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Happy 50th birthday McDonald's!
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| starsearcher |
McDonald's turns 50 years old this week (tomorrow to be more specific) and even though they've had a lot of bad rep lately I gotta say that I still LOOOOOOOOOOVE sinking my teeth into their juicy burger once in a while. ;)
SO HAPPY B-DAY McDONALD'S!!!!!!!!
| quote: | Thu Apr 14, 9:06 AM ET
The story of McDonald's is the story of America -- a story of entrepreneurship. A story of innovation. And a story of changing social values.
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While McDonald's Corp. will be celebrating its 50th anniversary on Friday, the story really began in 1948 when two brothers, Dic and Mac McDonald, opened a restaurant modeled on the assembly line.
Service was fast, not personal, the menu was limited to nine items and the goal was to sell as many 15 cent hamburgers, milkshakes and bags of fries as possible.
Their success attracted the interest of Ray Kroc, a salesman who was surprised by the number of milkshake mixers the brothers ordered.
While the McDonald brothers were satisfied with their success, Kroc had grander plans. He signed a franchising agreement with the brothers in 1954 and had opened 100 stores by the end of the decade.
"Ray Kroc took it to a new level," said James Schrager, a clinical professor at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. "He really was way out there on the food side of the business."
The key to Kroc's success, Schrager said, was continual innovation.
Starting with a revolution in the use of franchising for restaurants, Kroc managed to maintain consistency by creating a system in which owners were highly involved and food was mass produced to strict standards.
He was also a master at finding ideal locations, regardless of the costs, Schrager said.
The 1960s was a period of rapid expansion for the Golden Arches.
Advertising spread from billboards, to magazines, to television. Stores spread to Canada and Puerto Rico and expanded to offer indoor seating. Logos and jingles were introduced, as was mascot Ronald McDonald.
Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers and celebrated the company's tenth anniversary with a public stock offering. By 1969, there were nearly 1,500 restaurants, and the company was selling 3.5 million hamburgers a day.
McDonald's democratized eating out by providing an affordable and non-intimidating dining experience, said Steve Anderson, president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association.
"When McDonald's showed up in town there were a couple restaurants in town, but it was where the doctors and lawyers would take their families," he said. "Now the next generation thinks nothing of it, no matter what their socio-economic status is."
As American mothers began entering the workforce en masse, McDonald's started directing advertising to children.
Throughout the 1970s, play areas and drive-thrus were added to restaurants and McDonald's became a destination for busy families on the go.
The menu also evolved, with a full breakfast line introduced in 1977 and Happy Meals in 1979, the same year McDonald's sold its 30 billionth hamburger.
"In the early years it was iron-clad consistent and it was always clean. For suburban mothers on the move that was a very crucial issue," said Richard Pillsbury, emeritus professor of geography at Georgia State University and author of "From Boarding House to Bistro: The American Restaurant Then and Now."
"If we would have stayed as tight downtowns without the suburbanization there wouldn't be McDonald's," Pillsbury said. "They're totally predicated on the automobile."
And while the government of the United States was pursuing an aggressive foreign policy, so too was McDonald's, expanding to Germany, Finland, Japan, Australia, Guam, Thailand, Venezuela and Panama.
By 1985, the Golden Arches could be seen in 43 countries. As the Cold War thawed, McDonald's became an ambassador of American values, opening a store in Moscow in 1990.
When Americans became concerned with the environment, the company that had contributed billions of hamburger wrappers and soda cups to landfills began using recycled materials.
When Americans began watching their ever-expanding waistlines, McDonald's started offering healthier menu options.
With world-wide revenues now approaching 20 billion dollars (15.5 billion euros) a year, more than 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries, and one of the world's most recognizable brands, McDonald's has become synonymous with American culture.
And it shows now sign of stopping. |
Source: http://beta.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ry_050414130653
http://editorial.gettyimages.com/so...|0||0|0|0|0&p=7 |
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| nycionx |
| i havent been to mcdonalds in maybe 10 yrs now. last burger i had in canada was harveys about 2 yrs ago. theyre better i think. u get to choose wat u want inside. but still its compared to the ones in yugo. i wish ppl here could try it so they kno wut im talking about |
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| Durafei |
| I dunno.. Maybe I'm easily influenced by media, but after watching SuperSize Me I somewhat lost my appetite for McDonalds. |
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| VERTiG0 |
Best drunk food ever.
C'mon McDonalds you cheap s, where's our 2 Big Macs for $2 like you had 4 years ago? This is a special occasion. |
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| Jayx1 |
| lOL @ all the fast food snobs. No doubt youve had take out at least once in the last week. |
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| amb_ |
| Bigups to Ray Kroc (RIP) and his wife. |
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| rabbitjoker |
| What a corporate success story! |
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| richard raiban |
happy birthday mcdonalds & thank you so very much for offering the BEST breakfast ever...
 
which i had this morning!!! :D |
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| bARTovsky |
McDonald's... ugh
Had their McChicken combo and got the worst food poisioning ever. That was 3 years ago, haven't been back there since. |
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| cono_sur |
| I wish to not be Super Sized. |
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