McDonald's

Speedee Service System

The McDonald brothers introduced the "Speedee Service System" in 1948, putting into expanded use the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant that predecessor White Castle had put into practice more than two decades earlier.^[23][10] When the brothers made the Speedee Service System, they fired their 20 carhops, removed their silverware and plates for paper wrappings and cups so that they no longer needed a dishwasher, and simplified their menu to just nine items: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, three soft drink flavors in one 12-ounce size, milk, coffee, potato chips and pie. “Our whole concept was based on speed, lower prices, and volume,” Richard McDonald later said.^[24]

Mascots

The original mascot of McDonald's was a hamburger-headed chef who was referred to as "Speedee".^[25] In 1962, the Golden Arches replaced Speedee as the universal mascot.^[11] Clown mascot Ronald McDonald was introduced in 1963 to market the chain to children.^[26]

Asia

McDonald's Menu is customized to reflect consumer tastes in their respective countries. Restaurants in several countries, particularly in Asia, serve soup. This local deviation from the standard menu is a characteristic for which the chain is particularly known and one which is employed either to abide by regional food taboos (such as the religious prohibition of beef consumption in India) or to make available foods with which the regional market is more familiar (such as the sale of McRice in Indonesia, or Ebi (prawn) Burger in Singapore and Japan). McDonald's restaurants in China include fried buns and soybean milk on their breakfast menus.^[62]

In partnership with the Central Food Technological Research Institute in India, McDonald's has introduced millet-based buns on September 4, 2024. Three major (Pearl millet, Sorghum, and Finger millet) and two minor (Proso and Paspalum scrobiculatum) millets are used which makes up 22% of the bun. It provides more calcium, iron, and protein in addition to a small amount of complex carbs to aid in satiety more quickly.^[63]

Europe and New Zealand

In France, McDonald's is called McDo. They sell macaroons, Croque McDos, croissants, pain au chocolat, and beer.^[64] In Germany and some other Western European countries, McDonald's also sells beer. In New Zealand, until 2020, McDonald's sold meat pies after local affiliate McDonald's New Zealand partially relaunched the Georgie Pie fast food chain it bought out in 1996.^[65] In Greece, the signature hamburger, Big Mac, is changed by adding Tzatziki sauce and packaging in a pita.^[66]

North America

In the United States and Canada, after limited trials on a regional basis, McDonald's began offering in 2015^[67] and 2017,^[68] respectively, a partial breakfast menu during all hours its restaurants were open. All-day breakfast was phased out from menus at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.^[69]

Stock holdings

Focusing on its core brand, McDonald's began divesting itself of other chains it had acquired during the 1990s. The company owned a majority stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill until October 2006, when McDonald's fully divested from Chipotle through a stock exchange.^[94][95] Until December 2003, it owned Donatos Pizza, and it owned a small share of Aroma Café, from 1999 to 2001. On August 27, 2007, McDonald's sold Boston Market to Sun Capital Partners.^[96]

McDonald's has increased shareholder dividends for 25 consecutive years,^[97] making it one of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats.^[98] The company is ranked 131st on the Fortune 500 of the largest United States corporations by revenue.^[99] In October 2012, its monthly sales fell for the first time in nine years.^[100] In 2014, its quarterly sales fell for the first time in seventeen years, when its sales dropped for the entirety of 1997.^[101]

Monetary loss

In the United States, it is reported that drive-throughs account for 70 percent of sales.^[102][103] McDonald's closed down 184 restaurants in the United States in 2015, which was 59 more than what they planned to open.^[104][105] This move was the first time McDonald's had a net decrease in the number of locations in the United States since 1970.^[105]

In the first three months of 2025, as U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff plans began to be unveiled and implemented, McDonald's revenue in the US fell 3.6% compared to the previous year, the largest sales decline in the US since the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.^[106]

Ownership

McDonalds owns the land on which many of its restaurants are situated,^[15] which is valued at an estimated $42 billion.^[128] The company earns a significant portion of its revenue from rental payments from franchisees. These rent payments rose 26 percent between 2010 and 2015, accounting for one-fifth of the company's total revenue at the end of the period.^[129] In recent times, there have been calls to spin off the company's U.S. holdings into a potential real estate investment trust, but the company announced at its investor conference on November 10, 2015, that this would not happen. CEO Steve Easterbrook discussed that pursuing the REIT option would pose too large a risk to the company's business model.^[130]

