The old American sitting beside me on the late evening bus from Dublin Airport would, I think, have permitted himself a tiny smile at the recent announcement that McDonald's plans to open 37 new restaurants and create 2,600 new jobs in Ireland by the year 2001. We got into conversation when the drive gave him wrong information about exchange rates. He had inquired if the English pound was worth the same as the Irish pound. The driver, obviously used to responding automatically to American voices, rattled off the rate for the dollar.
"You have been given wrong information there," I said to the American, "He's quoted you the rate for the dollar. The Irish pound is worth the same as the English pound" (as it then was).
He recorded my correction in his pocket notebook.
"Tell me," he said. "Where will this bus put us down?"
"In the centre of the city, at Busaras."
"Will I be able to walk from there to the Shelbourne Hotel?" he inquired.
Cost of taxi
Having observed him lugging a fairly heavy suitcase on board the bus, I suggested that if he had luggage it would be advisable to take a taxi.
"How much will a taxi cost?"
"You shouldn't pay more than £2," I told him.
"Is the Shelbourne Hotel near to a street called Grafton Street?"
"Yes, it's quite close."
"So I don't have to hire a cab to get there?"
"No, you can walk there from the Shelbourne in about three or four minutes."
Why, I enquired, did he wanted to visit Grafton Street at that hour of night when all the shops would be closed.
"McDonald's have just opened up there," he said. "I'm with McDonalds and I always make a point of visiting every new franchise. I want to make sure they're putting the beef in."
"You must have visited a lot of McDonald's, then."
"Every last one of them," he said. "No matter where they are. You've gotta keep checking or they mightn't put the right amount of beef in."
The last I saw of him he was asking a taxi driver how much was the fare to the Shelbourne Hotel.
A few years later the face of the old American gazed out at me from a obituary notice in Time magazine. It was Ray Kroc, billionaire and founder of the McDonald's chain, purveyors of the most recognisable food products in the world.
His crusade to "put the beef in" had started in the 1950s when he was selling milk-shake machines to Mac and Dick McDonald at their small fast-food restaurant in San Bernardino. He tried their hamburgers and French fries and loved them. Ray was also impressed by the speedy and clean service. (The "Speedee" slogan created by the brothers was featured on McDonald's signs for years until it was replaced by the now ubiquitous golden arches logo.)
First franchisee
Ray tried to talk Mac and Dick into expanding the business, but they had no ambition and were happy with their homely, local restaurant. However, he did persuade them to allow him to become their first franchisee and he opened his first restaurant in Des Plaines near Chicago in 1955. Soon McDonald's burger joints were bursting out all over the States. Five years later he bought out the humble brothers' interest for $2.7 million and really got his teeth into the business. "A company that isn't growing is dying," he used to say. And, as the whole world knows, grow it did. On its 10th anniversary in 1965 the McDonald's Corporation went public. Stockbrokers reckon that $2,250 invested then would be worth over a million today.
It is impossible to keep up with the number of new openings but it is estimated that at least three-quarters of the 3,000-odd this year will be outside the United States. (Incidentally, the recent announcement about McDonald's expansion in Ireland got scant attention in the Irish media in spite of the promise of 2,600 new jobs. The creation of 50 or so jobs in a computer plant frequently gets front-page prominence. Are the silicone chips mightier than the French fries?)
Arctic Circle
There are now about 25,000 McDonald's restaurants in 115 countries, catering to 40 million people every day. When McDonald's opened in Moscow in 1990 35,000 people queued for hours on the first day to sample the Big Mac. There is even one inside the Arctic Circle - at Santa Claus Lane, Alaska.
In November 1984 Dick McDonald, the man who made and served the first McDonald hamburger, came out of retirement to be formally served the 50th billion bun with the beef in it.
Sadly, Ray Kroc was not there to see it. The billionaire who wanted to walk with his suitcase to the Shelbourne had gone to the Golden Arches in the sky a few months earlier, at the age of 82.