When 1 McDonald's was opened. The story of the McDonald's brothers and their famous brand

Let's start with the correct spelling and pronunciation of the company name. In Russia, the McDonald's trademark is used without a soft sign. This can be easily checked if you go to the official website of the company in Russia. For example, in Belarus, McDonald's is officially written with a soft sign.

Ray Kroc is the man who founded McDonald's. At the moment when the fate of the future food giant was being decided, its founder was 52 years old, and his health was no longer happy.

Raymond Kroc himself did not invent anything, except perhaps the future concept of the McDonald's franchise company. All the cooking standards and technologies used by McDonald's establishments were invented by two brothers, Maurice (Mac) and Richard (Dick) MacDonald. But the company's success is increasingly associated with the name Ray Kroc. How did it happen?

Ray Kroc: childhood and adolescence

The future founder of the famous corporation was born on October 5, 1902 in the suburbs of Chicago (Illinois). Louis Kroc is the head of the family and part-time father of Ray, from the age of 12, he worked in a company that specialized in money transfers. Rose Kroc, the mother of the future entrepreneur, was a housewife. In addition to Ray, the family had two more children - sister Lauren and brother Robert.

Louis Kroc was an avid baseball fan, and he followed the Chicago Tiger Cubs especially closely. He infected his eldest son with this hobby, and later, at the peak of his success, Ray bought the famous baseball club "San Diego Padres".

The Krok family did not have huge funds at their disposal. To supplement the family budget, his mother often gave piano lessons (she also taught Ray this skill, which later helped him find additional work).

Part of the housework in the absence of the mother fell on the eldest son, mainly cleaning. My grandmother also helped with the housework. It is known that she carefully monitored order and cleanliness in the house, inheriting this quality later, Ray will set a high bar for cleanliness among the diners.

Interesting fact: after washing the floors, my grandmother covered them with newspapers so that they were always clean. The newspapers lay on the floor until the next cleaning.

Louis Kroc tried to give his children a complete education. Ray was not keen on his studies. Often, he just lay on the bed in thought. He later explained it this way:

Competitors may steal my plans, but they will never be able to read my mind. If so, I will always be miles ahead of them.

First job

From the elementary grades he was attracted by trade. Sometimes, instead of studying, he helped his uncle sell soda.

In high school, Ray Kroc and friends rents a cubicle for $ 25. There they sell sheet music and musical instruments. Ray entertained customers with playing the piano, songs in his own performance. But the sales were very poor, because almost no one knew about the existence of the store. The idea soon failed and they had to close.

Ray was known to be an excellent public speaker, which contributed to his future career. After all, basically, this quality helped to convince the intractable McDonald brothers to sign a contract, as well as future franchisees (people who bought the rights to use the McDonald's trademark). Oratorical qualities began to form and develop precisely in childhood, when the boy worked in trade.

How the founder of McDonald's started: the first successes

In 1917, he deceived himself, having thrown himself several years, went to war, where he later became a driver of an ambulance for the Red Cross.

Fun fact: during World War I Croc served in the same regiment with Walt Disney.

At the end of the war, Croc returns to Chicago. Yielding to the persuasions of his parents, against his will, he continues his studies. But this imposed hobby does not last long, after a semester he quits his studies and becomes a street vendor.

At that time (in the early 20s), the Crock family moved to New York, which was a real blow for Ray, because he already had a relationship with the girl Ethel Fleming, with whom they were going to get married. But soon the family returned to their homeland. The parents of the beloved set the conditions according to which Ray needed to find a stable job. This is how the King of Fast Food started his career at Lily Cup selling paper cups. In 1922 the young people got married, and in 1924 their daughter Marilyn was born.

Ray had to work harder to feed his wife and daughter. He sold paper cups during the day and played the piano in the evening. Later, he was even recognized as the best dealer in the company and was promoted.

In 1930, Ray's father died of a cerebral hemorrhage. In those years, the stock market collapsed - all assets of Louis Kroc depreciated, he could not survive this blow.

Mixers implementation

In the late 1930s, engineer Prince invented a mixer that could make 5 cocktails at the same time. Kroc decides to found a mixer sales company, leaving his previous job and losing his regular income. His wife did not support his undertaking, a cold set in the relationship. But Ray Kroc's rule is:

If you do not like to take risks, you should not meddle in business.

In 1939 he registers his Malt-A-Mixer mixer sales company. His firm contained two employees: a secretary (June Martineau), who later became a co-owner of McDonald's and the first woman to be allowed to trade on the New York stock exchange, and Ray Kroc himself. He traveled around the country and sold mixers.

The founders of McDonald's (Dick and Mac McDonald's) began their work with an ordinary cafe. It was located in Arcadia, a city in the state of California. Since this city is not crowded, the brothers decided to move to San Bernardino. But there was no money for a new building. An ingenious idea was invented, the brothers decided to move the building from Arcadia to San Bernardino. But on the way there was a problem - a bridge over the road. And here, too, the brothers showed ingenuity, deciding to saw the building in half.

In the first half of the 20th century, places called dry-in were popular in America. They were designed in such a way as to serve customers who stay in the car.

Dick and Mack decided to follow new trends, namely, they opened a cafe for motorists of the type of drive-in. In the new establishment, everything was arranged according to the latest trends: 27 items on the menu, waitresses in uniforms brought the order to the car. The cafe became wildly popular, but sales soon began to fall. There were several problems:

• hooligans on motorcycles scaring away other visitors;
• confusion in orders;
• extra spending on wages;
• the cost of replacing dishes (in establishments of this type, it was often fought).

The brothers noticed that the lion's share of the profits, namely 87 percent, came from three items: hamburgers, fries, soda. It was decided to revise the menu and remove a dozen unnecessary items. Continuing to eliminate the shortcomings of the established institution, the founders of McDonald's:

• replaced ordinary dishes with paper;
• the waitresses were removed, thereby completely abandoning the idea of ​​a drive-in, now customers had to approach the checkout themselves;
• removed vending machines with cigarettes (reducing the number of unwanted guests);
• distributed the functions of cooking among kitchen workers.

The key to building a diner

But the MacDonald did not stop there either, they wanted to reduce the waiting time from 30 minutes to 30 seconds. To do this, it was necessary to close the cafe, making a profit, and arrange the redevelopment of the building. Dick and Mack were tennis fans, so they had their own court, with the help of which the redevelopment was carried out. A floor plan was drawn on it, taking into account all parameters and zones (cooking and assembling hamburgers, side dishes, etc.)

Later, employees of the institution were invited to the tennis court. They were told to pretend they were cooking in the building. As a result of this simulation, the kitchen was redrawn several times until the work and the occupied space were fully optimized (this took about 6 hours).

