Irfan Amin Patwary, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh
It was the twenties of the last century. During the Great Recession following World War I, two young brothers from New Hampshire decided to become Hollywood movie producers. Then they moved to California and opened a movie theater and hotdog stand. But their business did not last long. They closed the theater and started the restaurant business in 1940. They moved their father Patrick McDonald’s restaurant “The Airdome” from Monrovia to San Bernardino and renamed it “McDonald’s“. And with this McDonald’s, the two brothers finally saw the face of success. Yes, this is today’s McDonald’s, the world’s best-known fast food brand. Currently, it sells a variety of food including burgers, chicken sandwiches, salads, desserts and beverages. McDonald’s was founded by two brothers, Richard McDonald and Maurice McDonald.
At that time, restaurant meant a family-run food store. Home cooked food was taken to the shop and served by pretty waitresses. But this way it took a long time to serve the food and most of the times the order was wrong. McDonald’s was no exception. Their sales were going well. But the McDonald’s brothers thought they could do better. They wanted to figure out how to speed up the process of selling food. They closed McDonald’s for three months in 1948 from such a thought. After three months they arranged everything completely anew.
They found that hamburgers were the best selling items on the food menu. They reduced the food items from 25 to 9. Put only hamburgers, cheeseburgers, soft drinks, milk, coffee, potato chips and pie. Later, potato chips were replaced with French fries. Innovations were also introduced in the way food was sold. The “Self Service” system was introduced. Here customers used to stand in line to buy food, then they were given food wrapped in paper packets. It was quite new at the time, which is now seen in many food brands. Burgers are also priced at just 15 cents. The appearance of the store is brought to the impression of nobility. Stanley Clarke Meston was given design responsibility. The roof of the shop is decorated with golden rings, which adds to its beauty. All this brings McDonald’s tremendous popularity. McDonald’s became a great family entertainment place.
The popularity of McDonald’s brothers continued to increase day by day. The annual revenue was 350,000 dollars. Then they saw that the business was profitable and gradually opened 20 more branches across America. But none of them did as well as the main branch. The difference in quality and the indifference of the McDonald’s brothers were the reasons for the failure of other branches. At that time, one day in 1954, a gentleman named Ray Kroc came to meet the two brothers. His arrival that day changed the fortunes of McDonald’s.
Ray Kroc was a native of Illinois. He served as a Red Cross ambulance driver at the age of 15 during World War I. After the war he worked as a pianist, music director, salesman etc. Finally, he worked as a salesman for Lily Tulip Cup Company for a long time. At this time, he met an ice cream shop owner named Earl Prince. Prince invented a machine that could make five types of milkshakes simultaneously. Its name was “Multimixer”. He then left Lily Tulip to work as a salesman to increase sales of this multimixer across America. One such time received a call from McDonald’s for the sale of a multimixer.
Ray Kroc could not sell the multimixer machine very well. But he got an order for eight machines from McDonald’s. He thought, how profitable a restaurant can order so many machines! So when he went with the machine, he went mainly to understand the business condition of the two brothers. He saw that there was a huge amount of potential here, which the McDonald’s brothers did not understand. He wanted to make McDonald’s a franchise and spread it all over America. So he proposed to the brothers that he would work as a franchise agent for McDonald’s. Others, like the main branch, were not doing well. So the two brothers gave Ray Kroc a chance. With responsibility, Crock started working on his plan and became a part of history.
Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald’s restaurant in 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois. By 1959, he had opened his 100th restaurant. But he was not getting much profit. Because the McDonald’s brothers mainly gave more importance to their main branch. He had to see all the rest alone. But the two brothers had to pay the dividend share of all. So he cleverly bought McDonald’s from two brothers in 1961 for $2.7 million. After that, he never looked back.
Ray Kroc introduced a clown named Ronald McDonald for the first time in 1963 for the campaign. In 1966, he brought it to TV commercials, which became quite popular with the audience. By 1968, the number of McDonald’s branches exceeded 1,000. At this time, McDonald’s entered the international arena beyond the country. In 1967, for the first time outside the country, Croc opened a branch of this brand in Canada.
Ray Kroc retired in 1977 after making McDonald’s a global hit. He finally died of heart attack in 1984. In 2016, a film called “The Founder” was made about him, in which Michael Keaton played the role of Ray Kroc. It currently has 40,031 branches in more than 119 countries around the world. In 2010, more than 28,000 stores introduced free WiFi services.
Along with McDonald’s success, it has also been criticized. Most criticized for increasing consumer obesity. Because of this they started adding healthy ingredients to the food. Fat and oil content also starts to reduce. But it did little good. Moreover, there are complaints against them for paying less to the workers. McDonald’s has also contributed a lot to charity. Since 1974, “The Ronald McDonald House Charities” has been supporting various charities.
Some interesting facts about McDonald’s
> McDonald’s is a popular brand but it ranks second globally. The first place is sandwich company “Subway”. It has 43,912 stores worldwide.
> There are many celebrities of today, who once worked at McDonald’s. Among them are singer and actor Justin Timberlake, Hollywood actress Rachel McAdams, and even Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
> McDonald’s also has a university called Hamburger University, which was founded in 1961. It confers the Bachelor of Hamburgerology degree. Along with the main campus, there are seven campuses around the world including Tokyo, Munich, Shanghai. So far 2,75,000 students have graduated from here. Less than 1% of students who apply to the Shanghai campus are accepted, even less than Harvard University (5.9%).
> In 1992, an old woman named Stila Libeck sued McDonald’s and won $2.9 million. Because his tongue was burnt by drinking hot coffee there.
> McDonald’s venues in Hong Kong also host weddings.
> In 2017 McDonald’s net revenue was more than four times Australia’s GDP.
Sources
- https://unacademy.com/content/railway-exam/study-material/static-gk/a-key-note-on-mcdonalds/
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-how-mcdonalds-first-got-its-start-180960931/
- https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-history-started-barbecue-restaurant-1940s
- https://study.com/academy/lesson/mcdonalds-history-founder-facts-founded.html
- https://www.history.com/news/how-mcdonalds-became-fast-food-giant
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- https://www.britannica.com/money/McDonalds