Fast Food Pioneer
McDonald’s began with fast food.
Which quick service restaurant chain has more than 28000 restaurants in 120 countries, has a clown as its symbol and virtually invented the idea of fast food?
You probably guessed it: McDonald’s. The classic McDonald’s meal is a hamburger with French fries and a drink. McDonald’s hamburgers are made from 100% pure beef, which is cooked on a grill and served in a bun with onion, tomato ketchup, mustard and drill pickle.
Mac and Dick McDonald created the concept of quick service at their restaurant in San Bernardino, California. They also invented the idea of specialization –one person cooked the hamburgers, another made milkshakes and another put mayonnaise on the buns.
But the biggest innovation was to have the food prepared and waiting so customers could place an order and immediately collect it. The food was good and cheap and business exploded. People felt confident in taking their families because they could expect cleanliness and food of a certain quality,
Their business grew and by the mid 1950s, the original restaurant was making $350,000 a year .Then in 1954 Ray Kroc, an electric mixer salesman, visited the restaurant. In 1955 he opened a second McDonald’s restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois. He persuaded the brothers to open several other restaurants in other cities. Four years later he opened the 100th restaurant in Chicago. In 1961, Kroc bought all rights to the McDonald’s concept from the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million.
