WEBVTT - How McDonald's Works 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:07.480 It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:16.840 from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, Chuck, let's listen 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:36.120 to some Devo. So, Chuck, got a good feeling? You 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:38.880 like that? I love Devo, Dude, that's my favorite Devo song. 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:43.760 Acron Boys. Yeah, they're from Ohio, late seventies, early eighties 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:48.159 quintessential new wave band Devo. We just listened to gut Feeling. 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:52.440 It originally appeared on their album Q Are we not 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:56.920 men a say it? Chuck? We are Devo? Yeah, but 0:00:56.960 --> 0:00:59.760 with an exclamation and not the right yeah. It doesn't 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:03.480 say no, it doesn't um and uh. I got my 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:07.800 copy from the soundtrack of Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.039 with Steve z Sue, Right, Inn't that? Is it Life 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:13.680 Aquatic or Aquatic Life? The Life Aquatic? People are probably 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:15.679 like I thought this was some McDonald's. Yes, you would 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:18.520 think so. And here's the reason. Why do you remember that? 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.959 I just said, like thirty seconds ago. Divo is the 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:26.240 quintessential late seventies early eighties new wave band. I do 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:30.399 remember that. Well. Apparently the designers of Happy Meal toys 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:34.959 that McDonald's agree. They've released a series of Happy Meals 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.240 toys that are little characters based on different genres of music. 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.479 And there's one called new Wave Nigel. He's got these 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.360 thin sunglasses and spiky hair, and he happens to have 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:48.680 a very recognizable hat looks like a flower pot that's 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:52.120 upside down exactly. Uh. And to Mark Mother's Ball and 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:54.400 the other guys in Devo, it looked a lot like 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:58.200 what they call their energy Dome hats, which they trademarked. 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:03.120 So now they're suing MacDonald's for unlicensed use of this 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:09.120 of this hat McDonald's exactly. Yeah, that's a pretty accurate. Actually, Chuck, 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.760 McDonald's at any given point in time has a handful 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:15.519 of lawsuits against them. I think that's any big company, though, 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.320 it is. But that's that's that's a good point. McDonald's 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:25.960 has become this emblematic symbolic face. The golden arches are 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:29.360 like the logo of more than just McDonald's, logo of 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:39.040 of corporate America, of America, obesity, uh, mick jobs, globalization, globalization, glocalization. Yeah, 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:41.399 we'll talk about that, of course. Yeah, there's there's there's 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:46.040 just for being a fast food restaurant. They've come to 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:50.839 take on these huge representations of these enormous concepts, and 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:53.880 I gotta admit some they've handled well, some they haven't. 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:56.160 But they're still standing. You know, well they love it. 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:57.680 You take the good with the bad as much as 0:02:57.680 --> 0:02:59.920 they hate being the symbol of the face of a 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:01.960 b CD. They're like, yeah, but we sell a lot 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.520 of big macs exactly. We know that you like him, 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.760 fat boy. Yeah, that's that's kind of the idea that 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.120 I have them to chuck. Yes, we've got Devo out 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:12.880 of the way. We can check that off the list. 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.080 All right, you want to talk about Mickey D's, should 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:18.840 we go? Let's start with history, because it's a pretty 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:21.240 interesting history. It is a lot of people out there 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:23.480 probably think, oh, yeah, I know about McDonald's history because 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:25.200 I've stood there in line and read the plaque that 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.840 says Ray Kroc invented McDonald's and he started it all 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:35.000 up the embossed plaque. Not true. No, Actually, I often 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:39.400 wondered as a child why the founder of McDonald's last 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.480 name wasn't McDonald's, it was Croc. But it is because 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.080 mc croc is would you buy a burger from a 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.280 place called m Cross. It's like buying a piece of 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:53.640 furniture from unpainted huff Huns. Right, very nice. Uh. How 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:57.520 many times do we reference Cohen Brothers films all the time? Uh? 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:02.000 Flashback to the Great Depression. Yeah, let's go have another 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.200 piece of pie. That kind of time period, that song 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:08.360 would have gone, well, it would have h the nineteen thirties. 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.880 Dick and mac McDonald. You might not recognize that name. 