Ray Croc was the driving force in McDonald’s sucess. So the question is what would happen if he did not exists if he not come across McDonald’s.
First off let’s think about what McDonald’s offered, it provided a hamburger, fries, drink or shake for about half of what the competitors offered. Secoundly what did Ray Croc do, he recognized the potential to expand it nation wide setting up McDonald’s in every region of country and he also made sure that they all produced the same food no matter which McDonald you went across the US.
Yes McDonald brothers did not invent burger joint, Ray Croc not invent franchise restaurants but the combination of the two showed the world how it was done. Now if both are gone.
1) hundreds of regional chains would be larger but do not believe any chain would of expanded nationwide and international like McDonald’s did.
2) the big attraction of McDonald’s at beginning was the cheap price and speed in which people got their food. The rest came later as it expanded its menu and reacted to changing society. So cheap burgers would not be so prevelant since no other national chain would exist providing same pressures to produce cheap fast food. Don’t get me wrong you still get burger joints all over the place.
3) all those successful other restaurants mentioned by previous posters saw how McDonald’s operated and followed suite. Yes many of them introduced concepts that McDonald’s made famous like breakfast, drive through. But it was McDonald’s who took people ideas from a specific region and made it national. So we would see drive through expand slower, fish sandwich be a regional menu item instead of introduced nationally, same with Big Mac sandwich.
4) you also not see the rapid expansion of franchise like we did. We would see larger and stronger regional restaurant chains but not a truly dominating national chain. Would Burger King, Wendy’s or even KFC have expanded the way they did with McDonald’s? No those were restaurants who expanded by following McDonald’s lead. Yes they still exist but might of stayed as regional or city chain instead of national.
So expansion of McDonald’s replaced the local restaurants, we lost many unique restaurants due to its expansion. When I travel I hardly ever eat at national chain be they burger or fancy. I want to try something I not get where I live. I want to experience something new.
Think we loose part of the traveling experience by eating same food when in different country or region.