Mcdonalds Influence On American Culture

America has a wide variety of identifiers; however, one thing in particular that stands out is America’s interest in fast food. During the mid-20th century, the McDonald brothers opened their first drive-through McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino, California. The drive-through was significant because at the time “the number of single-parent families and the number of women working outside the home have increased greatly” which means that people did not have time to go home and cook a homemade meal every day (Ritzer). When Ray Kroc came across the McDonald brother’s restaurant in 1954, he saw a gold mine and wanted to invest (Ray Kroc Businessman). He came up with a moneymaking concept, later known as franchising, where he would open the

The McDonald’s brothers saw this expansion as too big for their liking; therefore, they suggested a price for “the corporation to buy them out” (KROC, RAY). The next part of Ray Kroc’s expansion was finding workers, and he later “learned [that] large numbers of part-time, low-wage, teenage workers” would help do the trick (KROC, RAY). He taught them how to work at his franchises with his idea of “Hamburger University” which taught the teenagers important life lessons as well as how to keep his restaurants going (The Ray Kroc Story). Some of these lessons included teaching “adolescents to show up on time, wash their hands, smile, make a neat appearance, and to ask with great expectation” (Falvey). To increase the number of franchises, the corporation “demanded little out-front money from [the] franchisees and relied instead on a percentage of each franchisee’s sales” which basically limited the initial cost while still making money for the corporation and for the franchise (Ritzer). Moreover, Ray Kroc wanted the corporation to be efficient and predictable; therefore, he proposed a concept known as the “3-legged stool: one leg was McDonald’s franchisees; the second, McDonald’s suppliers; and the third, McDonald’s employees” (The Ray Kroc Story). This concept kept all franchises as similar as possible to the original McDonalds allowing people to enjoy the same restaurant in different places

In addition to the brother’s pursuing an expansion, several investors attempted to fund the growth of the company; however, they lacked the knowledge needed to help the company succeed. One important decision that Ray Kroc made was not allowing the corporation to “[sell] territorial rights [because he believed that it would] undermine franchisers’ control” (Naim). This basically means that McDonald’s did not just assign franchise owners a territory to create their McDonald’s in. Rather, McDonald’s told people where they wanted a new restaurant opened, and the franchise owner had to make the restaurant at that location. Kroc, as well, formulated a massive decision to only “assign one franchise [store location] at a time to limit how many stores a licensee could operate and to create consistency in the McDonald’s brand” (Naim). This authorized the franchise owner to only operate one store in its beginning stage which allowed the owner to understand how the restaurant would