The Founder

Quote: reno

Colonel Sanders famously regretted selling KFC for just $2 million.

Sanders was another small thinking hick,
like the McDonald bros. Sanders would
take his Cadillac and visit his stores and
if anything was below his standards for
excellence, he would close the store
down for weeks sometimes until the
manager got it right. You can't run a
business that way. When he sold in
1964, he was old and fat and happy as
a lark to be a millionaire. It's when the
business became wildly successful
now that he wasn't running it anymore,
that's when he became resentful.

Dave Thomas (who later started Wendys) is credited with keeping Col Saunders from going broke when he first started turning his business into a chain. It was Thomas who convinced him to quit trying to be a restaurant and cut back to his signature chicken product.

Quote: Evenbob

The movie is a Lib whitewash of what really
happened. The brothers opposed Croc every
step of the way, even going behind his back
to make deals. They had huge egos and were
very money hungry, they forced Croc to go
medieval on their hick asses eventually. They
were thrilled with the money they eventually
got, but just like Col Sanders, when the
businesses they sold took off and became huge,
they thought they got screwed.

Kroc was a smart but tough businessman. As a salesman he would try to increase his sales by driving the sales of his customers. He got them to sell more milkshakes, so he sold more cups. At MCD he got his money based on their sales. He refused kickbacks from suppliers. This is one reason for the success of MCD. HoJos for one raped their franchisees on supplies to the point the franchiees bought out-of-system in any way they could get away from.

I remember the first time I had KFC.
it was just after I started driving in 1965.
I went to the only KFC in town and got
a 21 piece bucket for $3.99. I sat in my
car and ate 14-15 pieces, they were
so good. On the way home I got
violently sick and had to stop and
upchuck it all on the side of the road.
I didn't have KFC again for at least 30
years, just the smell of it made me gag.

Quote: Evenbob

I remember the first time I had KFC.
it was just after I started driving in 1965.
I went to the only KFC in town and got
a 21 piece bucket for $3.99. I sat in my
car and ate 14-15 pieces, they were
so good. On the way home I got
violently sick and had to stop and
upchuck it all on the side of the road.
I didn't have KFC again for at least 30
years, just the smell of it made me gag.

15 pieces? No wonder you got sick. Price seems high, that would be like spending $30 today.

Quote: AZDuffman

15 pieces? No wonder you got sick. Price seems high, that would be like spending $30 today.

Didn't seem high at all 52 years ago.
A 21 piece bucket with mashed and
gravy and rolls was a bargain. Right
now the 12 piece bucket with sides
is $29.99. At today's prices, a 21 piece
bucket would cost $32.50 for chicken
only. With the sides over $40.

$4 was a good price even in 1965.

Quote: AZDuffman

No, not as good as the real thing, the reason for the swithc was cost and space.

I'm sure the ice cream itself wasn't cheap, but the movie emphasized the high co$t involved with paying for all that electricity used to keep the ice cream frozen. The irony is that Kroc got rid of the freezers when he switched to fake milk shakes and then brought all those freezers back when they switched to frozen french fries and beef patties.

Quote: Mental Floss

One of the company’s most often-repeated talking points in 1960s media was the fact that everything arrived fresh to stores: meat came refrigerated and potatoes were shipped whole. Each location would have to use a peeler and slicer to prepare the fries. Eventually, the spud-related labor began to slow down service, and Kroc began phasing out the fresh fries in 1966.

(And they've come back full circle, because starting in 2018, they'll start using fresh beef again.)

Incidentally, In 'N Out Burger is the only fast food chain that uses whole potatoes in the restaurant. Everyone else uses frozen french fries. Speaking of McDonalds french fries, anyone in the mood for some tertiary butylhydroquinone or dimethylpolysiloxane?

Quote: reno

I'm sure the ice cream itself wasn't cheap, but the movie emphasized the high co$t involved with paying for all that electricity used to keep the ice cream frozen. The irony is that Kroc got rid of the freezers when he switched to fake milk shakes and then brought all those freezers back when they switched to frozen french fries and beef patties.



(And they've come back full circle, because starting in 2018, they'll start using fresh beef again.)

They had little choice but to go to frozen on both. As to fries, it was getting impossible to get steady supply of the right spuds due to seasonality and no one farmer could come close to supplying the chain. Fred Turner was at first against frozen fries and beef but came around. The guy who figured out how to make frozen fries close to as good tasting as fresh (at the time) was a candidate to buy 51% of the Stardust Hotel and Casino, but Glick decided to finance with the mafia instead so he could have controlling interest. Joke on Glick.

As to beef, they had over 100 beef suppliers at one point and keeping quality control was impossible, it was a matter of time before someone got killed by bad beef. That was one big reason for the shift. The other was to consolidate deliveries. In the early 1960s, a McDonalds store had a huge amount of suppliers and deliveries. Beef, potatoes, Coca-Cola, napkins, perhaps a dozen deliveries. When they shifted to frozen fries and beef plus insta-shakes, they could put more and more on pallets, 1-2 deliveries a week.

Fast food chains have fed millions for
60 years. They have also fattened up
the world to an alarming degree. If
all the new studies on sugar and starch
are true, they are responsible for most
major diseases. Big sugar and big wheat
have been wrongly blaming fat intake on
illnesses, when they knew all along it was
sugar and grains making people sick.

Quote: Evenbob

Fast food chains have fed millions for
60 years. They have also fattened up
the world to an alarming degree. If
all the new studies on sugar and starch
are true, they are responsible for most
major diseases. Big sugar and big wheat
have been wrongly blaming fat intake on
illnesses, when they knew all along it was
sugar and grains making people sick.

People fattened themselves up.