McDonald’s – My Kind Of Place

We don’t eat at McDonald’s much anymore because of the calories in their food, but sometimes I’ve just gotta have some of their FANTASTIC french fries. They are absolutely the best.

This is the original McDonald’s before it was franchised.

Once franchises were really taking off, this was a common design. I remember driving to the closest one after getting my driver’s license when I was 16. It looked pretty much like the one below.

Later, it was changed to something more familiar to us these days.

TIMELINE

• 1940 – McDonald’s Is Founded – Dick and Mac McDonald opened McDonald’s Bar-B-Q restaurant on Fourteenth and E streets in San Bernardino, California. It is a typical drive-in featuring a large menu and car hop service.
• 1948 – The McDonald brothers shut down their restaurant for three months for alterations. In December it reopens as a self-service drive-in restaurant. The menu is reduced to nine items: hamburger, cheeseburger, soft drinks, milk, coffee, potato chips and a slice of pie. The staple of the menu is the 15 cent hamburger.
• 1949 – French Fries replace potato chips and debut Triple Thick Milkshakes on the McDonald’s menu.
• 1954 – Multimixer salesman Ray Kroc visits McDonald’s in San Bernardino, intending to sell the brothers more Multimixers. The 52-year-old Kroc is fascinated by the operation. He learns from the brothers that they are looking for a nationwide franchising agent. He has an epiphany and is determined that his future would be in hamburgers.
• 1955 – The First McDonald’s Opens – Kroc opens his first McDonald’s in Des Plaines, Illinois, on April 15. The attention-getting red and white tiled building with the Golden Arches was designed by architect Stanley Meston in 1953. First day sales are $366.12.
• 1956 – Fred Turner, future McDonald’s Chairman, is hired to work as a counterman for the Des Plaines McDonald’s. He would soon become the head of McDonald’s Operations, defining the quality, service, and cleanliness that continue to this day.
• 1961 – Hamburger University opens in the basement of the Elk Grove Village, Illinois, McDonald’s restaurant. Graduates receive Bachelor of Hamburgerology degrees.
• 1965 – The Filet-O-Fish sandwich was the first item added to the national menu. Created by Lou Groen, McDonald’s Cincinnati franchisee, to help build volume in the predominately Roman Catholic community in which his store was located.
• 1968 – The Big Mac, developed by Owner/Operator Jim Delligatti of Pittsburgh, is added to the national menu.
• 1973 – The Quarter Pounder and the Quarter Pounder with Cheese are added to the menu.
• 1974 – The first Ronald McDonald House opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1973, Fred Hill, a football player with the Philadelphia Eagles, had the need for such a facility at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, where his child was being treated for leukemia. Hill’s dilemma led to the first Ronald McDonald House.
• 1975 – The Egg McMuffin, created by Owner/Operator Herb Peterson of Santa Barbara, California, is added to the national menu.
• 1983 – Chicken McNuggets are introduced into all domestic U.S. restaurants.
• 1984 – Ray Kroc, Founder and Senior Chairman of the Board of McDonald’s Corporation, dies on January 14.
• 1990 – On January 31, the first McDonald’s restaurant in Moscow opens. Located in Pushkin Square, more than 30,000 customers were served on opening day.
• 1993 – The world’s first McCafé opens in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
• 1995 – McFlurry Desserts, invented by Ron McLellan, O/O Canada, were added to McDonald’s Canada menu.
• 2002 – McDonald’s published its first-ever Social Responsibility Report on April 15, 2002.
• 2003 – McDonald’s first global ad campaign, “I’m lovin’ it,” is launched in Munich, Germany, on September 2.
• 2015 – McDonald’s USA launched All Day Breakfast.
• 2017 – Global McDelivery Day is celebrated on July 26 to support the global launch of McDelivery with Uber Eats.
• 2020 – McDonald’s opens its first net zero-designed restaurant at Walt Disney World Resort, which creates enough renewable energy on-site to cover 100% of its energy needs on a net annual basis.