McDonalds in the fifties

After reading through the chapter on McDonald's in The Fifties, David Halberstam's huge book which the T.A.'s have been carrying around with them, I thought some of the original goals of the McDonald brothers and Ray Kroc would be interesting to note in comparison to the ideals championed in the modern era of fast food. One of the first things which caught my eye was the McDonald Brother's close eye for changing social trends- they realized that the world was becoming a faster place, and they knew their customers would appreciate the quickest service possible. This led them to do away with carhops, the waitresses who would bring the food out to the family vehicle. They also sold hamburgers simply because it was the bulk of their business and they were desperate to streamline as much as possible.

This is the point where things get interesting. They were the first food chain to mechanize the assembly process for their food, enlisting a friend of theirs with inventing experience to craft custom machines which measured the perfect amount of meat in each patty and the perfect amount of ketchup, mustard and pickles on each burger. Making the move to paper plates and silverware allowed them to stop washing dishes, another time and money saver. The McDonald brothers also began using infrared lights to keep the food warm, which allowed the less busy times of the day to be used preparing for the rush hours. All these changes can be seen as Henry Ford's mechanized assembly line finding a new home in the burger business.

Another interesting note is McDonald's early focus on being a family restaurant. They did not allow women to be the cashiers because they would flirt too much and attract idle teenage boys who would scare away families. They also removed the condiment station from their restaurant in order to eliminate the messiest part of the operation.


What influenced the policies of McDonald's more than anything else, however, was the institutionalization of methodology brought on by Ray Kroc. He initially learned of their amazing success through his previous job selling milkshake mixing machines to restaurants, but even those were modified to suit McDonald's specific needs. Within a very short while Kroc became the head of franchising for the brothers, who were more concerned with their original store.

Kroc's obsession with cleanliness and standardization marked the beginning of an era- even after hundreds of McDonalds had began operating in the country, he would still walk from his office in McDonald headquarters down to the nearest restaurant, picking up McDonald's garbage on his way to help them close the store properly. Even after becoming a millionaire, he would still patrol the tables for unused salt and ketchup packets which could be re-stocked. It was also Kroc's idea to place them primarily in suburban neighborhoods, which he viewed as safeguarded from the young, roaming deviants he disliked hanging around their stores.

in 1958, Kroc discovered a McDonald's in California was selling their burgers at 19 cents a piece instead of the standard 15, which led him to mistrust "non-conformists" and made this demand to conform: "You cannot give them an inch. The organization cannot trust the individual; the individual must trust the organization or he shouldn't go into this kind of business." This incident lead him to temporarily stop new franchising operations in all of California, believing it to be a home for deviancy.

to close this discussion of early Mcdonald's values, i simply present some facts- thirty-seven years after Kroc took over franchising, 8,600 McDonald's existed in the US and 12,000 more outside the country. Clearly, Kroc's influence on the way we view food is staggering.