McDonald's History

Old McDonald had a farm... But Old McDonald loved his animals and they all lived long and happy lives.

Dick and Mac McDonald had a different vision, however. A history of the McDonald's restaurant chain:

1937-1947: Before McDonald's Was McDonald's

-In 1937, Dick and Mac open the Airdome. It is a hot dog stand in Arcadia, CA.

-In 1940, Dick and Mac move shop to San Bernardino, CA, and call the new restaurant McDonald's

-Come 1948, the brothers McDonald are sick of running the same old kind of restaurant. In an effort to increase service speed, they started working with an assembly line process that would allow them to serve more customers in the same amount of time. They cut the menu to further speed up serving times. They only offered burgers, fries, and milkshakes. Business boomed.

-Of note: McDonald's does not recognize any of these restaurants as an official part of their chain. These are just the building blocks on which McDonald's as we now know it was built.

1948-1961: Kroc Takes Over

-Enter Ray Kroc. in 1954 Ray Kroc pulled up to the restaurant looking to sell milk shake mixers. After the McDonald brothers purchase eight of them, Kroc figures that if there were more McDonald's, and each store bought eight mixers, he would be a rich man. He proposes the idea to the brothers and they ponder who would open the stores. Kroc suggests himself, and takes over franchise operations.

-On March 2, 1955, Kroc opens a franchise in Des Plaines, IL, that is recognized by McDonald's as the first official restaurant. First day's revenue: $366.12.

-Kroc allows anyone to open a franchise for about a grand, and also takes 1.9 percent of each franchise's profits. He pays 0.5 percent to the McDonald's brothers.

-Milestone: In 1958, McDonald's sells it's one millionth hamburger.

-The buyout. In 1961, Kroc purchased McDonald's from the brothers for the hefty sum of 2.7 million dollars. However, if the brothers would have just kept their %0.5 percent, it would have made them around $175,000,000 in 2007 alone (McDonald's profits exceeded 3.5 billion in '07.)

-Also in 1961, Kroc opens Hamburger University to train new employees. The purpose is to ensure the product is consistent at all franchise locations.

1962-Present: The Rest is History

-1968: Jim Delligatti, a franchisee out of Pittsburgh, comes up with a little something called the Big Mac. I hear it caught on.

-1971: First Franchise in Europe opens.

-1973: Herb Peterson comes up with the Egg McMuffin. Thanks Herb!

-1974: First Ronald McDonald house is opened in Philly. Say what you will about the company, but they have done a lot of really good things for very deserving people.

-1979: Happy Meal is introduced. The reaction: people were happy.

-1993: Company has now sold over 100 billion burgers. Many signs still say "over 99 billion served" because there just isn't room for another digit.

-Today: McDonald's has franchises in over 100 countries world wide. It was 108th in Forbes 2007 Fortune 500 list.

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BBC h2g2 A Brief History of McDonald's BBC h2gh
History of McDonald's Wikipedia