McDonald’s Celebrates Fifty Years Of Fast Food

On April 15th many people around the country were too busy finishing up their tax returns to take time to make lunch, so they stopped at a McDonald’s to grab a burger and fries. What they may not have realized was that Friday marked the 50th anniversary of the day that Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald’s in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines, IL. The "golden arches" of McDonald’s have been a staple of the American landscape for half a century now, succeeding by continually finding new ways to grow and change to adapt to a growing and changing society.

In 1955, Ray Kroc was a milkshake machine salesman living in Des Plaines. Two brothers in San Bernadino, California, Maurice and Richard McDonald, bought 10 milkshake mixing machines for their hamburger stand. Their purchase piqued the curiosity of Kroc, who traveled to San Bernadino, California, to find out why the McDonald brothers had bought the machines. There he discovered a revolutionary method of preparing food quickly and he decided he wanted to try to replicate the system all over the country. So Kroc bought exclusive franchise rights to their business and returned to Des Plaines, where he began to use the Speedee Service System to start a small chain of hamburger stands. His first restaurant opened on April 15, 1955, and his second opened in San Bernadino, CA, three months later. Kroc’s business boomed quickly, and eventually developed into a fast-food empire containing over 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries, serving nearly 50 million people a day. In fact, the golden arches of McDonald’s are a trademark symbol of the United States all over the world. The company’s revenues in 2004 hit $19.1 billion.

According to James Schrager, clinical professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, the success of McDonald's restaurants is primarily due to the company’s continual pursuit of new ways to grow—from adding a breakfast menu in 1977 to shifting to 24-hour service in many locations. According to Schrager, "All growth will end, and McDonald's has cheated that law time and time again. They are one of the few companies that has taken its original innovation and continued to find new ways to do things differently."

McDonald's celebrated its anniversary Friday by opening a new restaurant at 600 N. Clark, on the site of the former Rock 'n' Roll McDonald's. The new restaurant adds its own signature to the Chicago skyline with 60-foot golden arches that evoke McDonald's restaurants of the past. But while the arches look retro, the restaurant itself is definitely 21st century throughout. The two-story building is over 24,000 square feet in size, with seating for 300 diners and escalators to move people around. The front counter is 40 feet long with 10 cash registers, and the second floor has a coffee center and dessert counter. The interior is divided into eating "zones" referred to as the Kitchen, Living Room, Family Room, Dining Room, and Medica Room. The parking lot offers 69 parking spaces and a two-lane drive-through window, covered by a canopy modeled exactly after that of the first McDonald’s restaurant.

Although McDonald’s has come under fire in recent years by critics who oppose globalization and the evil influence of fast food on burgeoning American waistlines, the company’s domestic sales have grown for 23 consecutive months and its stock has doubled. The vastness of the company’s success has created opportunities for millions of people for over 50 years, and it looks like it will continue to do so for another half century.