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History
The McDonald’s story began half a century ago in San Bernardino, California. Ray Kroc was a salesman supplying milkshake multi-mixers to a drive-in restaurant run by two brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald. Kroc, calculating from his own figures that the restaurant must be selling over 2,000 milkshakes a month, was intrigued to know more about the secret behind the success of the brothers’ thriving business. He visited the restaurant, which promised its customers “Speedee Service” and watched in awe as restaurant staff filled orders for 15-cent hamburgers with fries and shakes every 15 seconds. Kroc saw the massive potential and decided to become involved. The McDonald brothers accepted Kroc’s offer to become their national franchising agent. On April 15, 1955, he opened his first McDonald’s restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, a suburb just north of Chicago.
Rapid growth followed. McDonald’s served more than 100 million hamburgers within its first three years, and the 100th McDonald’s restaurant opened in 1959. In 1961, Kroc paid $2.7 million to buy out the McDonald brothers’ interest, and in 1963 the billionth McDonald’s hamburger was served live on prime-time TV.
The brand proved equally popular outside the United States. McDonald’s quickly established successful international markets in Canada, Japan, Australia, and Germany. Today, more than
1.5 million people work for McDonald’s around the globe. What started as an American phenomenon has become a truly international brand. |
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