Vice-Man of the People TM Joe Biden, to a Washington, D.C. Shake Shack location. According to a White House pool report, they made the trip because the restaurant has “great burgers and pays its employees more than 10 bucks an hour” (emphasis mine). Nothing like economic justice on a bun.
The president had a patty and fries, and Biden enjoyed a cheeseburger and a shake — “enjoyed,” because this is the contemplative look of a man who is considering what may be the best-value hamburger lunch available to Washingtonians.
It’s debatable as to whether Shake Shack survived this seal of presidential approval or was merely unaffected by it at all.
Political candidates allied with the White House did their best in 2014 to distance themselves from such public showings of Obama’s support, declining the opportunity to campaign with him and even cutting advertisements specifying their differences with him.
“I disagree with [Obama] on guns, coal and the EPA,” Alison Lundergan Grimes, the failed challenger to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said in one commercial.
So determined was Grimes’ campaign to demonstrate the candidate’s independence, it didn’t want a group of College Democrats to show their Obama t-shirts while volunteering.
Regardless of Democrats’ wishes, the president insisted that he had a blanket presence in the midterm elections.
“I am not on the ballot this fall. Michelle’s pretty happy about that. But make no mistake: These policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them,” Obama said of his agenda in October.
Republicans wound up increasing their control of the House of Representatives by a larger margin than expected, and they secured a 54-46 majority in the Senate.
Consider it fortunate that Obama and Biden didn’t lose their lunch to the Republicans on that May afternoon, as well.
You could almost imagine McConnell, John Boehner and the apparition of Milton Freedman walking to the pick-up counter after a worker shouted Order for Barack and Joe!
“Sh-t ain’t free,” Freedman would say, waving a credit card in the executive duo’s direction.