This plan has been implemented. Not without difficulties, but after a while McDonald's won the hearts of customers, gaining more and more popularity in its town.

The owners of McDonald's easily let everyone they meet and ask them about the secrets of their restaurant. And if anyone was surprised, the brothers shrugged their shoulders: “Our restaurant has transparent walls. Naturally, the idea was stolen from them more than once, but no one was able to repeat the success.

Ray Kroc's acquaintance with the McDonald brothers

One day he met the MacDonald brothers. At a time when the sale of mixers was on the decline, someone ordered 8 at once. He was very surprised, because if each mixer was preparing 5 cocktails at the same time, who needed to make 40 cocktails at the same time. Ray thought it was a mistake, but the order was confirmed. It was after this that he decided to go to the city of San Bernandino, from where the order was made, marked McDonald's.

Arriving, he saw a huge line for 15 cents hamburgers. He drew attention to the unusually fast service system. The same system, invented by the brothers, still exists in all the restaurants of the chain. Despite the huge number of people, the service was efficient and fast.

Another feature of their establishment was that customers themselves approached the cashiers and ordered what they needed. This is how a partial self-service system was created. There were no flies or debris on the premises. The brothers cleaned it themselves so as not to spend money on a cleaner.

Learning that this is the same supplier of mixers, the McDonald's invited him to the kitchen. Ray saw an open kitchen with a conveyor belt that cooked almost all of the dishes on the menu. The small number of names also surprised him. But everything was very thoughtful and was much cheaper than in similar restaurants. All the dishes were paper and disposable, which was also financially beneficial.

Ray realized: now or never. “I was 52 years old. I had diabetes and arthritis. They cut out my gallbladder and most of my thyroid gland. But I believed that I would be able to change a lot in my life, ”he recalled.

Start of cooperation

Croc invited them to sell the franchise. But Dick and Mack were not overwhelmingly happy with the idea, as they had already tried to start activities in this direction, but it failed. 5 restaurants opened under a franchise, but the difficulty lay in controlling the quality of food and cleanliness of the establishment, an inconsistent menu (at that time, entrepreneurs thought that if you buy a franchise, then you have the right to do whatever you want with it, regardless of the contract).

He offered himself to them as an agent for a franchise company. Not immediately, but they agreed to sell him the right to distribute a franchise worth 15 thousand dollars for 10 years. But he didn't have that kind of money.

Infected with the idea of ​​the brothers, the future founder of McDonald's tried to borrow money from the bank. However, he was denied a loan. He took a rather desperate step - mortgaged the house and insurance. An agreement was signed with Mac and Dick, according to which Croc could sell McDonald's franchises, while receiving 1.9% of the commission, of which 0.5% was intended for the brothers.

After that, the McDonald's empire was created, and Kroc himself earned about $ 600 million with more than 30 thousand restaurants around the world. However, he is known not so much as a brilliant manager, as a person who changed the approach to mass nutrition.

First sales of the McDonald's franchise

A bit of theory on the topic of franchising relationships.

1. Franchising is a way of organizing entrepreneurial activity, in the course of which the franchisee, for a certain fee, receives the right (license) to use a trademark and its technologies.
2. A franchisor is an owner company that transfers the right (license) to use a trademark and its technologies.
3. A franchisee is a person or company that acquires the right (license) to use a trademark and its technologies.
4. Lump-sum payment - represents a one-time start-up payment of the franchisee in the form of a fixed amount specified in the contract. The 15 thousand dollars that Kroc paid was a lump-sum installment.
5. Royalty is a regular payment for using a brand. Royalty in our history stands for 1.9 percent of franchisee revenue.

And so, having believed in this project and mortgaged his house, Ray Kroc set off with a developed proposal and the name of McDonald’s on a tour across the country. The existing franchising system has existed in the United States for quite a long time, since the arrival of the Zinger company (manufacturing of sewing machines). Ray Kroc just added a couple of his touches.

The franchise was sold as follows: there was only one restaurant per city. Ray Kroc established a strict rule that a license was given to one person for one restaurant, for a period of 20 years. The license cost reached $ 950 (flat fee), and franchisees had to pay 1.9% (royalties) of the restaurant's proceeds (1.4% to themselves, the rest 0.5% to McDonald's).

Everyone who bought a license had to meet the high requirements of the company both in terms of quality and in terms of service and logistics of goods.

The rules and strict control established by him did not allow the franchisee to deviate from the original agreements. To those who met all the standards, Ray sold the rights to open other restaurants under the McDonald's trademark. The perpetrators lost their only restaurant after the expiration of the franchise agreement.

Difficulties encountered

Thanks to this approach, Croc managed to sell only 18 franchises in the first year. Many were scared off by the company's requirements and the terms of ownership of the license. Those who did buy the rights were Kroc's wealthy acquaintances who were of little interest in this business. Accordingly, there was a lot of confusion in the first franchised McDonald's, and dishes from other national cuisines appeared on the menu.

Naturally, this could not please Kroc, who wanted to introduce a unified universal approach and did not know how to enlighten the future owners of the business and the carriers of its ideas.

Later, Ray began to carefully select future partners for the role of the owner of a McDonald's restaurant. The first elected was Chicago journalist Sanford Agatha, who had some savings and a desire to start his own business. Croc, naturally, persuaded him to buy the franchise. It was decided to build the restaurant building from scratch. Kroc persuaded the owner to lease the land on which the establishment was going to be built, for only 5 percent of the turnover of their future enterprise.

On the opening day, long queues lined up at the new cafe, and the proceeds could no longer fit in the cashier. The owner of the land was surprised a lot when the restaurant began to bring in superprofits and regretted that it had made such a bargain. This was an excellent PR campaign, a poor journalist got out of rags to riches.

Gradually, the number of young and ambitious entrepreneurs under the McDonald's brand grew.

How McDonald's Corporation was created

Raymond Kroc used to say that he doesn't sell hamburgers, he sells a business. He considered the strictest unification to be another key to success. Products and their appearance, color, taste must match the original in all states, the client should not feel the difference. As an agent for the McDonald's franchise company, he meticulously enforced standards.

He had a special relationship with cleanliness. A huge part of the provisions of the instructions for the franchisee was devoted to cleaning. For example, windows must be cleaned daily, refrigeration equipment and ventilation grilles must be cleaned every two days, and ceilings must be cleaned every week.

Kroc gathered a team of professionals around him, he was able to discern talents and attract them to his work. An example is his secretary June Martino, who eventually becomes a co-owner of McDonald's and the first woman to be allowed to trade on the New York stock exchange.

