WI: No McDonald's.

Jack In The Box is mostly on the West Coast. There was one nears Falls Church VA when we moved here in the mid-70's but it was gone by 1978.
 
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Jack In The Box is mostly on the West Coast.

Heavy presence in Texas, too, though outshined by the Awesome Duo of Fast Food, Whataburger and Popeye's.

I was in South Africa around 17 years ago and had the fortune of traveling around quite a bit while there. I was surprised by the number of KFCs I saw, including in small towns without much else.
 

Md139115

Banned
I think we need to ask what the world would look like culturally without McDonalds. Like it or not, it’s pretty much shorthand for the US at this point. Foreigners consider McDonalds to be America’s biggest export, Tom Friedman has claimed that no countries with McDonalds have ever gone to war with each other, and the Cold War only well and truly ended in many of our hearts the day that McDonalds opened in Red Square.
 

CalBear

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Be really unfortunate if I had to lock this and kick some folks for turning a fast food WI into a political food fight.

Know what I mean?
 
Burger King (or Hungry Jack's as we call it down here) came out before McDonald's, so wouldn't that simply take its place?

More of Wendy's, Hardees, Arby's, etc. too I guess.
 
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The quip about "no two McDonalds-having countries going to war", and the use of McDonalds hamburgers as a standard basket item to calculate inflation and currency ratios would be s/McDonalds/WhoeverElse/.

Stuckeys, Wimpy, Howard Johnson, and other table-service chains still die out, because counter service and drive-thrus are cheaper and faster.
 

Lusitania

Donor
I think we need to ask what the world would look like culturally without McDonalds. Like it or not, it’s pretty much shorthand for the US at this point. Foreigners consider McDonalds to be America’s biggest export, Tom Friedman has claimed that no countries with McDonalds have ever gone to war with each other, and the Cold War only well and truly ended in many of our hearts the day that McDonalds opened in Red Square.
Well think that last year more hamburgers were sold in France than baguette sandwiches. So the McDonald’s entry into Europe ( France) heralded the arrival of American food. So no McDonald would kfc, Pizza Hut, Burger King and other restaurants have expanded as rapidly?
 
Like it or not, it’s pretty much shorthand for the US at this point. Foreigners consider McDonalds to be America’s biggest export, Tom Friedman has claimed that no countries with McDonalds have ever gone to war with each other

Not that it disproves his broader point but this is not strictly true. There was a McDonald's in Belgrade when the US started bombing Yugoslavia, which happened shortly after Friedman published that book. There are also McDonald's in Georgia and Crimea, which have both had conflicts with Russia.
 

Md139115

Banned
Not that it disproves his broader point but this is not strictly true. There was a McDonald's in Belgrade when the US started bombing Yugoslavia, which happened shortly after Friedman published that book. There are also McDonald's in Georgia and Crimea, which have both had conflicts with Russia.

I’m not saying that he’s right, just commenting on how he and so many others use McDonalds as a symbol of the world economy.
 

Lusitania

Donor
I’m not saying that he’s right, just commenting on how he and so many others use McDonalds as a symbol of the world economy.
Yes. The economist publishes yearly the Big Mac table to indicate standard of living.

Also when McDonald’s expanded to Russia they had to import almost all ingredients from finland because Russians could not produce food ingredients consistently and in the quality required. Going for date at McDonald’s was considered a highlight.

Also in regards to quality. McDonald’s in the 1990s pulled the license of all the McDonald’s in Paris when the franchise owner was or unwilling to fix several quality issues.
 

Lusitania

Donor
Umm see the date..maybe ITTL McDonalds remplacement?
All of them could of been McDonald’s replacement but it would of taken someone with Ray’s marketing luck to of built a franchise like McDonald. Also as I indicated these regional companies all followed the formula that Ray trailblaized so would one of them replaced McDonald’s.?

Also many of McDonald’s later product development such as Big Mac, filet o fish were actually developed by franchise owners.

Also McDonald’s recognizing need for managemt improvement creating hamburger university. Which in restaurant industry was not known at the time.

So detail to quality, great marketing and ability adapt have meant McDonald’s was able to grow to the huge corporation it is today.

I want to leave you with this thought. All through the 60s and even 70s no one knew McDonald’s would become the company it was today. In 1990 I met a local hamburger chain (3 restaurants) owner who had been offered to buy a new restaurant in Toronto in 1969. It was called McDonald’s the franchise owner due to health reasons needed to sell. This guy looked at McDonald’s and was not sure it would succeed so he turned it down. In 1980 he and his brothers opened their own “burger factory”. Lol.
 
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