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:14.840 They were running a movie theater in California and not 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.520 doing too well. First question, Okay, who names their kid 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:23.880 mac McDonald a little suspect? Pride? Wacky parents? Um, And 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.040 they were not doing too great, and so they noticed 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:29.440 across the street. It's literally one of these stories. We're like, boy, 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:33.839 that hot dog business is gangbusters. We should open up 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:36.960 a hot dog stand. So they borrowed five thousand dollars, 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:38.400 which seems like a lot of money at the time 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:40.000 to open a hot dog's name, no doubt. Well, I 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:41.880 think I get the impression that they opened like one 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.120 of those very early diners because they call it the 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:49.479 air Dome hot dog Stand, right, yeah, air drone air drone, Yeah, yeah, sure, 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:53.200 I get the same thing. And by nineteen forty, they 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:57.440 moved that from Arcadia, which was the original location, to 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:01.240 San Bernardino and they changed the name to McDonald Barbecue. Right, 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:03.599 so they went from a hot dog stand to a 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:06.840 barbecue joint. Well it wasn't barbecue, that just meant on 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:09.440 the grill, I think because they served burgers and burgers, 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.480 fries and milkshakes. Yeah, that that change was a m 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.080 It was a big deal because they dropped a lot 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.800 of their stuff. Right, Well, they shut down, they closed 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:19.640 the business for a little while to retool, which was 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:21.880 you just kind of didn't do this at the time 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:24.640 they were, Yeah, because they were already pretty successful. This 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:28.360 wasn't like a slou che business. But the the McDonald's 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:32.520 brothers UM or the brothers McDonald um felt like they 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:34.200 could do it better. I guess one of them had 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:38.560 some some sort of inspiration from the assembly line, right, Yeah, 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.160 I think from the auto industry, and so they created 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:45.960 the Speedy System Speedy System sp E E, d E 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:50.240 and dude. That's where it really changed the world as 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.640 we know it. And that's not overstating it. That was 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:54.839 the birth of modern fast food. It is. They also 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.200 did away with the car hops like people on roller skates. 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.719 He used to come up and um, take your order 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.240 at your car. You had to come in. Um. But yeah, 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:05.479 more than anything else, they changed the fast food industry 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:08.279 with that speedy system. Basically, they took the principles of 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:11.440 the assembly line and applied it to food. So if 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:13.719 you were, you know, in charge of cooking the burgers, 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.760 you didn't put the burger on, the buns on the 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:20.359 burger like. There were different people involved in the burger 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:22.960 making process. I can attest to this because my first 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:25.200 job was at McDonald's. Well I worked there too, for 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:27.080 an hour. We'll talk about that later because that's some 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.800 We have some famous cohorts that worked at McDonald's that 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:33.280 I looked up nice and we were not famous, but 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:36.160 we worked there. I didn't know your story. I can't 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.120 wait to hear that. Uh. So they were really successful. 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.320 Over the next six years, they sold twenty one franchises, 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:47.240 open nine outlets themselves, and they were doing so well 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:49.840 that they said, we need these multi mixers that can 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.040 mix five milkshakes at once because we need to increase 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:55.320 the speed. And their multi mixer salesman was a man 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.960 named Ray Croc. Here is where the little bit of 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.240 fate comes in, right, these guys were running. I think 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:05.320 there there eight shakes that he can make at a time, 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:09.000 multi mixer five shakes. Now, they ordered eight of them 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:12.320 and they had them running all day long. And Ray 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.760 crocs like, it's the most multi mixers anyone's ever ordered 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.400 it once. So he actually went out to Burdue to 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.520 find out what was going on. Yeah, remember the Hell's 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:27.840 Angels podcast? Did San Bernardina? Sorry, yeah, that's okay, but um, 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.120 we wouldn't go see it himself, and it's like, what 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:33.400 is going on here? He was on board immediately. Apparently 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.720 Jacques Pepine put it um, the famous French chef Jack 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.360 pipin Uh, he wrote an article about Ray Kroc and 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:45.040 as he put it um, he pitched the idea of 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.960 the brothers to really start expanding their operation. And they said, well, 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:51.400 where would we get somebody to do this for us? 