Fred Turner also serves as an excellent example of Kroc's foresight, starting his career as a simple worker in the kitchen, he will rise to the president of the corporation and chairman of the board of directors. Harry Sonneborn, whom they met by chance at the bank, became the chief financier of the company and later became the first president and CEO of the McDonald's corporation.

McDonald's System, Inc

In 1955, Kroc, without the consent of the McDonald brothers, registered McDonald's System, Inc. (renamed McDonald's Corporation in 1960). She was also involved in distributing franchises and leasing land.

Sonneborn helped with the registration of the company. He also came up with an ingenious idea for a sublease, which allowed him to take control of the real estate industry and untied Krok's hands. The company bought or leased land or buildings for a fixed amount, then subleased them to the franchisee, receiving a certain percentage of the sales for this.

Disagreements between Kroc and the McDonald brothers

Raymond Kroc was constantly looking for some kind of improvement, additional income, or an opportunity to reduce costs. But under the contract, Kroc had no right to change even the slightest detail of the restaurant or menu without their written consent. And they never agreed to anything.

An example is the Pepsi-Cola logo. Ray suggested placing the logo of this company at the bottom of the menu, banners, flyers, in order to generate additional income. But Dick and Mack refused, citing the fact that McDonald's was created as a family company, advertising inside it would be superfluous.

Another interesting proposal was the innovation in the preparation of cocktails. Milkshakes were made from ice cream, the storage of which greatly increased the electricity bill. He suggested using instant powders instead of milk and ice cream, which would significantly reduce the cost of raw materials and storage, and also reduce the preparation time. But the brothers also refused, saying that milkshakes are unnecessary without ice cream.

After regularly rejecting offers to change, Kroc successfully met Harry Sonneborn, whom I mentioned above. He offered to engage in the purchase of land plots, their turnover and lease out to franchisees, who, according to the terms of the agreement, can only lease land plots from an agent of a franchising company, that is, only from Raymond. Thus, it was possible to achieve several goals at once:

1. Get a constant direct stream of income, money will start coming in even before the foundation is laid.
2. Get more capital for expansion, which you can use to acquire new land in the future.
3. Gaining full control over all franchisees

Sonneborn found investors to pursue these goals.

Sale of the company

Later, Raymond forces the MacDonald to sell the company. They bid $ 2.7 million, clearly overpriced given the current state of the company, and 1% of the company's profits indefinitely. And also in the conditions it was said that the brothers will receive a restaurant in San Bernardino as a gift, though under a different name. The contract did not specify the terms of the percentage of profits in order to avoid financial delays. The percentage was negotiated through a handshake and Croc's promise, which he certainly did not keep.

There were 228 restaurants in the country, they earned 75 million in the previous year, but the net profit of Kroc's company was only $ 77 thousand with debts of five and a half million. There was no necessary amount to buy the trademark, and the banks refused to lend, not considering the chain of cheap restaurants seriously.

Accountant Richard Boylan helped turn the deal. He came up with the idea of ​​inscribing land and buildings in the company's "assets" that did not belong to them, but which they, having rented from landowners, gave to their franchisees. And in "income" - the projected rise in real estate prices. Thus, McDonald's income, at least on paper, quadrupled in an instant.

Later, Harry Sonneborn again finds creditors. To give the money to the brothers, Ray Kroc's company had to borrow the required amount from the Bristol Group, and in return it was paid 0.5% of the gross proceeds of all McDonald's restaurants. According to the calculations, the payments should have ended in 1991, but by 1972 it was possible to fully pay for this loan.

After the deal took place, Raymond bought a building next to the brothers' restaurant, which was already called "Big M". By this time, McDonald's was already a serious trademark. For several years (1968) McDonald's San Bernardino pushed Big M out of business. Dick and Mack were forced to close it and sell the unique octagonal building for demolition.

The first university to study hamburgerology was opened by Ray Kroc in 1961 in Illinois. There were 14 people in the very first grade, now the number of graduates is 275 thousand around the world. Students study company standards and McDonald's restaurant management principles. Today there are 7 such educational institutions in the world, one of which is located in Moscow.

McDonald's is one of the largest property owners in the world. Every day, 1% of the world's population dines at McDonald's restaurants.

Croc died of heart failure in a hospital in San Diego, California on January 14, 1984, at the age of 81. $ 500 million is the amount Kroc possessed at the time of his death. In 1992, the autobiography of Ray Kroc was published. In 2016, the film "The Founder" is released, which tells about the difficult path to success of the chief restaurateur in the United States. He was named among the "100 Most Important People of the Century" by Time magazine.

After fifty years, life is just beginning! Such a statement seems incredible, and yet it is possible. And confirmation of this is the story of the seller of paper cups, mixers, who at 52 began to build an empire that has grown throughout the world. It's about Ray Kroc, the founder of the international fast food chain McDonald's.

Surprisingly, Ray Kroc was neither the inventor of the concept of fast food, nor the founder of the first McDonald's restaurant, nor even the author of the legendary golden arches. The story of starting a business seems incredible. He owes his success to his own perseverance and enterprise.

Reference: today the McDonald’s restaurant chain consists of more than 37 thousand establishments around the world, more than 100 billion hamburgers have been sold. More than 30 thousand people came to the opening of the first McDonald's restaurant in Moscow in January 1990.

Read how Ray Kroc was able to build a multi-billion dollar empire on someone else's idea.

How did the "founder" start?

The future founder of the McDonald's empire, Ray (Raymond Albert) Croc, was born in the suburbs of Chicago on October 5, 1902. His father, Louis Kroc, worked all his life at Western Union, trying to give a decent education to his children: Ray, his younger brother Bob, sister Lauren.

However, the younger children studied with much greater desire than Ray. Education did not suit him. In McDonald's. How an empire was created ”the entrepreneur says that he did not like to read books, it seemed to him too boring. But he was very fond of dreaming, thinking, acting.

“My family teased me as a 'dreamer' - after all, even when I was in the last grades of school, I came home delighted with the plan I had come up with or the drawing I had drawn. I never thought that dreams are a waste of energy, as long as they lead to certain actions. "

The biography of Ray Kroc is replete with all kinds of undertakings, the future founder throughout his life worked somewhere: in a grocery store, in a pharmacy, in his uncle's music store during his school years.

He says that "work is the meat in the hamburger of life."

He sold coffee beans, small haberdashery, worked as a driver of the Red Cross ambulance, for this he had to lie - to exaggerate his age.

It is interesting: Another person who hid his age at the recruiting station was a modest guy who, while other guys were walking around the city, courting girls, sat and drew pictures. His name was Walt Disney.

