Everyone knows what McDonald’s is, but as silly as it sounds, not everyone knows a lot about McDonald’s. This worldwide fast food chain started off as a restaurant in 1940, operated by both Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California, United States. It is crazy to believe that the company started out as a burger stand because of how big of an influence on the world it has nowadays. McDonald’s continued to grow and their logo, the Golden Arches, were introduced in a restaurant in 1955 in Phoenix, Arizona. It was growing so much in fact that it caught the attention of a certain businessman, Ray Kroc. Kroc joined the company as an agent, however he did not stop there, he eventually bought the franchise from the brothers and took it to even greater heights.
McDonald’s is the largest ever growing food chain, having restaurants all over the world in 120 countries. It is estimated that McDonald’s serves over 68 million customers daily, this just goes to show how far an idea can go and how many people can be affected by it. McDonald’s was one of the first companies to come up with and integrate the idea of “drive-thu dining”. This idea absolutely took off and it shows, nearly every fast food joint has a form of drive-thru, for McDonald’s, drive-thru’s make up at least 70 percent of their sales.
McDonald’s main marketing scheme is to target a younger demographic, and it shows. It is made very apparent with its frequent use of “happy meals” and built-in playgrounds on the establishments, even the commercials on T.V. are targeted for a younger audience. You will also very frequently see a bin for donations to certain charities that are being supported by McDonald’s whenever you order something.
In regards to how McDonald’s sources their ingredients, the company uses eggs from battery cage facilities which is not only bad for the chickens, but is also bad for the quality of the eggs. However, McDonald’s pledged to stop using these facilities in 2015 and they plan for these facilities to stop being used by 2025. This is a good change, however, the company will still source their pork from gestation crates, however they have also pledged to phase these out in 2012.
The company has also tried out different variations of the classic restaurant/drive-thru style. They have tried out McDrive’s, which are primarily drive-thru, and they have also done McCafé’s, that are styled around traditional “café styled” establishments. It is really interesting to see that even after all of this company’s long-lived commercial success, they are not entirely out of ideas yet.
It is always really fun to look back at the history of things that are ginormous in market value, and to see that they came from somewhat humble beginnings. It gives people hope that if they have an idea for something, they should not just give up on it, try it out and see if you can make it work, and if it does, then you are in business.
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