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.840 And Ray Kroc said, what about me? And he became 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.360 their franchising agent. Right, yeah, apparently he his his original 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:02.000 um motivation was to sell multi mixers, and he figured 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.160 if he could open up more franchises, they're selling tons 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:07.760 of milkshakes. They're lousy with milkshakes. So I can sell 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:09.440 more multi mixers. So that was kind of how it 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:13.840 started out. Yeah, and he opened his first McDonald's franchise 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:17.760 uh in de Plaine, Illinois, right, And that's actually the 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:22.560 now a museum that McDonald's location. There are two. There's 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:24.800 a Big Mac Museum, which we'll talk about where the 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:29.360 Big Matt came from later, and then there's the McDonald's museum. Anyway, 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:31.280 So he opens up that one and in the next 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:35.760 five years, dude, he franchises two hundred more restaurants. What's 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:41.280 amazing though, is that he didn't he wasn't filthy rich 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.559 in that next five years. He actually had a lot 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.640 of trouble getting these things off the ground. Right. So 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.840 we've got one thing under our belt when we're describing 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.520 the success of McDonald's, right, and that is the speedy 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:58.360 system using the principles of the assembly line for fast food. 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:03.440 The other thing that made McDonald's as successful as it is, 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:09.480 um was the real estate principles that the company took on, right. Yeah, 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.000 Harry he hired a gout named Harry Soniborn and he 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:14.840 only worked there for like a decade, but that completely 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:19.320 rewrote their business model, uh to the point where they 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.280 were making more money off of real estate than selling hamburgers, right, 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.320 Because originally Ray Kroc would be like, hey, uh, we've 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.599 got this kind of newish franchise. And McDonald's was in 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:32.000 the first fast food restaurant. Howard Johnson's was around already, 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:36.600 White Castle was around already, They had they had competition right, um, 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.120 and these bigger guys who had been around for a 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:41.640 while could just build as many as they wanted to 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:44.120 in a region because they had tons of capital. Well, 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.319 McDonald's franchise was still pretty young, so when they went 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.520 to franchisees, these were very hopeful people who are maybe 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:54.280 uh were were for the underdog, that kind of thing, 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:56.880 sort of green. They weren't like super investors, right, and 0:09:56.920 --> 0:09:58.800 so they didn't have a lot of money. So these 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.760 guys would have to basically opened one franchise at a 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:04.439 time because the building expense in the land expense for 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:06.720 so much. What Santa Born came up with it was 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:09.680 like just lease the land and then sub lease it 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:12.959 to the to the franchise e and then not only 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.920 that mark up the leasing fees, but initially it was 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:19.720 twenty percent over what they were paying the lease. The place. 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.439 Then they up at the forty and then finally when 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:26.920 McDonald started rolling, it was either forty or five percent 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.400 of sales, whichever was greater. So yeah, right, the the 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:34.839 franchise realty corporation, uh made as much money as as 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.680 the McDonald's corporation for a while. If it's really it doesn't. 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:40.840 Still it was a stroke of genius, yeah, basically, And 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.200 so that enabled Croc uh in nineteen sixty one to 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:47.800 buy out the McDonald's I'm sorry, the McDonald brothers for 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:52.000 what was it, two point seven million in like nineteen 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:56.120 sixty three, yeah, two point seven in nineteen sixty one. Uh, 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.200 they gave up the rights to the McDonald's name. Uh, 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:00.920 Dick and mac. Do you want to what happened to them? 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.280 They reopened the original San Bernardino joint as the Big 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:08.600 M and h Ray Kroc was like, yeah, I don't 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.560 like you reopening that original store, So I'm gonna open 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:14.120 McDonald's down the street and run you out of business. 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:18.199 And that's what happened, and that that strategy still followed 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.800 today if you pay any attention to Home Depot and Lows. 