The Ultimate Cheat Sheet on McDonald’s Success Story

Today’s McDonald’s was founded in San Bernardino, California, in 1940 when Richard and Maurice McDonald started a café.

The Golden Arches logo originated from a restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, which renamed itself a burger stand before becoming a business.

Ray Kroc, a salesman for kitchen equipment, was inspired by the brothers’ business plan and bought the rights to start franchising McDonald’s restaurants statewide.

In 1955, after establishing the McDonald’s Corporation, Kroc opened his first franchised restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.

Introducing Ronald McDonald as its mascot and describing itself as a “drive-through restaurant,” the company filed for a trademark in 1961.

The company initially spread across the United States, overwhelming the fast-food industry that White Castle had built several years earlier, before going global.