From just one restaurant in San Bernadino, California, run by two brothers, McDonald’s has grown to become the best known and most popular fast food restaurant chain in the world. The first McDonald’s opened in 1948. The franchising operations soon became McDonald’s Corporation in 1955.As most of the world now knows McDonald’s as the home of the Big MAC, the first restaurants had a slightly different main menu item, hot dogs.Ray Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers, Mac and Dick, for $2.7 Million in cash in 1961. Kroc’s prototype store in Des Plaines, Illinois, is now a museum.Also in 1961, Kroc opened Hamburger University in the basement of a McDonald’s restaurant, in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. By 1963, McDonald’s was selling a million hamburgers a day. The company went public in 1965. In 1967 the opened their first international restaurant in Canada. In 1971, McDonald’s restaurants opened in Europe and Australia.Their signature “Big MAC” wasn’t introduced until 1968 and the first “drive-thru” McDonald’s was opened in Sierra Vista, Arizona in 1975. About half of McDonald’s sales were accounted to “drive-thru’s” in the late 1990’s. Their “winning” strategy has remained an unchanged through the years. It provides quality food and fast service, in a clean environment at an affordable price. It has been noticed throughout the running of McDonald’s that they tend to market to the eyes of children with Ronald McDonald as their notorious “spokesclown” that is recognized by 96% of American children. Also, in 1998, McDonald’s signed a long-term deal with the Walt Disney Company to include Disney merchandise as giveaways in its Happy Meals.The “Made for you” concept menu was also introduced in 1998. It was introduced to revamp kitchens and promote sandwiches made especially for the...
