McDonalds sells more than 75 hamburgers every second...

McDonalds sells more than 75 hamburgers every second... plus 24 more amazing McDonalds-related facts.

McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD) is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving over 60 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948 they reorganized their business as a hamburger stand using production line principles. Businessman Ray Kroc joined the company as a franchise agent in 1955. He subsequently purchased the chain from the McDonald brothers and oversaw its worldwide growth.

A McDonald's restaurant is operated by either a franchisee, an affiliate, or the corporation itself. The corporation's revenues come from the rent, royalties and fees paid by the franchisees, as well as sales in company-operated restaurants.




More McDonalds-related Facts:

By 1993, McDonald's had sold more than 100 billion hamburgers.
The once widespread restaurant signs
that boasted the number of sales,
 such as this one in Harlem,
were left at "99 billion" because
there was only space for two digits.
Pic source

1. McDonald's' $24 billion in revenue makes it the 90th-largest economy in the world.
2. 62 million people eat at McDonald's every day.
3. The Queen of England owns a McDonald's near Buckingham Palace as part of her vast real estate portfolio.
4. McDonald's operates over 34,000 restaurants worldwide, employing more than 1.7 million people.
5. McCafé is a concept created by McDonald's Australia, starting with Melbourne in 1993.
6. McDonald's is the world's largest distributor of toys, with one included in 20% of all sales.
7. According to company estimates, one in every eight American workers has been employed by McDonald's.
8. In India, where the high Hindu population means that beef is not common, the Big Mac was renamed the Maharaja Mac and was originally made with lamb instead of beef; however, along with the company's other items it is now made from chicken.
9. Norway has the most expensive Big Mac in the world as of July 2011, while the country with the least expensive Big Mac is India (albeit for a Maharaja Mac—the next cheapest Big Mac is Hong Kong).
10. Sharon Stone worked at McDonald's before she was famous. So did Shania Twain, Jay Leno, Rachel McAdams and Pink.
11. Americans alone consume one billion pounds of beef at McDonald's in a year -- five and a half million head of cattle.
12. For the next three years, McDonald's is going to open one restaurant every day in China.
13. Since 1997, the only Kosher McDonald's in the world that is not in Israel, is located in the Abasto mall, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
14. The oldest operating McDonald's restaurant is a drive-up hamburger stand at 10207 Lakewood Blvd. at Florence Ave. in Downey, California. It was the third McDonald's restaurant, and opened on August 18, 1953. It was the second restaurant franchised by Richard and Maurice McDonald, prior to the involvement of Ray Kroc in the company, and it still has the two original 30-ft (9-m) "Golden Arches" and a 60-ft (18-m) animated neon "Speedee" sign that was added in 1959. The restaurant is now the oldest in the chain still in existence and is one of Downey's main tourist attractions. Along with its sign, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

    

    Oldest Operating McDonalds, California
    Pic source
    

    
    

15. McDonald's' iconic golden arches are recognized by more people than the cross.
16. McDonald's hires around 1 million workers in the US every year.
17. McDonald's delivers -- in 18 countries!
18. McDonald's is the largest private operator of playgrounds in the U.S., as well as the single largest purchaser of beef, pork, potatoes, and apples. 
19. Despite the objections of McDonald's, the term "McJob" was added to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary in 2003. The term was defined as "a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement". In an open letter to Merriam-Webster, Jim Cantalupo, former CEO of McDonald's, denounced the definition as a "slap in the face" to all restaurant employees, and stated that "a more appropriate definition of a 'McJob' might be 'teaches responsibility.'" Merriam-Webster responded that "we stand by the accuracy and appropriateness of our definition."
20. The only place in America in the lower 48 states that is more than 100 miles from a McDonald's is a barren plain in South Dakota.
21. In 2002, vegetarian groups, largely Hindu and Buddhist, successfully sued McDonald's for misrepresenting its French fries as vegetarian, when they contained beef broth.
22. Counting $32 billion in revenue from franchise stores, McDonald's claims the 68th biggest economy, bigger than Ecuador.
23. McDonald's stopped using mechanical separation for McNuggets in 2003. (Remember that pinkish goo that went viral?)
24. In 1995, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital received an anonymous letter postmarked in Dallas, Texas, containing a $1 million winning McDonald's Monopoly game piece. McDonald's officials came to the hospital, accompanied by a representative from the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, who examined the card under a jeweler's eyepiece, handled it with plastic gloves, and verified it as a winner. Although game rules prohibited the transfer of prizes, McDonald's waived the rule and has made the annual $50,000 annuity payments, even after learning that the piece was sent by an individual involved in an embezzlement scheme intended to defraud McDonald's

Did You Know?

MaDonal
Pic source

MaDonal (Sorani: مادۆنال) is a restaurant located in the town of Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan. It intentionally resembles the fast food chain McDonald's, both in appearance and menu; for instance, MaDonal's menu includes "Big Macks." It is one of two McDonald's-like restaurants in the town; the other one, Matbax, claims that MaDonal is "cheap quality".
The owner, Suleiman Qassab, was a fighter in the Kurdish resistance during the 1970s. He became a refugee in Vienna, Austria, where he got a job as a cook at McDonald's. In the 1990s, he applied for permits to create a McDonald's in Iraq, but the McDonald’s Corporation turned him down, due to economic sanctions imposed during the regime of Saddam Hussein, as well as the controlled economy of Iraq at the time.

In response, he established MaDonal Restaurant, which is still in business. Since establishing MaDonal, Qassab has offered free food to U.S. forces, been threatened, and has become a "Kurdish celebrity."

Qassab hopes to one day turn MaDonal into an actual McDonald's restaurant.

MaDonal is popular with Sulaymaniyah's youth, and the upper middle class. It is open even during Ramadan.
Sociologist George Ritzer sees MaDonal as part of a trend of other countries developing their own regional variations of McDonald’s. Journalist Christopher Hitchens said it was "reassuring" to see signs of progress like MaDonal "in an atmosphere that only a few years ago was heavy with miasmic decay and the reek of poison gas."

Qassab is just one of many who have requested permission to open up a McDonald’s in Iraq. Should this happen, there has been speculation by some about whether McDonald's will eventually take legal action against MaDonal. However, MaDonal appears safe for now, as one journalist notes: "The flow of applications to open an Iraqi McDonald's stopped as quickly as it started, and the corporate lawyers never came to Sulaymaniyah."


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Source(s):  wikipedia | businessinsider.com/ wikipedia

Photo credit:  Flickr user by _skynet