The World’s Largest Fast Food Chain
The ubiquitous McDonald’s is the biggest fast food chain on Earth. In 2021 it had more than 40,000 outlets, 2770 of them company owned and the rest franchises, in roughly 120 countries. Through them, it serves around 70,000 customers daily.
Not only is it the world’s largest restaurant chain, McDonald’s is also one of the world’s biggest real estate holders. It owns the land on which all its restaurants are located, and leases it to its franchisees. Rent payment rivals food as the parent corporation’s biggest revenue source.
McDonald’s is named after brothers Maurice (1902 – 1971) and Richard (1909 – 1998) McDonald. Born in New Hampshire to Irish immigrants, they left the East Coast for California in the 1920s. In 1937, their father opened a food stand in Monrovia, and three years later, the brothers opened the first McDonald’s in San Bernardino, CA. It operated as a drive-in carhop, and at first, was focused on barbeque. Indeed, the first restaurant initially went by the name “McDonald’s Famous Barbeque“.
