The company McDonald’s is a global icon for American fast food. Its name is an acronym for “McDonald’s Corporation,” and the company was founded in San Bernardino, California, in 1940 by brothers Maurice and Richard McDonald.
In the early years of the company, the original McDonald’s opened as a drive-in restaurant in Pasadena, California, with an employee known as a carhop. The real McDonald’s restaurants opened in several cities across the United States, and the first franchised restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois. In the mid-1960s, the company reached a total of 20,000 locations.
In the 1970s, the company was still in its infancy, so there wasn’t a place for breakfast. But that did not prevent Kroc from opening up his own franchised restaurant in Philadelphia, which helped the company expand its business internationally. By 1984, the McDonald brothers had opened their ninth McDonald’s restaurant in New York. The franchised restaurant became a worldwide phenomenon, and the chicken McNugget made its debut.
The founder of the company, Alan D. Feldman, a former Pizza Hut executive, was responsible for the success of the company. He sought ways to improve the system to make it better. For instance, he suggested that buns should be presliced so that they wouldn’t stick together when they were placed in a box. Moreover, he cut the price of hamburgers by twenty-five percent.
After opening its first restaurant in Chicago in 1961, McDonald’s expanded its operations to other cities, including Mexico. The company began advertising heavily to children and opened restaurants in airports and museums. After a few years, the company expanded its operations worldwide, with its headquarters in New York City. And the restaurant chain has more than 400 locations in the United States. The slogan “In business for yourself, but not by yourself” was introduced in the early 1980s.
In 2002, McDonald’s introduced healthier options for its customers. While the original hamburger was a bad choice for health-conscious consumers, the company has responded by offering salads and smoothies. But the burgers were still bad for the company. It was the lawsuits that led to the changes in the company’s menu. Fortunately, the new menu is now more varied and healthier than ever. The restaurant has taken action to respond to these lawsuits, which are now aimed at changing its image and increasing the nutritional value of the food they offer.
In a report published in 2018, McDonald’s is the world’s second-largest private company employing 1.7 million employees (behind Walmart with 2.3 million employees). By the year 2020 McDonald’s holds the highest rank of ninth globally valued brand.