McDonald's trains its franchisees and management at one of the Hamburger Universities. As of 2015, the Hamburger Universities reside in Oak Brook, Tokyo, London, Sydney, Munich, São Paulo, Shanghai, and Moscow.^[131]

In other countries, McDonald's restaurants are operated by joint ventures of McDonald's Corporation and other, local entities or governments.^[132]

Workers

According to Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (2001), nearly one in eight workers in the U.S. have at some time been employed by McDonald's. Employees are encouraged by McDonald's Corp. to maintain their health by singing along to their favorite songs to relieve stress, attending church services to have a lower blood pressure, and taking two vacations annually to reduce the risk for myocardial infarction.^[133]

Fast Food Nation states that 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. The selection of meats McDonald's uses varies to some extent based on the host country's culture.^[134]

International influence

McDonald's has become emblematic of globalization, sometimes referred to as the "McDonaldization" of society. The Economist newspaper uses the "Big Mac Index": the comparison of the cost of a Big Mac in various world currencies can be used to informally judge these currencies' purchasing power parity. Switzerland has the most expensive Big Mac in the world as of July 2015, while the country with the least expensive Big Mac is India^[147][148] (albeit for a Maharaja Mac—the next cheapest Big Mac is Hong Kong).^[149] The northernmost McDonald's restaurant in the world is located in Rovaniemi, Finland (after the restaurant in Murmansk, Russia was closed in 2022),^[150] however from January 2024 this had changed again as McDonald's opened a new restaurant in Tromsø, Norway.^[151] And the southernmost in the world is located in Invercargill, New Zealand.^[152]

Thomas Friedman said that no country with a McDonald's had gone to war with another.^[153][154]

McDonald's suspended operations in its corporate-owned stores in Crimea after Russia annexed the region in 2014.^[155] On August 20, 2014, as tensions between the United States and Russia strained over the Russian annexation of Crimea, and the resultant U.S. sanctions, the Russian government temporarily shut down four McDonald's outlets in Moscow, citing sanitary concerns. The company has operated in Russia since 1990 and, in August 2014, had 438 stores across the country.^[156] On August 23, 2014, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich ruled out any government move to ban McDonald's and dismissed the notion that the temporary closures had anything to do with the sanctions.^[157]

Some observers have suggested that the company should be given credit for increasing the service standard in markets it enters. A group of anthropologists in a study entitled Golden Arches East^[158] looked at McDonald's impact on East Asia and Hong Kong, particularly. When it opened in Hong Kong in 1975, McDonald's was the first restaurant to consistently offer clean restrooms, driving customers to demand the same of other restaurants and institutions. McDonald's has partnered with Sinopec, the second-largest oil company in the People's Republic of China, as it takes advantage of the country's growing use of personal vehicles by opening numerous drive-through restaurants.^[159]

Global activities

In Beijing, China, McDonald's restaurants are state-owned enterprises operating according to franchise agreements.^[160] Beijing Capital Agricultural Group owns these franchises.^[160]

McDonald's has opened a McDonald's restaurant and McCafé on the underground premises of the French fine arts museum, The Louvre.^[161]

The company opened vegetarian-only restaurants in India. The first one opened in 2012 at Amritsar, India.^[162]

On January 9, 2017, 80% of the franchise rights in mainland China and Hong Kong were sold for US$2.08 billion to a consortium of CITIC Limited (for 32%). Private equity funds managed by CITIC Capital (for 20%) and Carlyle (for 20%), which CITIC Limited and CITIC Capital would form a joint venture to own the stake.^[163]

On the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany, is the world's only "McBoat", a float-through service (similar to drive-through) for people on the river.^[164]

In Sweden, Happy Meal boxes can be used as goggles,^[165] with the game Slope Stars.^[165] In the Netherlands, McDonald's has introduced McTrax that doubles as a recording studio; it reacts to touch.^[165] They can create their own beats with a synth and tweak sounds with special effects.^[165]

