McDonald’s Evolution

McDonald’s has grown a lot over the years. But people might not know how much it has? Well, in this report people can find out!

How It Started

McDonald’s started on the 15th of May 1940. In 1937, a man named Patrick McDonald opened "The Airdrome", a food stand, on Huntington Drive (Route 66) near the Monrovia Airport in Monrovia, California. One of the first items sold was Hot Dogs. Hamburgers were later added to the menu at a cost of ten cents with all-you-can-drink orange juice at five cents. The restaurant was later renamed "McDonald's Bar-B-Que" and had twenty-five menu items, mostly barbecue. Then in 1955 Ray Kroc opened his first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois (near Chicago) and the McDonald's Corporation was created. McDonald’s has had about 15 logos over the years. The one that they use now created in 2006 and has been going for over 11 years!

About Ray Kroc

McDonald’s was founded by Ray Kroc on the 15th of April 1955. Kroc was born on October 5, 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois, near Chicago. He grew up and spent most of his life in Oak Park. During World War I, he lied about his age and became a Red Cross ambulance driver at 15. Kroc opened the first franchised McDonald's, Inc. in Des Plaines, Illinois. Kroc remained active in Des Plaines until the end of his life, frequently phoning the manager of the store across the street to remind him to clean his restaurant properly. The Des Plaines location boomed, bringing in hundreds of dollars on its opening day. Ray died on the 14th January 1984 in San Diego, California, United States.

How it has evolved

McDonald’s has grown a lot over the years. It started out just being a small building that looked like a stand. That was called ‘The Airdrome.’ The menu was a small menu selling Hot Dogs as one of their main item as well as hamburgers!! They later on removed hot dogs and added French Fries, Milk, Milkshakes (with flavours of Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla), Root beer, Orangeade, Coca Cola and Coffee!

McDonald’s has also had a lot of characters/mascots such as everyone’s favourite clown, Ronald McDonald! But there are more characters than just him! For example, those pictures of furry monsters in the play pen. But there is one special character by the name of ‘Speedee.’ He was created because of the drive-thru! The drive-thru was originally made to speed things up, that’s why Speedee was created.  Speedee was the mascot before Ronald McDonald. Ronald McDonald was created in 1963. He has been a lot of kids favourite clown since!

McDonald’s has ha about 16 logo’s across the many amazing years. The logo they are using now was created in 2006.

McDonald’s has built over 31,000 restaurants in 180 countries!

McDonald’s Problems

McDonald’s has run into a lot of problems over the years but their main problem was in 2002. In 2002 McDonald’s was building too many restaurants across the globe that they didn’t have enough money to keep their other restaurants clean.

In conclusion, McDonald’s is not perfect like you thought, nothing is. It’s just a normal business growing by the second.