How Ray Kroc built McDonald's from a small burger joint into a global fast-food empire

Biography reported that Kroc showed early promise as an entrepreneur. As a child, he opened his own lemonade stand and worked at a soda fountain.

He eventually found a job as a salesman and manager at a cup company, which connected him with Earl Prince, the owner of an ice cream shop.

Prince had invented a mixer machine that could make five batches of milkshakes at once. By the 1940s, Kroc had left his job to sell these "multi-mixers" to soda fountains and restaurants across the country.

The original menu was long and included items like barbecue. However, by 1949, the McDonald brothers had reduced the restaurant's offerings to just nine items.

The new menu included hamburgers, cheeseburgers, soft drinks, milk, coffee, potato chips, and a slice of pie.

By having a small menu, the brothers were able to focus on quality and efficiency. Their innovative self-service model eliminated the need for waitstaff, while pre-cooked, paper-wrapped burgers that were kept warm under heat lamps ensured customers got their food quickly and at the quality you could expect from a made-to-order restaurant.

Britannica wrote that the McDonald's brothers also reduced the price of their burgers to just 15 cents, about half the cost of their local competitors' burgers.

Kroc wrote in his biography that multiple restaurants had been referred to Multimixer by the McDonald's brothers, who he was shocked to learn owned eight Multimixer milkshake machines — most restaurants and soda fountains he worked with only needed one or two.

When he visited the brothers' restaurant, he was amazed by their "Speedee Service" concept and saw promise in the restaurant, which had already become a success among locals who loved the 15-cent hamburgers.

He imagined scores of McDonald's restaurants, all utilizing the Multimixer machines he sold, and took his plans for expansion back to the McDonald's brothers. He offered to be one of the restaurant's first franchisees.

Kroc opened his first restaurant on April 15, 1955. The chain reported that first-day sales at the new location were $366.12, the equivalent of about $4,300 today.

The restaurant differed slightly from the first burger joint opened by the McDonald brothers. For one, it had a new look created by architect Stanley Meson, who designed a modern-looking red-and-white exterior. Believing the roof appeared too flat, Dick McDonald introduced the idea of the now-iconic yellow "golden arches."

The oldest operating restaurant still featuring the original red-and-white design is located in Downey, California.

Kroc, envisioning a larger future for the newly established McDonald's System, Inc., the precursor to the McDonald's Corporation, secured the exclusive rights to the McDonald's brand name and control over all McDonald's locations.

Kroc implemented strict standards for preparation, portion sizes, cooking techniques, and packaging to guarantee that McDonald's food would be consistent across the chain's many franchises.

He also created a training program for employees that would later be known as Hamburger University.

In 1965, the company's stock was publicly traded for the first time, and the number of restaurants reached 1,000 units. The brand's identity also changed a lot during the '60s, with the introduction of Ronald McDonald as the chain's mascot, the launch of the Filet-O-Fish, and the now-iconic double-arch "M" logo.

The iconic burger was created by franchisee Jim Delligatti of Pittsburgh in 1967.

Fox News reported that Delligatti believed that McDonald's should sell a larger burger to compete with another local fast-food chain, Eat'n Park, which sold a "Big Boy" sandwich.

In 1968, as the company planned to launch the burger nationwide, a 21-year-old secretary came up with its name.

AP reported that multiple executives and other employees thought the "Big Mac" name sounded silly. However, it stuck.

The burger was an immediate hit and remains one of the chain's most popular items.

Kroc held this role until January 14, 1984, when he died of heart failure at Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego.

At the time of Kroc's death, there were 7,500 McDonald's restaurants in nearly 30 countries around the world, and the company was worth $8 billion.