In March 2022, McDonald's closed and sold their 850 locations in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine. Approximately nine percent of global revenue and three percent of operating profit had come from Russia and the 100 locations in Ukraine.^{[166][167][168]} They sold the restaurants to a Russian buyer under the condition that the locations would not use the McDonalds branding.^[169][170] The new stores were rebranded as Vkusno i tochka,^[171] beginning to reopen in June.^[172] Later in 2022, the 25 McDonald's restaurants in Belarus rebranded as Vkusno i tochka^[173] and operations were suspended in Kazakhstan due to issues supplying minced meat from Russia. They rebranded the following year.^[174]

During the Gaza war, McDonald's in Israel were boycotted after giving free meals to the Israel Defense Forces, who had been accused of committing war crimes.^{[175][176][177]} McDonald's in some other countries distanced themselves from the actions of McDonald's Israel.^[178] As a result, McDonald's bought all 225 Israeli franchise-owned restaurants.^[179]

Technology uses

Since the late 1990s, McDonald's has attempted to replace employees with electronic kiosks that would perform actions such as taking orders and accepting money. In 1999, McDonald's first tested "E-Clerks" in suburban Chicago, Illinois, and Wyoming, Michigan, with the devices being able to "save money on live staffers" and attracting larger purchase amounts than average employees.^[180]

In 2013, the University of Oxford estimated that in the succeeding decades, there was a 92% probability of food preparation and serving becoming automated in fast food establishments.^[181] By 2016, McDonald's "Create Your Taste" electronic kiosks were seen in some restaurants internationally where customers could custom order meals.^[182]

In 2017, McDonald's launched an app in the United States that allows customers to skip the ordering line inside or drive through and order online. Many McDonald's locations have special parking spaces for such orders.^[183]

In September 2019, McDonald's purchased an AI-based start-up, Apprente, to replace human servers with voice-based technology in its US drive-throughs.^[184]

In early 2023, McDonald's opened its first largely automated restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas. The restaurant in question would de-emphasize human contact when ordering, with employees available if there were problems but who would otherwise be absent from the ordering process (along with others working in the kitchen or other back-of-the-house roles). There was no seating in this restaurant.^[185][186]

Worker complaints

In March 2015, McDonald's workers in 19 U.S. cities filed 28 health and safety complaints with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which allege that low staffing, lack of protective gear, poor training, and pressure to work fast resulted in injuries. The complaints allege that, because of a lack of first aid supplies, workers were told by management to treat burn injuries with condiments such as mayonnaise and mustard.^[187] The Fight for $15 labor organization aided the workers in filing the complaints.^[188]

The Roosevelt Institute, a liberal think tank, accuses some McDonald's restaurants of actually paying less than the minimum wage to entry positions due to "rampant" wage theft.^[189]

European Union

In April 2017, Irish fast-food chain Supermac's submitted a request to the European Union Property Office to cancel McDonald's owned trademarks within the European Union, claiming that McDonald's engaged in "trademark bullying; registering brand names... which are simply stored away in a war chest to use against future competitors", after the trademarks had prevented Supermac's from expanding out of Ireland. The EUIPO ruled in Supermac's favor, finding that McDonald's "has not proven genuine use" of many trademarks, canceling McDonald's owned trademarks such as "Big Mac" and specific "Mc"-related trademarks within the European Union.^{[214][215][216]}

Burger King responded by "trolling" McDonald's by giving their burgers names that included the words "Big Mac" that also mocked the original burger, which included "Like a Big Mac But Juicier", "Like a Big Mac, But Actually Big" and "Big Mac-ish But Flame-Grilled of Course."^[217]

In 2023, the EUIPO Board of Appeal partially annulled their decision after McDonald's filed 700 pages of additional evidence despite objections.^[218] However, on further appeal to the European Court of Justice, the court ruled in 2024 that McDonald's had failed to prove the use of the Big Mac trademark in relation to chicken products or services associated with operating restaurants, meaning Supermac's and other businesses are now free to use the "Mac" in their business names and in names for poultry products in Europe. McDonald's retains the Big Mac trademark solely for its beef burgers.^{[219][220][221]}

The McDonald's group has had proceedings taken against it by the French Tax Authorities, with possible charges of criminal tax fraud. In July 2022, the group reached an agreement with the French judicial authorities to end criminal proceedings for tax fraud.^[222]

