4 Answers

since 1955.. although i think the beef they use might be older

14 years ago. Rating: 2
Comment this answer Add new comment

the first one started where I live, here, in Michigan, on Ford Rd. ......in either Garden City, or Nankin Township in about 1965. I know, b/c I was a sophmore in H.S. then.

14 years ago. Rating: 0
Comment this answer Add new comment

Main article: History of McDonald's
The business began in 1940, with a restaurant opened by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California. Their introduction of the "Speedee Service System" in 1948 established the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant. The original mascot of McDonald's was a man with a chef's hat on top of a hamburger shaped head whose name was "Speedee." Speedee was eventually replaced with Ronald McDonald by 1967 when the company first filed a U.S. trademark on a clown shaped man having puffed out costume legs.

McDonald's first filed for a U.S. trademark on the name McDonald's on May 4, 1961, with the description "Drive-In Restaurant Services," which continues to be renewed through the end of December 2009. In the same year, on September 13, 1961, the company filed a logo trademark on an overlapping, double arched "M" symbol. The overlapping double arched "M" symbol logo was temporarily disfavored by September 6, 1962, when a trademark was filed for a single arch, shaped over many of the early McDonald's restaurants in the early years. The famous double arched "M" symbol in use today did not appear until November 18, 1968, when the company filed a U.S. trademark.

The first McDonald's restaurants opened in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, France, El Salvador and Sweden, in order of openings.

The present corporation dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois, on April 15, 1955,[8] the ninth McDonald's restaurant overall. Kroc later purchased the McDonald brothers' equity in the company and led its worldwide expansion, and the company became listed on the public stock markets in 1965.[9] Kroc was also noted for aggressive business practices, compelling the McDonald brothers to leave the fast food industry. The McDonald brothers and Kroc feuded over control of the business, as documented in both Kroc's autobiography and in the McDonald brothers' autobiography. The site of the McDonald brothers' original restaurant is now a monument.[10]

With the expansion of McDonald's into many international markets, the company has become a symbol of globalization and the spread of the American way of life. Its prominence has also made it a frequent topic of public debates about obesity, corporate ethics and consumer responsibility.

14 years ago. Rating: 0
Comment this answer Add new comment

i dont know. i think it would probally be about 50 or 60 years old. Or even maybe 100 years old.

14 years ago. Rating: 0
Comment this answer Add new comment