During his school years, Croc was fond of baseball (later, becoming the "king of fast food", he acquired the baseball club "Padre from San Diego"), played well the piano thanks to the lessons that his mother gave him. In his last school summer, Ray worked as a salesman for lemonade and soft drinks. Even then, he realized that with the help of a smile you can influence people.

He saved all the money he earned, with which he opened the first business with a friend - a small music store. Throwing down a hundred square meters, the friends rented a small closet for $ 25, in which they sold exotic musical instruments and sheet music.

Ray entertained customers with playing the piano, songs in his own performance. But the sales were very poor, because almost no one knew about the existence of the store. A few months later, they had to say goodbye to the business: the friends sold the goods to another store, divided the proceeds and closed. It was the first, but far from the last, business fiasco for Ray Kroc.

He always wanted to sell something and play the piano for money, and in his youth, Ray was an irresistible heartthrob. This explosive mix once led him to nearly get into big trouble playing music in a club that turned out to be a brothel.

He later worked as a stockbroker for a company that later turned out to be a diluted share capital firm. As a result, the firm went bankrupt.

Family, paper cups, mixers

At that time (in the early 20s), the Crock family moved to New York, which was a real blow for Ray, because he already had a relationship with the girl Ethel Fleming, with whom they were going to get married. As a result, the family returned to Chicago again. Ray wanted to marry Ethel, but his father forbade him, said that first he needed to find a job, and more serious than the position of a messenger or bellhop.

In 1922, Ray got a job as a sales rep for the paper cup firm Lily Cup. There were no more objections to the creation of a family from the parents, the young people got married.

The sale of cups went on with a creak. Ray compared this business to a bear that feeds fat all summer and lives off of it in winter. Sales did well only in the summer, but Kroc felt that the paper cups had a lot to do with the way America had developed. In parallel, he worked as a full-time musician at the radio station, where he played in the evenings, after his main work. After night shifts, he walked home, began to undress already on the stairs, and as soon as his head touched the pillow, he was already sound asleep.

“I had big ambitions, I couldn't sit back even for a minute. I firmly decided to get rich in order to afford to have beautiful things, and I must say that earning two jobs gave us this opportunity. "

In 1924, Ray and Ethel had a daughter and had to work even harder. He earned $ 35 a week, and in 1925 he achieved his first successes: he entered into an agreement for the supply of large quantities of glasses to the Walter Powers restaurant. There were other successful projects, and the company raised Croc's salary as a reward for his zeal. So he was able to buy a brand new Ford.

At that time, Ray with his wife and her sister moved for a while to Miami, where he performed with the orchestra and worked as a real estate agent.

In 1930, Ray's father died of a cerebral hemorrhage. In those years, the stock market collapsed - all assets of Louis Kroc depreciated, he could not survive this blow.

Interesting fact: Among his father's yellowed papers, Ray found a phrenologist's account of the interpretation of the bumps on Raymond Kroc's head when he was four years old. According to the report, Kroc would become a cook or his life would be associated with cooking. Amazingly, the prediction came true.

Returning to Chicago, Ray continued to sell paper cups, decided to devote himself only to this business, ceasing to be wasted on various side jobs, until early 1938, when he organized a company selling mixers. His wife did not support his undertaking, a cold set in the relationship.

The starting points for the new business were: a suitcase with a sample of a new multi-mixer, huge ambitions and an entire country in which the owners of soda stands and cocktail bars were waiting for Ray to offer them a product. The newly minted businessman thought so, but he was wrong.

Croc turned into a real mobile team, which consisted of one person - himself. He traveled around the country, offered to buy mixers, rented an office, hired a secretary. The mixer business led Ray to a mortgage on which he had to mortgage his house, a debt of $ 100,000, and a desperate wife.

Who invented McDonalds

In the first half of the 20th century, eateries for motorists, the so-called dry-in, were common in America. Their essence was that motorists drove up to the institution by car to order and receive an order, they did not even need to get out of their cars.

However, such a system had many drawbacks: slow service, costs for waitresses, dishes. This was the first establishment of the brothers Dick (Richard) and Mac (Maurice) McDonald's.

However, its founders decided to modernize the existing system - they came up with a fundamentally different model:

• introduced a self-service system;
• orders were submitted in disposable paper containers;
• the assortment was reduced to a minimum, there were only hamburgers, french fries, drinks - only 9 items;
• all food preparation functions were clearly assigned to the kitchen staff.

The brothers closed the first restaurant and opened a new one according to the described model. Orders were prepared almost instantly, the dishes were disposable, so you could eat anywhere: at home, in the car, on a bench in the park. The idea turned out to be very successful, the demand was huge.

By 1954, with Croc's business relatively stable, he was interested in a small fast food restaurant located in San Bernardino, California. Ray's interest in this restaurant was sparked by the fact that its owners purchased eight mixers. This means that they whipped forty cocktails at a time. It was McDonald's.

Ray Kroc and McDonald's

Arriving in San Bernardino, Ray Kroc met the McDonald brothers. They told him about the business, how everything works, and asked if Kroc knew a person who would help them build the network. Ray got fired up with the idea and replied that he was such a person.

Kroc's original idea was to open a McDonald's chain of restaurants to which he could supply mixers. An agreement was signed with Mac and Dick, according to which Croc could sell McDonald's franchises, while receiving 1.9% of the commission. The brothers were entitled to 1.5% of his share. True, as it turned out, permission to use the name MacDonald was given not only to Croc, but also a dozen other establishments in California, Arizona.

It is interesting: the first McDonald's franchises sold by Ray Kroc cost $ 950. Now their cost in Europe reaches $ 1 million.

The entrepreneur used to say that he is not selling hamburgers, he is selling a business. McDonald's restaurants began to grow by leaps and bounds across America. Kroc gathered a team of professionals around him who helped build the business. He took risks, took out loans, mortgaged all his property, entered into long-term sublease deals, and buy out land plots on which it was planned to build new restaurants.

In 1959, Kroc's own capital was $ 90,000. In 1960, the 200th restaurant was opened. Despite the fact that Ray was completely absorbed in work, his personal life was not left out. He divorced Ethel, leaving her almost all the property. He took such a step for the sake of a new love - a woman named Joni (Joan) Smith, the wife of one of Ray's partners.

However, the new lover could not decide for a divorce for a long time, and Croc was not able to live alone, so he married another woman. And yet in 1969, Ray Kroc married Joni Smith, divorcing his second wife.

In 1961, Croc bought all the rights to McDonald's from the McDonald brothers for $ 2.7 million. This had to be done due to the fact that Dick and Mac were slowing down the development of the network. To give the money to the brothers, Ray Kroc's company had to borrow the required amount from the Bristol Group, and in return it was paid 0.5% of the gross proceeds of all McDonald's restaurants. According to the calculations, the payments should have ended in 1991, but by 1972 it was possible to fully pay for this loan.

