The Burger Place That Fed The World - McDonald's

Here was the question posed:
Was the only reason that McDonald's became the biggest fast food company in the world because of Ray Kroc's persistence?

Now, as you can imagine,  to become the biggest fast food company in the world, it takes a lot of elements that have to come together in the right way and the right time.

That's what happened with McDonald's. But the persistence of Ray Kroc was important. Here is a simplified answer to the question:

Ray Kroc gets a lot of the credit but it was really a matter of being at the right place at the right time.

White Castle had already produced similar methods of making products but McDonald’s took it and, almost quite literally, ran with it.

At the time America was changing and becoming more mobile. Cars were playing a bigger part of everyday life and the idea of a “quick in quick out simple meal” was introduced at the just right time. Dinner that can be purchased, eaten and cleaned up after in a matter of minutes instead of hours was pretty attractive at the time. It still is today.

Plus, bottom line – the food has always had a lot of taste to it.

Another thing Ray Kroc did was get into the real estate business. With the McDonald’s corporation buying the land on which its franchisees put their restaurants, the corporation was able to give itself an extra boost of income that let it expand faster than would-be chains.

By the way, according to TheDailyMeal.com, here are America's Highest-Grossing Fast-Food Chains

McDonald's. #1 McDonald's; Oak Brook, Ill.: $32.4 billion.

Subway. #2 Subway; Milford, Conn.: $10.6 billion.

Burger King. #3 Burger King; Miami: $8.4 billion.

Ivana di Carlo. #4 Starbucks; Seattle: $8 billion.

Flickr/Dave-mcmt. #5 Wendy's; Dublin, Ohio: $7.9 billion.

After the top 5 comes Taco Bell that might be rising into the top five list soon.

Keep in mind, it makes a difference on how you measure success. For example, if you just count locations, Subway beats McDonald’s. But if you count the money it brings in (as most people like to do), McDonald’s is the biggest.

So – the big winner was and still is:

McDonald’s!

Probably no big surprise there.

By the way, here’s your fun fact of the day:

Ask a friend to guess which company is the largest toy distributor in the world. When they guess Amazon, you can tell them they’re wrong and astound them with this answer: McDonald’s is the biggest toy distributor on the planet. Twenty percent of its sales come with a toy. That’s right – Happy Meals!