On May 15 1940, Richard and Maurice “Mac” McDonald opened their first drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California. The sons of poor Irish immigrants, they’d noticed that the only business that made money in working-class towns were hot dog stands placed in strategic locations, such as near racetracks.
YOUNG FAMILIES
The McDonald’s restaurant did well. Customers were either young men who came there to flirt with the waitresses — known as ‘carhops’ —, or young families looking for a cheap meal. As families spent more, the McDonald brothers decided to focus on them.
INSPIRED BY FACTORIES
In 1948, the brothers redesigned and rebuilt their restaurant. The menu was reduced to hamburgers, milkshakes and French fries. They designed the kitchen in an assembly line–style layout they called the “Speedee Service System”. There was no waiting staff in the restaurant and burgers were pre-cooked.
THE ARCHES
At first people did not like getting their own food, but cheap prices and fast service attracted cab drivers and construction workers, and McDonald’s’ popularity grew. In 1952 the McDonald brothers asked an architect to design their first franchised restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona. It incorporated giant yellow arches inspired by a drawing16 by Richard.
RAY KROC
In 1954, the McDonald brothers partnered with Ray Kroc, a milkshake machine salesman who wanted to be their franchiser. Little more than five years later, Kroc had franchised 228 McDonald’s, and the company was making $56 million annually. But while the brothers only wanted a small number of restaurants, Kroc wanted to go big. In 1961 the McDonalds agreed to sell Kroc the whole business for $2.7 million.
NATIONAL VARIETIES
While standardisation is still part of McDonald’s philosophy, national and millennial tastes have allowed for a degree of creativity when it comes to menus. Salads are now an option in restaurants, should you really want to order one. And specific countries have tried to adapt local dishes to the burger format, with varying degrees of success.
In Singapore, a Nasi Lemak Burger has been created from a popular fragrant rice dish cooked in coconut milk. In India, a popular street food has inspired the McAloo Tikki Burger, a crispy, spicy, potato cutlettopped with various sweet sauces and spice powders, in a bun. In Sweden, star chef Johan Jureskog was asked to create a gourmet line of burgers, although locals have complained that the ingredients used are not up to his recipes. In Holland, the McKroket has had a legendary status since McDonald’s opened its first European restaurant in 1971. In China, out of respect for Ronald McDonald as an adult, children refer to him as Uncle McDonald. In Japan, Ronald McDonald is called Donald McDonald due to a lack of a clear ‘r’ sound in Japanese enunciation.
The travel-showhost and producer Ray Williams has eaten at McDonald’s in thirty-four countries. He says Thailand wins for local products, a more extensive dessert menu, speedy deliveries and (if you’re eating in) Ronald McDonald’s Buddhist greeting.
going global
Kroc built McDonald’s into the most profitable fast-food chain in the world. He insisted on uniformity in service and quality among all its franchises. He set strict rules on how the food was prepared, portion sizes, cooking methods and times, and packaging. Customers who had to wait more than five minutes for their food would be compensated, and staff had to be nice to children. Kroc also remodelled the golden arch to resemble both an M and, apparently, a pair of breasts to generate a Freudian pull. In 1963, he hired actor Willard Herman Scott Jr. to play a clown in TV commercials: Ronald McDonald was born.
the last laugh
Today, with its global headquarters in Chicago, McDonald’s makes over $20 billion a year in revenue. It is the world’s second-largest private employer after Walmart, with 1.7 million employees worldwide. Kroc died in 1984 a multi-millionaire. Just before Richard McDonald died in 1998, he was asked if he regretted selling out to Kroc for just over a million dollars per brother. McDonald replied: “[No,] I would have wound up in some skyscraper somewhere with about four ulcers and eight tax attorneys trying to figure out how to pay all my income tax.”
Fast food empire
The story of the growth of the McDonald’s global fast food empire isn’t a simple one of success, of course. Nutritional controversies, labour atrocities, environmental issues and PR disasters have contributed to the notoriety of the McDonald’s brand.
As early as 1986, the company was taken to trial by a British environmentalist organisation accused of deforestation and the mistreatment of animals and workers. The trial lasted56 years, and ended in the British courtruling that McDonald’s wasn’t to blame for mass deforestation, but was at fault for consciously helping depress wages in the food industry and pretending their food was nutritious.
In his 2001 book Fast Food Nation, the journalist Eric Schlosser held the fast food industry to account for unethical practices at every step of the process, from obtaining the meat to marketing to kids.
In 2004, the documentary Super Size Me featured Morgan Spurlock eating only McDonald’s food for a month, committing himself to accepting the “super size” portion whenever offered. He gained over eight kilograms in weight, suffered increased cholesterol and became depressed. Shortly after the film’s release, the supersize option was taken off the menu at McDonald’s. Nevertheless, the addictive nature of fast food, high in sodium and fat, is constantly cited as a contributing factor to the obesity epidemic affecting the US and the wider world.
Today, Ronald McDonald has become a symbol of the fast food industry in the US as a whole, as well as Corporate America, aggressive capitalism and globalisation. As such, the clown is often appropriated by protestors wishing to communicate a message that runs counter to the corporate narrative.