In the early 60s, the University of Hamburgerology was founded in Illinois, where students were taught all the intricacies of operating and managing McDonald's restaurants.

On his 70th birthday, Croc donated $ 7.5 million to St. Jude Children's Hospital.

In 1983, McDonald's gross sales reached $ 9 billion a day, and in December of that year, Ray Kroc was named one of the 50 most influential people in American life by Esquire magazine.

The creator of the empire took part in business until the last days, although in recent years he moved in a wheelchair. Croc died of a heart attack at the age of 82. At the time of his death in 1984, his personal fortune was estimated at $ 0.5 billion. In 2016, the movie The Founder was released, which tells how Ray Kroc built the McDonald’s empire.

Brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald's at first did not think to be involved in the restaurant business. They worked as decorators at a film studio until they bought their own cinema. Things were not going well, and the movie was over. The brothers opened a roadside diner for truck drivers.

A small restaurant of the McDonald brothers in the city of San Bernardino (California) was an unremarkable institution in the 40s of the XX century. The restaurant brought its owners a good profit - about 200 thousand dollars a year, and that was fine with them.

The situation changed for the worse when the country began to go through hard times. Changes were needed. The McDonald's decided to fundamentally remake their customer service system. The bottom line was that the restaurant was transferred to almost self-service - the client received an order from a metal counter, and then he himself looked for a free table.

In addition, the McDonald's cut their assortment, leaving only 9 items, which included hamburgers, cheeseburgers, several soft drinks, pies, coffee, and chips. Later there were fries. The owners also completely redesigned the kitchen, turning it into a kind of conveyor belt. Thus, it was possible to cut costs as much as possible, and cut the prices of hamburgers in half - from 30 cents to 15. For competitors, it was a devastating blow.

Thanks to such innovations, by the mid-50s, the owners began to make a profit one and a half times higher than before - about $ 350,000 a year. The restaurant became popular throughout California, and even began to write about it in the newspapers. The McDonald's themselves were quite lazy people, and were in no hurry to somehow expand their business.

This continued until the moment when the very same Ray Krok became interested in the restaurant. Croc was a classic dreamer who dropped out of school at 15. At 52, he tried many activities, but never achieved tangible success.

Once in a McDonald's restaurant, and seeing a long line at the counter, he realized that such a system could work anywhere. Moreover, when the price of a hamburger is 15 cents! The owners were kind of eager to expand their business, but they just didn't want to do it. Thus, Kroc was in the right place at the right time. In 1955 the McDonald's System, Inc. franchise company was opened. Each franchise cost $ 950 over 20 years of use.

The idea was not new - this is how the famous Singer sold his sewing machines. But the McDonald's system promised to be more perfect. Croc was not going to sell franchises to the first person he met, and was looking only for good restaurateurs. The franchise was sold only for the restaurant, and not for the entire state, as was the practice before. It was not easy to achieve success. During the first year, only 18 franchises were sold - large players preferred to buy franchises in certain territories, while small ones feared uncertainty.

This continued until a certain journalist Sanford Agathe acquired one of Croc's franchises. After a few years, Agate managed to earn decent money and buy himself a big house. This was a prime example of the system working, and buyers were seriously interested in this idea. In 1961, Croc decided to buy all the rights to use the trademark from the McDonald brothers. They happily agreed to this offer and set the price - $ 2.7 million.

Kroc did not have that kind of money. It was necessary to look for a loan. Banks, all as one, refused, citing the fact that fast food is an unreliable type of business. Then Ray, together with the company's financier, Harry Sonnenborn, turned to US universities with a request to provide a loan. At first, a preliminary agreement was reached, but then suddenly an unexpected refusal followed.

Sonnerborn early in the morning, without even having time to shave, flew to New York to discuss the reasons for the refusal. The reasons were all the same - the unreliability of fast food as a business. Then Harry uttered his legendary phrase “…. we are in real estate. " And he outlined the essence of the idea. And it consisted in the fact that McDonald’s wanted to slowly acquire, along with the restaurants, the land on which they were located. The company initially leased land at a fixed price for 20 years. The rent was $ 700 a month, which was a lot in those days.

But time passed, inflation grew, and the contract fee remained unchanged - $ 700. Already in the 60s, many land owners literally tore and threw, as $ 700 turned into mere pennies. An interesting point - it was not the company that paid for the land, but the restaurateur himself - the buyer of the franchise. When buying a franchise, he had to make a $ 10,000 deposit. After 10 years, half of the amount was returned to him, and after 20 - the whole. It was these 10 thousand that constituted the first installment of McDonald’s for the land.

Soon Croc and Sonnenborn's Franchise Estate owned more than $ 16 million in assets. Next, it was necessary to get a loan from a bank - a difficult task, since the company had not yet got on its feet properly. Accountant Richard J. Boylan solved the problem by making some changes to the company's reports. At the same time, there was no fraud or wrongdoing - just Richard, who was also a lawyer, contributed to the company's assets the real estate that did not belong to her yet, and indicated this fact in a small note. And since such notes are rarely read, they managed to get a loan.

Croc buys all the rights that use the trademark, and gets complete freedom of action. From that moment on, the business began to grow incessantly, and in 1965 a billion-dollar hamburger was sold, from which a whole show was made. McDonald’s is issuing shares worth $ 22.5 a share. After a few weeks, their price almost doubles. Ray Kroc, who worked for almost ten years without earning a normal income, became a millionaire. In 1996, McDonald's was the first fast food company to enter the New York Stock Exchange. Four years later, the number of restaurants reached 16,000.

In 1975, the first Mac Auto restaurant was opened. Today, they account for half of the company's revenues. At this time, McDonald's owns restaurants in more than 20 countries around the world, and its turnover is $ 2.5 billion. In 1984, Ray Kroc dies - a man who could not boast of capital all his life, but who earned 600 million dollars in 30 years with McDonald’s.

Summing up, we can say that McDonald’s today is the largest restaurant chain around the world. It employs over 450,000 people and has annual revenues of about $ 20 billion. Ray Kroc's dream came true - he really created a company that, above all, cares about customers.

Raymond Albert Kroc (Raymond Albert Kroc, years of age: October 5, 1902 - January 14, 1984 ), abbr. Ray Kroc is an American entrepreneur and founder of McDonald’s, a fast food restaurant chain. For the businessman's contribution to the formation and development of the catering industry, Time magazine in 1998 included him in the TOP-100 of the most significant people of the twentieth century.

The man who personally scraped gum at his first restaurant made a fortune of $ 500 million. Ray Kroc's biography can shame those who complain about unfavorable circumstances. His life story will tell what ingredients the recipe for the "success" dish consists of.

Each person is responsible for all his successes and failures.

SUMMARY BY RAY CROCK

2018 marks the 116th anniversary of the birth of a person who proved by his own example that there is no single “lucky” template. Mr. Croc made his "big jackpot" when he was neither young nor healthy. He had his gallbladder and thyroid gland removed, and he was diagnosed with diabetes and arthritis in the early stages. At the same time, he described his own state optimistically, in the spirit of the phrase "a man in the prime of life":

A scarred veteran, seasoned on the fronts of the business, I was still eager to fight.

A modern employer, looking at the then resume of Ray Kroc, can refuse such a candidate ("goodbye, we will call you"). Indeed, at the time of the fateful decision that led to the creation of a multimillion-dollar fast food empire, Krok was ... 52 years old! Isn't it too late to "rush into battle"?

Let's see what else could be indicated in the summary of this unique personality:

work experience:

• music shop owner
• radio station musician
• real estate sales manager
• salesman (sale of paper cups, multi-mixers)

Personal qualities: good public speaking skills

It is hard to believe that this is the characteristic of a person who managed to build a national fast food chain. To understand how his character was formed, let's start describing the history of the legendary man from the beginning.

Video: Giant queues at the first McDonald's in the USSR

Ray Kroc's childhood and adolescence

Raymond Albert Kroc, who became famous under the abbreviated name Ray, was born on October 5, 1902 in Oak Park, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois. He was born into a family of immigrants, his ancestors were Czechs by nationality.

Ray's father Louis Kroc worked for Western Union from the age of 12, his wife Rose ran the household. The Crock family had three children: the eldest Raymond, the middle Bob and the youngest Lauren. With his brother and sister, Raymond had an age difference of 5 and 8 years.

An avid fan of the Chicago Tiger Cubs baseball team, the father also introduced his eldest son to the sport. As a 7-year-old boy, Ray first visited the old city stadium. We all come from childhood: after getting rich, in 1974 Croc acquired the San Diego Padres, the National League baseball club.

The Krok couple were not well-off. For the sake of additional income, Mrs. Kroc gave private piano lessons, so part of the housework fell on the shoulders of the eldest son. Ray was accustomed to work from childhood: he made beds, wiped the dust, washed the floors.

His grandmother just had a mania for cleanliness: having washed the floors in the kitchen, she covered the clean surface with newspapers so that it would not get dirty. The printed pages lay on the floor until the next cleaning. Kroc, inheriting a slightly less obsession with order, will later set McDonald's high the bar for cleanliness.

Ray's dad, after graduating from only 8 classes, sought to give his children a complete education. But Krok Jr. was not attracted by either reading or studying. Little Raymond spent a lot of time in thought, imagining different situations. "What are you doing?" - Ray's mother was interested, according to her son's recollections, a tender and caring woman. “I’m just thinking,” was the answer. He was nicknamed "the dreamer", but Kroc was not just "in the clouds." After thinking everything over, he acted. The ability to analyze information, make his own judgments will be useful to him in adulthood:

Competitors may steal my plans, but they will never be able to read my mind.If so, I will always be miles ahead of them.

From an early age, Raymond loved trade. When he was a schoolboy, he helped his uncle in a pharmacy, selling soft drinks (in the USA, pharmacies had a function and small cafes, remember that the history of Coca-Cola began with its sales in pharmacies). The boy realizes that his smile can easily convince a customer who has stopped by for a cup of coffee to order also ice cream. "American style" - energy, the ability to shake hands, attention to detail - Ray likes.

In middle school, a teenager works part-time in a grocery store, in high school, he opens a music store with friends. In a closet rented for $ 25, the guys sell music, exotic instruments. As musical as his mother, Ray plays the piano to attract visitors. Although the shop soon had to be closed, the undertaking was a great hands-on experience. The future restaurateur understands the importance of work, later he will say:

Work is the meat in the hamburger of life.

During his studies, Ray was attracted only by the discussion club, the guy liked to be in the spotlight. He mastered what is now called "storytelling" - the art of telling stories and influencing the audience. Once discussing the dangers of smoking, the young man so colorfully described the story of his grandfather, whose only joy in his declining years was his smoking pipe, that by the end of the fiery speech, tears sparkled in his listeners' eyes.

Career ups and downs

WORLD WAR I

In 1917 America enters the First World War. 15-year-old Krok, despite the resistance of his parents, "throws" a couple of years at the recruiting office and becomes a driver of a Red Cross ambulance van. His training unit is dispatched to Connecticut.

Ray meets another conscript who overestimated his age - 16 years old. He constantly draws while other colleagues run after the girls. Kroc saw a life lesson in this: his pictures will remain for centuries, and of those girls, almost no one is alive.

The warring countries conclude a truce and, not having time to plunge into the theater of war, Ray returns to Chicago. Ray did not want to sit down at the student's bench, but succumbed to the persuasions of his father and mother. "Dismayed" at his desk for a semester, he quits classes and becomes a street vendor. Selling coffee and small haberdashery, he sells a week quite decent for 1919 $ 30, and soon earns more than his father.

BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA

Young Ray was a self-assured heartthrob, but soon it seemed to him that he met true love. The chosen one was named Ethel Fleming, and her parents agreed to the marriage with one condition: the groom must find a stable job. So young Croc becomes a paper cup salesman at Lily Cup Co. In 1922, the wedding of Ray and Ethel took place, and after 2 years the couple had a daughter, Marilyn.

In the period between the two wars, in order to feed his wife and daughter, the father of the family sells glasses during the day and plays the piano at the radio station in the evening. In search of better earnings, Croc quit the Lily Cup in the mid-1920s and moved to Florida. But when the local earthen boom subsides in 1926, the 25-year-old failed real estate agent returns to his former employer.

In 1929, the Lily Cup merges with the Tulip Cup, and Croc's area of ​​responsibility is expanded. He sells goods to wholesalers: drugstore chains, stadiums. Krok bombards them with rationalization proposals that increase their productivity (which ultimately affects the sales of HIS cups).

In the late 30s, engineer Prince invents an apparatus for simultaneously (up to 5) whipping cocktails. Krok is fired up with the idea of ​​implementing these multi-mixers. With 17 years of experience behind him and the title of "the best dealer in the company", he decides to leave a guaranteed income. Wife Ethel considered the venture, to put it mildly, adventurous, but Kroc's rule states:

If you do not like to take risks, you should not meddle in business.

In 1939, Ray registers his own company for the sale of mixers "Malt-A-Mixer" (later - Prince Castle). To increase sales, the "dreamer" again connects his imagination, coming up with cocktail recipes (for "Delacato" you will need Kalua liqueur, cognac, ice cream).

THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Croc's firm is on the verge of bankruptcy when the United States enters World War II. For the manufacture of electric mixer motors, copper is required, and it all goes for the "defense". Kroc demonstrates entrepreneurial agility:

I just had to search for other opportunities.

Kroc's career resembles a sinusoid in shape: the curve goes up, then down, up again - a real "roller coaster"! And although he has many unsuccessful undertakings, his ability not to give up can only be learned.

Acquaintance with McDonald's

MISTER MULTIMIXER

After the war, Krok sells 9,000 multi-mixers annually, but sales are falling in the early 50s. An improved device released by market rivals supplants Kroc's beloved "brainchild". Mr. Kroc has a short conversation:

If you see your competitor drowning, grab a fire hose and put it in his mouth.

Raymond is worried about falling mixer sales. He analyzes that the McDonald brothers ordered the 9th and 10th mixers for their diner, while similar establishments buy no more than two instruments for whipping cocktails. Kroc's interest is fueled by phone calls from different states: customers ask for "the same multi-mixer that is installed at the McDonald's." Ray Kroc gets behind the wheel and drives to San Bernardino, California, to see for himself how the brothers have a case.

"As long as you are green, you grow, but as you mature, you rot," says an American proverb.

By his own admission, in 1954, Croc was "green as the clover of St. Patrick." This is where the amazing story of the transformation of a traveling salesman into a millionaire begins.

15 LIFE CHANGING SECONDS

The McDonald's diner for motorists pleasantly surprises our "neat": Croc does not notice any flies or garbage. In the queue at the dispensing window, Krok provocatively mutters "I never stood in line for a hamburger in my life," but the customers of the institution praise the self-service restaurant. Driving all over the country, the salesman really has not seen this: orders are completed in 15 seconds!

The McDonald brothers, the elder Mac and the younger Dick, welcome "Mr. Multi-Mixer," as they call him among themselves. Almost one in three of their clients buys a cocktail whipped on Ray's machine. They say that having opened the diner in 1940, after 8 years they reorganized it: they reduced the staff, cut the menu to 9 positions. This made it possible to organize a conveyor belt in the kitchen, when employees perform a simple function that does not require special qualifications.

The first restaurant owned by the McDonald brothers

Children love to watch the perfected actions of grillmen, cocktailmen and roast men through the huge windows of the diner. And where the children are, the whole family is there. The target audience of McDonald's is married couples; the lack of waitresses attracting amusement lovers also contributes to this.

Croc knew how to think big:

I could tell a worthwhile idea from a dummy.

He summarizes the virtues of the new catering organization - cleanliness, speed of service, and the attraction of family Americans. Mister Multimixer informs the brothers that their business has bright prospects for expansion! But the McDonald's do not plan world expansion, the established ratio of "troubles / income" suits them quite well. Now, if they had a franchise agent who would take over this work ...

Ray did not miss his chance of success, he convinces Dick and Mac to sell him the license to distribute McDonald's.

Ray Kroc and franchising

FRANCHISING AGENT

$ 15,000 - this price was set by the brothers for the right to "clone" their restaurant across the country. Banks for a loan to Krok gave a "turn from the gate", he mortgages the house and health insurance. Where did he get confidence in his abilities? One of the rules for his success is:

Turn your fear into faith.

On March 2, 1955, Croc founded the McDonald’s System Inc franchise company (after 1960 - McDonald’s Corporation). At that time, dozens of businessmen were introducing franchising into the fast food industry, and all the major restaurant owners were selling licenses. What made it possible for McDonald's to achieve and then step over the national scale?

Ray didn't invent fast food - he sold it, he didn't invent franchising - he perfected it. Kroc's approach to franchising is no less revolutionary than the brothers' know-how in the food industry.

Ray Kroc near one of his franchises (1961)

It is easy to see the essence of these innovations in the comparison plate:

A born merchant, Kroc prioritized customer needs. In the new enterprise, buyers of the McDonald's license became his clients, and he successfully played on his own concept:

The more I help others to succeed, the more successful I am myself.

Kroc did not get rich overnight, at first he had to tighten his belt tighter: he refused membership in a country club, delayed paying utility bills. Not profit was his priority, his dream was to build a perfect McDonald's network:

Never think about just making money!Love what you do and success will come to you!

In the first year, Croc sold 18 franchises, one of the licenses went to the Chicago journalist Sandy Egate. Having invested $ 950 in the purchase of a license and $ 25,000 in construction, in 1955 he opened his own McDonald's. The diner was an instant success, with hundreds of dollars a day and an order of magnitude more profit than Croc himself. Egate was the first franchisee to get out of rags to riches, and acquired a luxurious mansion.

The best PR company is hard to imagine, people line up to buy a chance at wealth - a franchise. From individual successful franchisees, the McDonald's empire grew. And they began to say about Kroc that he had populated the United States with millionaires.

Ray Kroc's business secrets

FIRST OWN RESTAURANT

Croc opened his own McDonald's on April 15, 1955 in Des Plains, Illinois. He kind of sold the franchise to himself, although the contract forbade such a "trick". In 13 years, the thousandth restaurant will open in this city.

Before dawn, Kroc came to the restaurant and, together with the cleaner, prepared it for the opening. He could water the area, clean the trash cans, pick off the stuck gum: "I did not consider it shameful to mop the floor or clean the toilets, even if I was wearing a good suit." Hard worker? His famous "crocism" confirms this:

The pot dividend is luck. The more you sweat, the luckier you will be.

Kroc implemented McDonald's standards not only in his restaurant. He traveled all over America and checked how franchisees adhere to the KKCHD formula: Quality, Service Culture, Cleanliness, Accessibility. McDonald's became his life's work:

I believe in God, family and McDonald's. When I'm at work, the order is reversed.

Krok was a real "demon of cleanliness": windows had to be washed daily, hoods and refrigerators - every other day, employees were forbidden to have unkempt nails and beards. Each employee must have a cleaning rag: “If you have time to sit down, then you have time to clean up”.

In 58, in an audio letter, Kroc informed the McDonald's: “I already know four firms that sell hamburgers for 15 cents ... business there anyhow. We will be the first among the strongest. "

ME AND MY YOUNG TEAM

The secret to the long-term success of Kroc's system is that strict adherence to corporate standards did not negate the manifestation of personal ability. A businessman could attract the right people to him, discern talents.

In 1956, he hires 23-year-old Fred Turner. The young guy becomes another embodiment of the "American Dream": having started his career as a simple worker, he will grow up to the president of the corporation and the chairman of the board of directors.

