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- The first McDonald’s franchise opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, on April 15, 1955.
- By the 1970s, McDonald’s had grown into a popular fast-food establishment.
- The Quarter Pounder, Quarter Pounder with cheese, and Egg McMuffin were also added to the menu.
By the 1970s, just a decade into its operation under businessman Ray Kroc, McDonald’s was already a thriving company that had served millions of customers.
The McDonald brothers had opened their small burger and barbecue joint in 1940, and when Kroc visited them in 1954, he saw promise in their ability to serve customers quickly by keeping burgers warm under a heat lamp.
Kroc opened the first McDonald’s franchise location in Des Plaines, Illinois, on April 15, 1955. That year, he also founded McDonald’s System, Inc., which would become the McDonald’s Corporation we know today.
By 1958, McDonald’s had sold 100 million burgers, and the restaurants had adopted a signature design style prominently featuring the chain’s iconic “golden arches.”
In 1961, Kroc bought the McDonald brothers out, and by the 1970s, the company was going from strength to strength, introducing drive-thrus, breakfast options, and the PlayPlace.
It was just the beginning for McDonald’s, which today has more than 38,000 restaurants in over 100 countries, according to the company. It made $25.92 billion in revenue in the 2024 fiscal year, and continues to look for ways to grow.
Here’s what it was like to eat at McDonald’s in the 1970s.
Before the introduction of high-tech cash registers, McDonald’s employees took orders by hand and gave them to the kitchen.
By the 1970s, the company was well-established and beginning its global expansion.
In 1967, the first McDonald’s restaurant outside the US opened in Richmond, British Columbia. By 1970, the chain had sold over 6 billion burgers.
The self-service concept allowed customers to order at the counter and watch as their meal was being prepared by employees.
McDonald’s meals were served on plastic trays, which customers could then bring over to a dining-room table to enjoy.
McDonald’s got its first drive-thru in 1975.
While chains like In-N-Out Burger already had drive-thru windows, McDonald’s didn’t have one until 1975, when a franchisee in Sierra Vista, Arizona, skirted around an Army regulation that prevented military members from entering local businesses in fatigues.
Fast Company reported that he circumvented the regulation by knocking down a wall in his restaurant’s kitchen and installing a drive-thru window to serve customers.
McDonald’s began offering breakfast for the first time.
Santa Barbara franchisee Herb Peterson invented the Egg McMuffin in 1971. He initially trialed a version of Eggs Benedict before switching the Hollandaise with cheese and adding a slice of Canadian bacon. It was introduced in test markets the following year, when it cost 63 cents.
In 1975, the Egg McMuffin was released nationwide, and in 1977, McDonald’s introduced a larger breakfast line, which also included hotcakes, scrambled eggs, sausages, and hash browns.
It marked a turning point for the brand, which could now attract a wide customer base at a new time of day.
Dining in at McDonald’s was popular among families, who could sit, grab a cheap bite, and even play cards.
In this photo, a family plays cards at a McDonald’s in Mill Valley, California, in 1973.
This is what Ronald McDonald looked like in 1974.
Ronald McDonald was introduced in 1963 during a Washington, DC-marketed advertisement for the restaurant. In the ad, Ronald McDonald pulled hamburgers out of his belt and had a McDonald’s cup for a nose. His hat was a tray with a Styrofoam hamburger, fries, and a milkshake on top of it.
McDonald’s considered changing Ronald McDonald’s character to a cowboy or spaceman, but those ideas were quickly discarded.
For kids who grew up in the 1970s, there was no better place to celebrate a birthday than McDonald’s.
Fast Company reported that the first McDonald’s PlayPlace was introduced in 1971, forever changing the McDonald’s dining experience for families and children. While parents relaxed and ate their meals, kids could play in colorful climbing structures, jungle gyms, and slides.
The introduction of the PlayPlace solidified McDonald’s reputation as a destination for families on a budget, as many were during the 1970s amid a time of financial insecurity, high inflation, and the Vietnam War.
You could even get married at McDonald’s.
Annette Scaramozza and Anthony Francis are pictured at their wedding ceremony in a McDonald’s in 1975.
By the end of the decade, systemwide sales had reached $5.4 billion, McDonald’s reported.
But it was just the start: McDonald’s went on to experience further growth in the 1980s, as the chain introduced new products, like Chicken McNuggets, and expanded to new cities.
Systemwide sales reached $17.3 billion in 1989, The Deseret News reported, citing McDonald’s. Sales outside the US grew from $900 million in 1979 to $5.3 billion in 1989.
Photos show what it was like to visit a McDonald’s in the 1980s.
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