McDonald’s is a real estate company that sells burgers.
McDonald’s is a real estate company that sells burgers.
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Bingo, they choose to build where the real estate is going up and put a burger joint on it.
Many people do not realize that. The McDonald's Corporation owns the land and buildings that the restaurants are built on. Most of their revenue is generated by collecting rent and franchise fees from the franchisers.
Ray Kroc spent most of the 1960s in a helicopter over the sprawling suburbs around major cities, observing traffic patterns and predicting where major intersections would be as the interstate highway system got built out. He scooped up prime parcels that were then dirt cheap as those areas were mostly still undeveloped.
For all Ray Kroc cared, the chain could have been selling tacos or donuts instead of hamburgers, fries and milk shakes. He happened to buy out the McDonald brothers only because he saw how many milkshake mixers they were buying for just a single location in San Benardino. (Kroc was originally a salesman for a milkshake mixer company.)
Ultimately, it becamse all about the real estate. The hamaburger chain was just an easy way to bring in franchiser/owners who would bear the burden of running the day-to-day operations of the restaurants. I believe the McDonalds Corporation does own and operate a certain percentage of restaurants which allows them to try out new concepts and products before pushing them out to the rest of the chain.