Mcdonald History : From Small Restaurant To Global Chain
Currently the largest chain of fast food restaurants in the world McDonald’s started as a single, small restaurant in 1948 by brothers Dick and Mac at San Bernardino, California. Although their initial idea was to sell barbecue items but soon they realized most of their profits were coming from hamburgers.
So they closed their successful restaurant and again started with a simple menu which consisted of only hamburgers, cheeseburgers, potato chips, coffee, soft drinks, and apple pie. At the end of 1st first year, potato chips and pie were swapped out for French fries and milkshakes. Lets look at Mcdonald history and how it became leading fast food chain.
Kroc and McDonald brothers Meeting
The biggest turning point in Fast Food restaurants business history can undoubtedly be the meeting of Kroc and McDonald brothers in 1954. Kroc spent 17 years selling paper cups, and then spent years pushing a quixotic product—a fast food milkshake mixer that could produce five or six shakes at a time.
Kroc was on a sales trip to sell milkshake machine and saw a small restaurant where the customers had a very long line.
During his job he visited 100s of restaurants but he never saw such a large crowd. Kroc asked a man standing in the line, what is special in this restaurant and why the crowd is engaged here, the man said that here you will get the best burger in only 15 cent and you will have more time for order delivery.
Kroc was very impressed with the business strategy and met McDonald’s brothers to talk about franchises business model for himself of that restaurant and McDonald’s brothers easily accepted it . He opened his first franchise in 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois and the First day sales was $366.12.
BUYOUT of McDonald
In 1962 Ray Kroc bought all rights to the McDonald’s concept from the McDonald’s brothers for $2.7 million and royalty of 1.9% on gross sales. The buyout would turn out to be one of the best investments Kroc would ever make.
Kroc established strictly standardized operations for all McDonald’s franchises that included portion sizes and food preparation, packaging and ingredients. Customer service standards were also high, although franchisees were allowed to decide how to market their businesses.
In 1963, McDonald’s began marketing to families and children with the introduction of Ronald McDonald, played by Willard Scott. Other familiar McDonald menu items such as the Filet-O-Fish, the Big Mac, Egg McMuffin, Quarter Pounder and Happy Meal were introduced in the 60s and 70s.
Exponential Growth of McDonald
McDonald’s opened its first international location in Canada in 1967; this was followed by Latin America, Asia, Australia and Europe in the early 1970s. By 1972, McDonald’s totaled over $1 billion in sales and had over 2200 restaurants. The 3000th restaurant opened a short time later in 1974.
In the late 1970’s began “Burger Wars”. Other fast food chains, like Burger King and Wendy’s, began spreading seeing their place in the market. They all maintained aggressive advertising campaigns and low prices to try and stay competitive but McDonald’s survived.
At the time of Kroc’s death in 1984, the McDonald’s had grown to just under eight thousand restaurants in thirty-two countries around the world by using the same methods that Kroc obtained and improvised from Mac brothers.
They opened their 10,000th restaurant in April 1988. By the beginning of the ‘90s they had more than 3,600 outlets in 58 countries not counting those in United States (where they had some 9,000)
Difficult Time of McDonald
1990s and early 2000s were not very kind to McDonald as their experiment in products and advertising campaigns failed miserably. In 1998, company had the first decrease in net income since 1965 and resulted in job cuts.
The bad time continues as McDonald was accused of selling unhealthy food and its restaurants were attacked around the world. McDonald’s also had to battle its public image as a purveyor of fatty, unhealthy food. In response to all the negativity McDonald started “I’m lovin it “ campaign in order to promote healthier food and improve brand its image.
Also McDonald’s announced that it will include nutritional information on the packaging for all products and that its upcoming menu changes will emphasize chicken, salads, and other “fresh foods” rather than hamburgers
Present Day of McDonald
Today, McDonald’s is present in over 119 countries where it has more than 35,000 restaurants and where more than 68 million customers are served daily. McDonald has now became the most popular family restaurant, emphasizing affordable food, fun, and flavors that appealed to children and adults alike and currently the corporation is the world’s largest chains of fast-food restaurants and employs more than 1.5 million people worldwide.