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:27.559 Oh sure, thank you for that. And uh, apparently Kroc 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:30.079 and you know this is in his autobiography, so we're 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:34.200 not slinging stones here. He actually fostered this bitterness between 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.760 himself and Dick McDonald, who was their surviving brother, and 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:43.280 Kroc considered the planes location the original first McDonald's. He 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:46.480 never wavered from that, and himself the founder well obviously 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:48.760 if you've ever seen the emboss plaque, he never hear 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.559 any mention McDonald brothers. So people have challenged that from 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.760 time to time, enough so that the McDonald's Corporation's official 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:59.640 site now says, yes, Dick and mc McDonald founded a 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.840 ref draw and Ray Kroc, you know, originally came on board, 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.480 but he's the founder of the McDonald's Corporation. So that's 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:12.560 how they kind of justify that. Got you. I do 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:15.719 want to point out to that, um, unbeknownst to the 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.560 franchise e, the capital that they got from raising the 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:21.800 money for you know, with the leases, they used that 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.640 to fund the opening of other franchises. So that's how 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:28.719 they started kind of rolling and uh, sort of like 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.800 a puny scheme a little bit, but this one was 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:34.280 slightly more legal. It was on the open. I had 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:38.200 a pretty good payoff apparently uh. Kroc took McDonald's public 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.720 in sixty five, and if you had bought two thousand 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:47.240 dollars worth of stock that year and it's initial public offering, 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:50.439 it would be worth three point five million today. Yeah, 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:52.960 that's not a bad return in an investment. So he 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:57.400 bought the company in sixty one, by sixty three, he 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.280 had opened up his five by sixty five if they 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.120 went public, and then twenty years after they went public, 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:06.280 they were included in the dal Jones industrial average. That 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.560 is what's called a super rapid ascent into wealth. The 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:13.960 dalve Jones only has thirty companies, and McDonald's is one 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:16.080 of them. What's more, and one of the things that 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:20.120 explains that success, but that kind of also supports it, 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:24.200 is that UM they started catering towards kids and cultivating 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:28.680 customer loyalty at a very early age thanks to a 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:32.440 guy named Willard Scott, who you may know was the 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:34.679 weather man for the Today Show for many years, the 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:39.319 Demented Smucker's Jelly spokesperson or Boza the clown yeah, or 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.839 Ronald McDonald. He was the first one. He was first 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.880 in a long long line of Ronald McDonald's um and 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:49.920 he was the first character, and then pretty soon they 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.480 started adding more and more McDonald's characters. But let's stick 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.079 with Ronald for a second. Did you know that they 0:13:56.120 --> 0:14:00.640 they introduced Ronald McDonald in right or I think it 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:05.400 was sixty three, Okay, sixty three. By nineteen nineteen sixty nine, 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:10.200 more kids could identify Ronald McDonald than they could the 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:15.920 American President. That's American kids of them could identify Ronald 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:19.280 McDonald six years after he was introduced. Yeah. Yeah, And 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:21.560 my research, I don't know that's true or not, but 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.520 it says that Willard Scott was originally let go because 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.360 he was too fat and they didn't want a big 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:30.360 fat clown has their spokesman for their food. He is 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:33.720 a leaner than usual clown except for those huge hawk 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.720 thighs that he's always had. The saddle bag gup like 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.200 they're writing pants. Yeah, okay, so they come up with 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:43.440 Ronald McDonald, but they're trying to figure out how to 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:46.320 expand the characters. Right, well, Chuck, you and I grew 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:48.200 up in the eighties. We've written a fry guy or 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:55.200 two before out in the playground, right, Um, Hamburglar, the Hamburglar, Grimace. Um, 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:59.080 You've got Mary mccheese, who was one of my personal favorites. Um, 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:04.760 the big mac cop. Oh yeah, god, I wish you 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.680 had his name. I do too. Well, there's some listener 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:11.880 mail force. Um, and all of these people originally were 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:17.600 going to be licensed characters from Sid marty Croft, the 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:19.720 guys who used to eat a ton of acid and 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.400 create children's shows HR Puff and Stuff. Right. Um, So 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:26.880 originally McDonald's corporation approached Sid marty Croft and said, hey, 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.440 we want to license your Puff and Stuff characters. Sider 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:31.880 marty Croft said, okay, we can, We'll totally do that. 