In 1954, a fifty-two year old milkshake machine salesman visited a hamburger stand in San Bernardino, California, and predicted an enormous new industry called fast food. This vision would change the way Americans ate--from dining in, to eating and running. Americans dined at home with their families every night before fast food. Ray Kroc transformed the American restaurant industry by forcing discipline on the making of hamburgers, french fries, and milk shakes. By creating a practical operating and delivery system, he insured that the french fries customers bought in Chicago would be the same as the ones purchased in Los Angeles. Such uniformity made McDonald's the brand name that defined American fast food. The McDonald's customer would wait in the restaurant for 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes. This increased the number of customers being served in a McDonald's.

Kroc knew that McDonald's did not have the fast food industry to itself. When he opened the first McDonald's in 1955, A&W, Dairy Queen, Tastee-Freez, and Big Boy were all well-established fast food chains, and the first Burger King (known then as InstaBurger King) had just opened in Miami. It took Kroc a while to make McDonald's different from the rest of the others. The big difference between Kroc and his rivals was one of world view. He saw franchisees as business partners, not as mere customers. When Kroc was selling the Multimixer, he had noticed the way franchisers got profits from franchisees without any concern for their long-term commitment. Kroc wanted to sell his new partners an operating system. In other words, he wanted a known order in doing things. McDonald's woulduse this system to create a franchise so that a restaurant in Florida and a restaurant in Montana could serve burgers of the exact same size and quality, each containing the same number of pickle slices and topped with the same-size amounts of mustard and ketchup.

In 1956, Kroc set up the Franchise Realty Corporation, buying up chunks of land and acting as a landlord to interested franchisees. With this step, McDonald's began to produce real income, and the company took off. By 1960, there were more than 200 McDonald's restaurants across the country, a quick jump due to low franchising fees. Ray Kroc was barely making a profit though. In the end, it was Ray Kroc's decision to use real estate as a financial device that made McDonald's a profitable operation. In 1961, Kroc bought out the McDonald's Brothers for 2.7 million dollars for the use of everything to do with McDonald's. Ray realized soon after that their restaurant in San Bernardino was not included in the deal. This really annoyed Ray and he didn't really like the McDonald's Brothers anyway. Ray built a McDonald's across the street from the McDonald's Brother's restaurant and drove them out of business. Kroc had no patience in dealing with the Brothers any further. Kroc then brought in national advertising programs to support the rapidly growing franchises, and when it appeared that growth in the United States was slowing in the early 1970s, he started a strong push to make McDonald's a worldwide company.

Kroc was a very neat man; he had to have everything his way. He was always seen by customers picking gum with a putty knife off the sidewalk of his McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines. Ray believed in "a clean, well-lighted place, devoid of jukeboxes, cigarette machines, pinball machines, or vending machines of any kind". (1) The Des Plaines' McDonald's was clean and tidy; it was an example of how he wanted every other McDonald's to look.

McDonald's changed the way America dined in the fifties and thereafter. Ray Kroc knew that America was changing and took advantage of that. America was changing after the war and Americans wanted things as soon as they thought of them. Kroc was changing people from dining in, to eating and running. America was on the go. McDonald's defined a new culture called fast food.

Fast food became very popular in the United States just as Kroc had imagined. Americans and soon the world grew attached to the concept. In 1994, a McDonald's in Kuwait City opened; and the drive through lineup was 7 miles long on opening day. McDonald's has proven to be universal. There are over 25,000 restaurants around the world at the present time.

McDonald's has grown in great numbers from the restaurant in Des Plaines to the restaurant in Kuwait, although the climb to success for Ray Kroc was a quick and painful struggle. He has changed the way America and even the world has eaten in the past few decades. The reason for McDonald's growth could result from the expansion of its restaurants in other countries. People in today's world are commuters-- their life is on the go. Commuters are taking trains in big cities, or driving an hour or less to work. They just don't feel like cooking after doing the travelling and working all day. People need a quick bite to eat and that is what Kroc envisioned.