Malaysia

On September 8, 2009, McDonald's Malaysian operations lost a lawsuit to prevent another restaurant from calling itself McCurry. McDonald's lost in an appeal to Malaysia's highest court, the Federal Court.^[223] On December 29, 2016, McDonald's Malaysia issued a statement that said only certified halal cakes are allowed inside its restaurants nationwide.^[224]

United Kingdom

The longest-running legal action of all time in the UK was the McLibel case against two defendants who criticized several aspects of the company. The trial lasted ten years and called 130 witnesses. The European Court of Human Rights deemed that the unequal resources of the litigants breached the defendants' rights to freedom of speech and biased the trial. The result was widely seen as a "PR disaster" for McDonald's.^[225]

In 2021, it emerged that at least 50 employees had filed charges against the chains regarding harassment in the workplace in five years, leading to the company instituting anti-harassment training. Some of the complainants also stated that they were verbally and physically harassed in retaliation for their complaints.^[226] In 2023, the BBC conducted an investigation, and reported that more than 100 current and recent UK workers at outlets of the fast-food chain allege there is a continuing toxic culture of sexual assault, harassment, racism and bullying.^[227]

In January 2025, it was reported that over 700 young workers had filed lawsuits against McDonald's UK, alleging widespread harassment and discrimination. The claims, handled by the law firm Leigh Day, involved current and former employees under the age of 20 and spanned more than 450 restaurants. Following a BBC investigation in July 2023, testimonies highlighted issues such as racism, homophobia, ableism, and harassment. McDonald's UK, dismissed 29 workers for sexual harassment in 2023 and established a specialist unit to investigate such allegations. However, unions argued that these measures did not resolve the issues. Employees shared accounts of inappropriate behavior, including homophobic remarks, sexual advances, and unwanted physical contact from managers. Similar allegations had been raised in 2019, with the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union reporting over 1,000 cases of harassment involving female employees.^[228] In March 2025, the Equality and Human Rights Commission wrote to all 1,400 McDonald's branches telling them they must comply with their legal duties, or risk enforcement action.^[229]

United States

The 1994 court case Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants examined a McDonald's practice of serving coffee so hot that when spilled, it caused third degree burns requiring weeks of hospitalization and skin grafting surgery.^[230] The trial outcome was an award of $2.86 million (equivalent to $5.33 million in 2023) for the plaintiff, 81-year old Stella Liebeck.^[230] The amount was later reduced to $640,000 (equivalent to $1.2 million in 2023). In 2019, a McDonald's employee, Jenna Ries, sued the restaurant chain over allowing sexual harassment in the workplace and described the working environment as "toxic".^[231]

In 2023, an investigation by the United States Department of Labor found child labor violations at McDonald's franchises in the state of Kentucky, which involved over 300 children, two of them 10-year-olds. A total of $212,000 was levied against three franchises for the violations.^[232] Further investigations uncovered child labor violations involving 83 minors at 16 different locations in Louisiana and Texas, with imposed fines amounting to $77,572.^[233]

Sports

In 1992, basketball player Michael Jordan became the first celebrity to have a McDonald's value meal named after him. The "McJordan" was available at Chicago franchises. The exclusivity of the meal lead to fans in other regions being envious, more notably leading to a man buying a gallon of the McJordan BBQ sauce for 10,000 dollars.^[238]

LeBron James was a spokesman for McDonald's from 2003 to 2017,^[239] while co-endorsing Coca-Cola-Sprite since early in his career.^[240]

In January 2025, WNBA player Angel Reese became the first woman to partner with McDonald's, creating the Angel Reese Special.^[241][242] Ordering the meal as a double Quarter Pounder was promoted in reference to Reese's consistent double-doubles during games.^[243]

McDonald's is the title sponsor of the McDonald's All-American Game, to draw fans, college coaches, and NBA decision-makers.^[244]

Music

In September 2020, McDonald's partnered with rapper Travis Scott to release the "Travis Scott Meal" nationwide. Scott designed new uniforms for McDonald's employees and released Cactus Jack merchandise using vintage visuals from the fast food chain's history.^[245] The company followed up with the "J Balvin Meal" in a partnership with reggaeton singer J Balvin.^[246]

In 2021, McDonald's partnered with Korean boy group BTS to release the "BTS Meal" in 50 countries around the world, starting on May 26 in select countries.^[247]