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:34.440 They waited for McDonald's call back, waited for him to 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:36.640 call back. McDonald's finally called back and said now we're 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:40.080 not gonna do it and blatantly ripped him off. So 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.800 Sid marty Croft like, oh yeah, Sigma and the Sea Monster, 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:45.520 they kind of all had that same thing. I saw 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.000 commercial from nineteen seventy once, the first one that Grimace 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.800 appears in, and it actually features a young Jodie Foster. 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.800 It is straight out of the H and R Puff 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:59.240 and HR Puff and Stuff shows. Like instead of flowers, 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.120 there's little cheese burgers everywhere. I mean, it's just completely 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:05.040 like a Sid marty Craft ripop, so much so that 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:08.520 when the Kraft Brothers sued, uh, they were awarded fifty grand. 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:11.960 But that was it. But did you know this Grimace, 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:17.480 who's just bumbling, puppy, purple weird sidekick of Ronald best 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:21.840 friend Um was originally Evil Grimace, which is probably why 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.040 they called him Grimmace. He had three pairs of arms 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:29.800 and they were meant to steal as many shakes as possible. Yeah, 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:32.680 and then they figured that's just creepy and don't like it, 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:34.840 so we're gonna put it back to two one pair 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:39.200 of arms and he's gonna be nice. Yeah, Evil Grimace. 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:41.840 You know that Sid marty Croft had the place in Atlanta. 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:43.600 You didn't grow up here, but when I was a kid, 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:47.400 Sid marty Croft Land was at the top of the 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:50.800 top floor of the Omni, the old Armni you know 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.840 what became Philips Arena. What. Yeah, there was his escalator 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.280 I remember. I mean now it's probably not as long 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:57.600 as I remember, but it seemed like it was like 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.760 the longest escalator in the world. Time that went to 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:04.000 the top to Sid in marty Croftland. Did they create 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:07.480 the banana splits too? I don't think so. Were they 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.000 from Atlanta? I don't know the connection there. I know 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.600 it was a pretty big failure. Yeah, it closed down 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.080 in short order, but I went. I'll bet it was 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:19.119 real popular among the hip teenagers, I bet, especially especially 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:22.160 in the nineteen right up there Alley. All right, Josh, 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:26.000 let's say you wanted to open a McDonald's restaurant back 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.119 in the day, your Ray Croc and how would you 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:32.960 go about spotting a good location? What are you looking for? Well, 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.040 first I put on my tin gallon hat. I would 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:39.159 board a helicopter, which he did. I would start flying 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:42.560 around areas that were up and coming, and I would 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:47.280 try to find uh an intersection with the church, a school, 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:52.840 maybe some other stores, and I would PLoP it right there. Yep, 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:56.440 That's exactly what he did. And specifically, I think physical 0:17:56.480 --> 0:18:00.520 space wise, developers look for more than thirty two thousand 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:05.480 square feet, which is a little over ninety seven a 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:08.960 height of twenty two ft, which I don't understand. I 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.240 guess that the height and clearance is what they're looking for. Yeah, 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:18.600 elevation they're looking for for the so the McDonald's exactly, 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:21.040 and they still to this day look to place them 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:26.280 near intersections with traffic lights or airports, schools, a ton 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:30.119 of people. Yeah, and originally they they thought behind it 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:31.800 was they wanted to put it where the heart of 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:33.680 the community was. Well, no, they wanted to put it 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:35.600 where as many people as possible. We're going to pass 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:39.119 by three times a day. And they still use that 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.639 classic speedy type system, and I'm sure they don't call 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:46.000 it that, but still the assembly line automated stuff is 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.560 taken over many aspects. Obviously, if you've been in McDonald's 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:52.639 in the last decade, you've seen the automatic fry cooker 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:56.000 and the automatic drink filler and uh, you know, you 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:57.560 go to the drive through window and there's a little 0:18:57.600 --> 0:18:59.800 screen telling you what you're ordering. Dude, let's talk about 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.159 drive through window, because there are certain McDonald's in the 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:06.320 United States where when you pull up to the drive 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.240 through many you place your order, you are speaking to 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:13.119 someone in a call center in another state. Yeah. Do 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:15.680 you know that there's another state or another country, another state? Okay, 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:18.119 I think there are ones where they I think there 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:21.080 are some that are in other countries. Yes, But the 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:24.000 based on the New York Times article I read they 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.119 were in these were McDonald's in Missouri, and they were 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.159 talking to people in Colorado and they would take a 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:33.320 snapshot right of you the computer in the call center. Yeah, 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:34.719 so when you get to the window to pick up 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:36.560 your food, they see a photo and they say, well, 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.359 this is that that Chuck guy. He's all tubby in 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:41.680 his front seat and he's salivating for a big Max. 