Ray Kroc

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VOICE ONE:

I'm Phoebe Zimmermann.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special
English. Today, we tell about Ray Kroc, the man who helped make the
fast food industry famous. He expanded a small business into an
international operation called McDonald's.

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VOICE ONE:

You probably know what fast food is. It is cooked food that is
ready almost as soon as you enter a public eating place. It does not
cost much. It is popular with most Americans and with many people
around the world. Some experts say that at least twenty-five percent
of American adults eat fast food every day. Most fast food
restaurants offer ground beef sandwiches called hamburgers and
potatoes cooked in hot oil called french fries. Other fast food
places serve fried chicken, pizza or tacos.

VOICE TWO:

You see fast food restaurants
almost everywhere in the United States. The names and the designs of
the buildings are easily recognized – Burger King, Kentucky Fried
Chicken, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and of course, McDonald's. Most are
chain restaurants. That means each one is part of a huge company.

Each restaurant in the chain has the same large, colorful sign
that can be recognized from far away. Each offers its own carefully
limited choice of foods. Each kind of hamburger or piece of chicken
tastes the same at every restaurant in the chain.

VOICE ONE:

The fast food industry began with
two brothers in San Bernardino, California in the nineteen-forties.
Mac and Dick McDonald owned a small, but very successful restaurant.
They sold only a few kinds of simple food, especially hamburgers.

People stood outside the restaurant at a window. They told the
workers inside what they wanted to eat. They received and paid for
their food very quickly. The food came in containers that could be
thrown away. The system was so successful that the McDonald brothers
discovered they could sell a lot of food and lower their prices.

VOICE TWO:

Ray Kroc sold restaurant supplies. He recognized the importance
of the McDonald brothers' idea. He saw that food sales could be
organized for mass production -- almost like a factory. Mister Kroc
paid the McDonald brothers for permission to open several
restaurants similar to theirs. He opened the first McDonald's
restaurant near Chicago, Illinois, in nineteen-fifty-five. Soon,
more McDonald's were opening all across the United States. Other
people copied the idea and more fast food restaurants followed.

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VOICE ONE:

Raymond Albert Kroc was a very
wealthy businessman when he died in nineteen-eighty-four. But he had
not always been successful. Ray was born in Illinois in
nineteen-oh-two. His parents were not rich. He attended school in
Oak Park, near Chicago.Ray never completed high school, however. He
left school to become a driver for the Red Cross in World War One.
He lied about his age to be accepted. He was only fifteen. The war
ended before he could be sent to Europe.

VOICE TWO:

After the war, Ray became a jazz piano player. He played with
famous music groups. He got married when he was twenty. Then he
began working for the Lily Tulip Cup Company, selling paper cups.He
kept trying new things, however. He attempted to sell land in the
southern state of Florida. That business failed. Ray Kroc remembered
driving to Chicago from Florida after his business failed. He said:
"I will never forget that drive as long as I live. The streets were
covered with ice, and I did not have winter clothing. When I arrived
home I was very cold and had no money."

VOICE ONE:

Ray Kroc went back to being a salesman for the Lily Tulip Cup
Company. He was responsible for product sales in the central United
States. His life improved when he started a small business that sold
restaurant supplies. He sold a machine that could mix five
milkshakes at one time.

In nineteen-fifty-four, he discovered a small restaurant that was
using eight of his machines. He went there and found that the owners
of the restaurant had a good business selling only hamburgers,
french fries and drinks.

At first, Mister Kroc saw only the possibility for increasing the
sales of his mixers to more restaurants. Then he proposed an
agreement with the McDonald brothers to start a number of
restaurants. Under the agreement, the McDonald brothers would get a
percentage of all sales.

VOICE TWO:

The first McDonald's restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois,
in nineteen-fifty-five. Ray Kroc was fifty-two years old -- an age
when many people start thinking about retirement. He opened two
restaurants. Soon he began to understand that the real profits were
made in selling hamburgers, not the mixers. He quickly sold the
mixer company and invested the money in the growing chain of
McDonald's restaurants.

In nineteen-sixty, Mister Kroc bought the legal rights to the
restaurants from the McDonald brothers. By then, the chain had more
than two-hundred restaurants.

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VOICE ONE:

Fast food restaurants spread quickly in the United States because
of franchising. Franchising means selling the legal right to operate
a store in a company's chain to an independent business person. If
the company approves, the business person may buy or lease the store
for a period of years.

Many people want to own a McDonald's restaurant, but only a few
are approved. Each restaurant buys its supplies at a low cost from
the parent company. