In 1940, Dick and Maurice McDonald founded McDonald's, which at the time was not a burger joint, but rather a barbecue joint. Teenagers especially made up a large part of the McDonald's customer population, as the food was affordable- for instance, a burger only cost 15 cents ($2 in present day). The menu had 25 items from carhops, with the hamburger being the restaurant's most popular menu item. When McDonalds realized that the majority of their profits were coming from burger orders, they decided to focus on maximizing their burger profits; the McDonalds decided to take time off from running their business to develop an assembly line called the "Speedee Service System," which would not only be able to quickly make more supply of burgers, milkshakes, and fries, but also allow for more food to get sold to customers, therefore raising profits and success of the restaurant.
Taking the time off to be used to develop the restaurant's food assembly line proved very beneficial in numerous ways. By 1958, there were over 100 million burgers sold, and by 1960, the McDonald's restaurant was found in over 1000 cities across the US.When more restaurants started to specialize in a variety of foods, such as Dunkin
Donuts for breakfast-type goods, this helped to make it more convenient for America's busy people to grab food anywhere and anytime.
sources:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-how-mcdonalds-first-got-its-start-180960931/
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1932839,00.html
Great post detailing the beginnings of McDonald's. I think it is amazing how much it has grown since the 1950s, and I like how you pointed out that Americans turned to fast food because it was "more convenient for America's busy people to grab food anywhere." This reminded me of the rise of TV dinners because similar to fast food, TV dinners became popular because it made life more convenient for people who just wanted to watch TV and who didn't want to worry about cooking.
ReplyDeleteMore info on TV dinners:
http://www.mortaljourney.com/2010/11/1950-trends/tv-dinners
Interesting post about the rise of McDonald's. Fast food in general relates to the growing pace of American lives. They developed drive-in, where people can save even more time and energy by eating in the car. With more inventions that increased efficiency and conveniency, the pace of American people's lives grew significantly.
ReplyDeleteWow, its crazy to think that credit cards and TV dinners were only a recent invention. I think the TV dinner marked a shift in America's health. All over the internet there are old advertisements of unhealthy foods. My favorite is one of a little boy eating butter, and the headline says "Butter, not only good, but good for you." The shift from home cooked meals to fast, and processed would lead to more food-related diseases, and would cause millions of unsuspecting Americans in the coming decades to get diabetes
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