Origins of Empires
Harlan Sanders, who we know today as Colonel Sanders (he was honored by a commission as a Kentucky Colonel, an honor unique to that state), put his name and image on his fried chicken stores.
Dave Thomas put himself into the commercials for Wendy's. So did Carl Karcher for Carl's Jr. But there are other names that are much less familiar to us.
Robert O. Peterson - Founder of Jack in the Box
Harry and Esther Snyder - Founders of In-N-Out
Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck - Founders of Subway
David Edgerton and James McLamore - Creators of Burger King
Dan and Frank Carney - Founders of Pizza Hut
And then there is the name that stands head and shoulders above all of them. Raymond Albert Kroc, who had the vision to take a concept at a burger stand in San Bernardino and build it into a global empire. There is a new film out, The Founder, that tells the story of Ray Kroc and the McDonald brothers, Dick and Mac. My review of the film is posted on TailSlate.net
Ray Kroc was in his early 50s when he made that drive out west and found the amazing assembly line process and use of paper serving products that were pioneered by the McDonald brothers. Seven years later he bought them out for $2.7 million; enough for each of them to net $1 million after taxes. He also made a "handshake deal" to pay them a royalty of 1.9% of the company's earnings. Would he have reneged on this deal if the McDonald Brothers hadn't chosen at the last minute to give the original location to their employees as a gift? Perhaps, but he was so incensed by this betrayal that he refused to acknowledge the deal. He also opened a McDonald's location close to the original site, which was forced out of business in short order.
He died in 1984 with an estimated net worth of $500 million ($1.1 billion today when adjusted for inflation). What we cannot easily quantify is how many people became millionaires by buying McDonald's franchises? But it is safe to assume that Blake Casper, owner of the most McDonald's franchise locations in Florida, with 53 units and 3,800 employees as of 2015, is one of them. So is Ed Bailey who had 63 franchises in North Texas in 2009 when he put them all up for sale.
Early in 1977 I worked at a McDonald's location that is still there, on Wilshire Boulevard, just to the west of Crescent Heights Boulevard. It was owned by the Goldfarbs and according to a 1987 L.A. Times article they owned seven locations by that point. I was offered a chance to move into management, to attend Hamburger University. I'd already enlisted in the Air Force, so I had to decline that opportunity.
I don't know how many other empires Ray Kroc helped to create by franchising McDonald's all over the world. But it is a lot. Today and every day, McDonald's feeds 1% of the world's population. Roughly one in eight Americans have worked at a McDonald's at one point in their lives. Are you one of those eight?
Dave Thomas put himself into the commercials for Wendy's. So did Carl Karcher for Carl's Jr. But there are other names that are much less familiar to us.
Robert O. Peterson - Founder of Jack in the Box
Harry and Esther Snyder - Founders of In-N-Out
Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck - Founders of Subway
David Edgerton and James McLamore - Creators of Burger King
Dan and Frank Carney - Founders of Pizza Hut
And then there is the name that stands head and shoulders above all of them. Raymond Albert Kroc, who had the vision to take a concept at a burger stand in San Bernardino and build it into a global empire. There is a new film out, The Founder, that tells the story of Ray Kroc and the McDonald brothers, Dick and Mac. My review of the film is posted on TailSlate.net
Ray Kroc was in his early 50s when he made that drive out west and found the amazing assembly line process and use of paper serving products that were pioneered by the McDonald brothers. Seven years later he bought them out for $2.7 million; enough for each of them to net $1 million after taxes. He also made a "handshake deal" to pay them a royalty of 1.9% of the company's earnings. Would he have reneged on this deal if the McDonald Brothers hadn't chosen at the last minute to give the original location to their employees as a gift? Perhaps, but he was so incensed by this betrayal that he refused to acknowledge the deal. He also opened a McDonald's location close to the original site, which was forced out of business in short order.
He died in 1984 with an estimated net worth of $500 million ($1.1 billion today when adjusted for inflation). What we cannot easily quantify is how many people became millionaires by buying McDonald's franchises? But it is safe to assume that Blake Casper, owner of the most McDonald's franchise locations in Florida, with 53 units and 3,800 employees as of 2015, is one of them. So is Ed Bailey who had 63 franchises in North Texas in 2009 when he put them all up for sale.
Early in 1977 I worked at a McDonald's location that is still there, on Wilshire Boulevard, just to the west of Crescent Heights Boulevard. It was owned by the Goldfarbs and according to a 1987 L.A. Times article they owned seven locations by that point. I was offered a chance to move into management, to attend Hamburger University. I'd already enlisted in the Air Force, so I had to decline that opportunity.
I don't know how many other empires Ray Kroc helped to create by franchising McDonald's all over the world. But it is a lot. Today and every day, McDonald's feeds 1% of the world's population. Roughly one in eight Americans have worked at a McDonald's at one point in their lives. Are you one of those eight?
posted by me at 6:33 AM
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