McDonald's

McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD) is the world's largest chain of fast food restaurants, serving nearly 47 million customers daily. McDonald's restaurants are found in 119 countries and territories around the world and serve nearly 47 million customers each day. McDonald's operates over 31,000 restaurants worldwide, employing more than 1.5 million people.

McDonald's primarily sells hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken products, french fries, breakfast items, soft drinks, milkshakes, and desserts. More recently, it has begun to offer salads, wraps and fruit. Many McDonald's restaurants have included a playground for children and advertising geared toward children, and some have been redesigned in a more 'natural' style, with a particular emphasis on comfort: introducing lounge areas and fireplaces, and eliminating hard plastic chairs and tables.

The business began in 1940, with a restaurant opened by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California. Their introduction of the "Speedee Service System" in 1948 established the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant. The original mascot of McDonald's was a man with a chef's hat on top of a hamburger shaped head whose name was "Speedee." Speedee was eventually replaced with Ronald McDonald in 1963.



Business Model

McDonald's Corporation earns revenue as an investor in properties, a franchiser of restaurants, and an operator of restaurants. Approximately 15% of McDonald's restaurants are owned and operated by McDonald's Corporation directly. The remainder are operated by others through a variety of franchise agreements and joint ventures. The McDonald's Corporation's business model is slightly different from that of most other fast-food chains. In addition to ordinary franchise fees and marketing fees, which are calculated as a percentage of sales, McDonald's may also collect rent, which may also be calculated on the basis of sales. As a condition of many franchise agreements, which vary by contract, age, country, and location, the Corporation may own or lease the properties on which McDonald's franchises are located. In most, if not all cases, the franchisee does not own the location of its restaurants.

McDonaldization

McDonald's has become emblematic of globalization, sometimes referred to as the "McDonaldization" of society. The Economist magazine uses the "Big Mac Index": the comparison of a Big Mac's cost in various world currencies can be used to informally judge these currencies' purchasing power parity. Scandinavian countries lead the Big Mac Index with four of the five most expensive Big Mac's. Norway has the most expensive Big Mac in the world as of July 2008, whilst the cheapest country is Malaysia.

The brand is known informally as "Mickey D's" (in the US and Canada), "Macky D's" (in the UK and Ireland), "Mäkkäri" (in Finland), "McDo" (in France, Quebec, the Philippines and the Kansai region of Japan), "Maccer's" (in Ireland), "Macarrannis" (in Mexico), "Maccas" (in New Zealand and Australia), "McD's" (in New Zealand), "Donken" (in Sweden), "de Mac" (in the Netherlands), Mäkkes (in Germany), "Mac" (in Brazil), "Makku" (in most of Japan; "Makudo" in the Kansai region); "Mek" (in Serbia), "Mekáč" (in the Czech republic), "Mak-Dak" (in the Russia), Mac (in Portugal) and "MacDon's' (in Canada).

Source: Wikipedia

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