A) McDonald’s – one of the most widespread companies in the

world 3

B) McDonald’s

I. Establishment of the first McDonald’s restaurant 3ff

1. Foundation and development of the successful

concept 3f

b) The first try for building up a franchising chain 4

2. The taking-over of the McDonald’s company by Ray

Kroc 4ff

II. Becoming a global institution 7ff

1. Hamburger University – an important McDonald’s

institution 7f

2. The world -wide expansion

III. History of McDonald’s in Germany

IV. Regulations for McDonald’s food

1. The retention of the quality

2. The nutritional value

3. Regulations for McDonald’s burgers

V. McDonald’s advertising – a short survey 12

C) McDonald’s – not only a fast-food-restaurant, but also a charitable

organization 12f

D) Bibliography 14f

E) Appendix (Page 1 – 6) 16

F) Declaration 17

3

McDonald’s – one of the most widespread companies in the

Going for a walk through a deserted alley in the city at night, watching the stars shining above, it might not seldom happen that you notice a yellow glow from behind a corner. When having curiously turned around it, perceiving a creepy loud rumbling, you spot that the glow comes from a big shining “M” floating in the air. The symbol becomes bigger and bigger the nearer you walk towards it, your pulse rises and having finally reached the “M” you open the door of the McDonald’s restaurant and enter to have a burger to stop the rumbling of your stomach.

Meanwhile, there is a McDonald’s in every big city at nearly every corner. No wonder: already 743 McDonald’s restaurants exist solely in Germany 1 , 3,240 in Europe and 21,022 all over the world, namely in 109 countries on earth ( see “Anlage 1”: “International openings”), that is “75 Prozent aller Länder unserer Erde” ( all standings: December 1996) 2 . Annually about 2,500 to 3,200 restaurants can be added, “das heißt ungefähr alle 3 ½ Stunden wird ein neues Restaurant auf unserem Globus eröffnet” 3 . But where does McDonald’s originally come from?

Establishment of the first McDonald’s restaurant

Foundation and development of the successful concept

It all began in 1930, when the brothers Maurice “Mac” and Richard “Dick” McDonald moved from New Hampshire to San Bernardino, California, with the aim of trying their

1 Nach McDonald‘s Pressemitteilung „McDonald‘s und seine Franchisenehmer“, S. 1

2 McDonald‘s Entwicklung 1996, S. 22

3 ebd.

4

items” 4 instead of 25 “(hamburger, cheeseburger, three soft-drink flavors, milk, coffee, potato chips, (...) pie, (...) french fries and milkshakes)” 5 lowering the price for a hamburger by half “to just 15 cents” 6 and they reconstructed the kitchen to make it fit for mass production. Furthermore they introduced a new company symbol (a little hamburger man called “Speedee” [see “Welcome to McDonald’s”, page 2/3]), plastic dishes and self-service instead of car-hops. With this concept being successful the McDonald brothers were pioneers both of McDonald’s and the fast- food-industry, which became the quintessence for the American way of life later.

With business going on well Dick and Mac chose Neil Fox as their first franchisee to manage a drive- in restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, now provided with the company symbol of the “Golden Arches” designed by the marketing- man Richard McDonald, and they also sold franchises to Sacramento soon in order to build up a chain. “For as little as a thousand dollars, franchisees would receive the McDonald’s name, a basic description of their Speedy Service System, and the services of Art Bender, their original counterman at the new restaurant, for a week or two to get them started” 7 . But the brothers soon realised that franchising was not very profitable and for this reason they gave up their plans for building up a chain.

The taking -over of the McDonald’s company by Ray Kroc

A phrenologist had predicted that at that time four-

4 Welcome to McDonald’s, S. 7

5 ebd.

6 ebd.

7 ebd.

8 Welcome to McDonald’s, S. 8

5

Bernardino, at the age of 52, to visit the brothers McDonald, who had bought eight of his mixers “, which could mix five shakes at once (...) [,so they had the] capacity to churn forty milk shakes at one time” 9 , which means they obviously made more than 20,000 shakes a month. All those facts excited Kroc’s curiosity. Arriving at the McDonald’s restaurant in California at lunch-time, Ray saw numerous people walking in and out, “buying bags of burgers and fries” 10 and, despite the enormous rush, being served promptly.

At that time Kroc realised that he had found a new form of catering trade, which supplied people with quickly obtainable and rather cheap meals of top quality. Raymond’s comment was: “That night in my motel room (...) visions of McDonald’s restaurants dotting crossroads all over the country paraded through my brain.” 11 Richard and Maurice McDonald answered Kroc’s question if they wanted to build up a franchise chain with a straight “no” on account of their bad experiences of franchising and, moreover, because they were satisfied with their yearly earnings of $ 100,000 and did not want to take the risk of sustaining any losses. But Ray was convinced that his idea would be a great success and so he finally talked the brothers into giving him exclusive U.S. franchising rights. On the recommendation of Kroc the franchising fee for a restaurant was degraded to $ 950 and the commission on every restaurant amounted to 1.9 percent, from which Mac and Dick McDonald got 0.5 percent, so obviously none of all three made great receipts from it. Differently from the original concept which the brothers McDonald had used for their franchising system, the “franchise owners [were not provided with] their equipment, their supplies, or their food. The company did, however, purchase or lease much of the real estate the restaurants were located on, a program that soon produced a valuable competitive asset in its own right” 12 . Nevertheless, Kroc took a great risk by reaching this arrangement with the brothers, as, if his plans failed, he and his wife, Ethel, would have to face a hard struggle for existence. Having no alternative, because his current employer “Prince Castle Multimixer” seemed to become bankrupt due to the rivalry with other companies of the same trade, and as he was too old to look for a new job, Ray’s only possibility was to work hard and to support the franchisees to get as many earnings as attainable. To be successful “Kroc formed the new franchising company on March 2, 1955 under the name of McDonald’s System, Inc.” 13 and, already

9 Ray Kroc and the Fast Food Industry, S. 1f

10 Welcome to McDonald’s, S. 8 11 Ray Kroc and the Fast Food Industry, S. 2 12 Welcome to McDonald’s, S. 8 13 ebd.