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:43.639 So here's your big Mac. And then they say that 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.960 the picture is destroyed. But that is what they say, 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:53.720 because I wondered about that destroyed. Uh. Yeah, So this 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:56.960 McDonald's is with I think because of as much money 0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:59.880 as the company has, it's long been on the cutting edge, 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.760 like new technology, anything anything that can be used to 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:08.040 um cut down costs. McDonald's is into Yeah. Absolutely, And 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:13.000 they're also into believe this or not, cleanliness. Yeah, Ray Croc, 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:15.760 they said, was like obsessed with being clean. I got 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:18.160 the impression here was a tatto c d. Maybe. Well. 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:20.600 My my theory is, and I worked in the restaurant business. 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.159 You can never have a restaurant that's too clean, So 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:26.680 I appreciate his dedication to cleanliness. Apparently, like to say, 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:28.439 if you've got time to lean, you've got time to 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:31.199 clean and anytime somebody said that to me after they 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:35.879 turned around and be like, yeah, given the old high 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.120 hard one. Sure you know there's a lot of leaning 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:41.640 in the McDonald's around my neighborhood. Actually, yeah, I think 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:45.600 there are most of them. But uh, even that apparently 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:48.160 is a step up. As far as McDonald's and other 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:53.119 countries go, McDonald's is widely credited for changing the standards 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.760 in the industry, the restaurant industry for bathroom cleanliness in 0:20:56.800 --> 0:21:00.880 Hong Kong, yeah you know that. Yeah, and uh Thailand, 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:05.000 social um social interaction, because apparently in Hong Kong there 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.240 was never such a thing as like organized lines to 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:10.960 stand in line and get something. So they were literally 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:13.600 forced to stand in line for the first time to 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:16.439 to complete their order. So some say that it brought 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:20.439 some social graces and organization to these kind of chaotic scenes. 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:22.879 And you know what, I believe that because when I 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:25.600 looked in l a, I would always get muscled in 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:28.520 on by a little Asian women and they used to 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:30.040 bother me. Then I was like, you know what, I 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:32.800 bet you in their country, you're fighting to get in 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:35.679 position to get your you know, whatever's in the market. 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:38.000 So it's exactly what they want you to think. I 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.320 opened was that I was duped into being kind. I 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:44.120 was like, I understand, cut in front of me. That's fine, exactly. 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:47.119 Here you go, lady, welcome to the US. Right. What 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:50.719 a sucker, Chuck? What's your favorite menu? Ita at McDonald's 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:55.719 answer me, I'm gonna go with the the hangover Helper 0:21:55.920 --> 0:22:00.639 double quarter pounder with cheese, mayonnaise only at French fries 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:03.280 on top, and smush it all together mayonnaise only, no 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:06.920 catchup or mustard. I don't do that stuff. Pickles onions. 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:10.080 You gotta have the sesame seed bun though, So you 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:14.760 have a bun of burger cheese, burger bun with mayonnaise 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:18.120 and French fries. Yeah, okay, I don't think that appears 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:21.320 on the menu. Really. Oh that's the Chuck special. I'm 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:23.760 a straight up double cheese burger guy. Yeah, those are good. 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:26.080 But we can talk a little bit about the history 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:27.920 of a few of their menu items because I find 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:30.239 it kind of interesting too. That's why I asked you. 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:33.000 The filet of fish was born in the nineteen sixties 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:36.240 because at the time we had really great Catholics in 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:39.199 America who had abstained from eating meat on Friday, and 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:42.280 Ray Kroc was like, uh, we got lagging sails on 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:45.439 Friday because all these Catholics, can I we invent something 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:47.840