Turner recalls that Croc was able to deliver great speeches without preparation. He told fascinatingly about the technical details of McDonald's work, and when he explained how to bake a bun, the audience seemed to have seen it in reality! Even enemies admitted that Ray Kroc could perfectly:

• sell hamburgers
• Earn Money
• tell stories.

In 1961, brothers Dick and Mac agree to sell their trademark to Croc for $ 2.7 million (one million each, the rest - in taxes). He did not have that kind of money, and the banks refused to lend, not considering the chain of cheap restaurants seriously.

The accountant Richard Boylan was able to help Croc. Boylan recorded leased buildings and land as assets, and forecasted increases in property prices as revenues. Simple calculations, prohibited by American accounting rules, "increased" the company's profits by 4 times. The accountant explained that he did not hide the facts and did not deceive anyone, but explained everything in the notes.

Note: Only people don't read the notes.

It is easy to have principles when you are rich. It is much more difficult to afford them when you are poor.

Harry Sonneborn, the company's chief financial officer, took over and found creditors. The required $ 2.7 million was loaned to universities, as the financier explained to them that McDonald's was not engaged in burgers, but in real estate. Lenders received a percentage of the income (equal to what the brothers used to take), and Kroc - the freedom to manage the brand.

It was Sonneborn who developed a profitable sublease scheme that allows him to control the real estate industry. The company bought or rented real estate (land plots and restaurant buildings) for a fixed amount, and then subleased it to franchisees, who already paid interest on sales for this.

These examples show that Ray Kroc was able to assemble an excellent team of professionals that he appreciated:

None of us individually are as good as the rest of us together.

Despite the merits of Kroc, he also had his own "characteristics": the leader liked to throw the word "dismiss" around. Any trifle could be the reason, once he ordered to calculate the employee who asked to borrow a dollar in order to pay for the parking. According to the boss, a serious person should take care of having small money in advance. However, they didn’t get any redundancies for such a thing.

THE RIVAL OF SANTA CLAUS

Kroc was well aware that the cost of stimulating demand would pay off handsomely. Understanding the importance of advertising, one of the marketing component, is distinguished by all outstanding businessmen: (who gave 3 out of $ 4 for advertising), (advertises his product in the nude), (shocking in advertising with obscene words).

The McDonald's brand, whose prosperity was laid by Croc, entered the TOP 10 brands in the world (9th place according to Forbes for 2017).

HIS UNIVERSITIES

A man who did not graduate from universities founded his own. But not ordinary.

Croc's quote reads:

We have too many bachelors, but too few grocers.

In 1961, the world's first corporate catering university, the University of Hamburgerology, opens in Illionois. The McDonalds' Hamburger University trains modern management and company standards.

The first McDonald's fast food restaurant in Moscow was opened on January 31, 1990. On the first day of operation, the restaurant on Pushkinskaya Square served more than 30 thousand visitors, setting the world record for the first working day in the history of McDonald's.

The first restaurant of the company opened in Moscow on Pushkinskaya Square (Bolshaya Bronnaya, 29) on January 31, 1990. The first McDonald's in Russia was half-state - 51% of the company belonged to the Moscow government. Even the logo of the Russian McDonald’s had the symbols of the USSR.

Before opening the restaurant, McDonald's built a completely independent organization with its own potato farms in the Moscow region, its processing plants for the production of hamburger buns, meat, apple pies and other products for restaurants. A giant processing and distribution complex was built in the Solntsevo area. In total, the company invested about $ 50 million in its project in the USSR.

Then the construction of the restaurant itself began. Key figures in this process were Canadian managers who personally came to Moscow to control everything on the spot.

McDonald's appeared in Russia thanks to George Cohan, the chairman of the board of directors of the Canadian company. The first negotiations began in 1976 at the Montreal Olympics. The agreement on the creation of a joint venture between the Canadian firm "McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited" and the Main Department of Public Catering of the Moscow City Executive Committee - "Moscow-McDonald's" was signed on April 29, 1988 in Moscow.

In those days, it was the largest McDonald's in the world, and today it remains the largest in Europe.

The authorized capital of the future joint venture was 14.952 million rubles.

Previously, this place was the location of a very popular cafe "Lira" - before the introduction of Prohibition, the bar was famous for its cocktails and was a favorite meeting place for Moscow students.

Large-scale renovations in the building of the former Lira cafe began in May 1989. The windows were sealed with paper, and one could only guess what the insides were. No images of the future interior were leaked to the press before the opening. The only thing that pointed to the future restaurant was a huge red and yellow sign. In the photo - mounting the sign.

In preparation for the opening of the poppy, the building was overhauled, adding an extension to the building and changing the light color scheme to bright corporate colors (in one of the articles of the 1990s, the restaurant is called a gingerbread house for its brightness).

The first fast food service station had 900 seats inside the building and another 200 in the summer outdoor area.

A few weeks before the opening, advertisements for the first McDonald's were recruited in Moscow newspapers. More than 25 thousand applications were submitted for 630 places. Guaranteed payment - 2 rubles per hour, shift work.

It was unusual for new employees that they should refer to their bosses by their first names, and the main rules were politeness with clients and cleanliness. The monthly salary depended on the output and could reach 300 rubles, which was a very large amount compared to the scholarships and earnings of young specialists.

At dawn on January 31, 1990, over 5,000 people gathered in front of the restaurant, waiting for the opening.

The new establishment, familiar to the West, but in sharp contrast to the traditional Soviet catering, became a real sensation for the Land of the Soviets.

There were so many people wishing to try American food that on the opening day, McDuck had a queue that became the largest in the history of the brand: a line of people half a kilometer in length was completely rounding Novopushkinsky Square.

On the opening day, George Cohan, the head of the Canadian McDonald's, cut the red ribbon and said a few parting words. Then he began shaking hands with almost everyone who entered.

It is interesting that, as eyewitnesses say, the very first visitors were not standing in line and not party workers, but children of one of the Moscow orphanages. They were brought by bus the day before the opening and were invited to a cafe, where they were treated to free hamburgers.

In 1990, the Big Mac cost 3.75 rubles, while the average salary of a Soviet citizen was 150 rubles. For comparison: a monthly bus pass cost 3 rubles.

The restaurant had a standard menu for the chain in those years. Drinks included Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and milkshakes (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry). Visitors to McDonald's tried a completely new product for them - ice cream with toppings (strawberry, caramel and chocolate). And the famous apple pie became an absolute hit from the very beginning.

Articles about the opening of McDonald's appeared on January 31 in all Soviet newspapers. Even in the country's main newspaper, Pravda, the organ of the CPSU Central Committee. Journalists who went to McDonald's in the early days were amazed at the organization of the work.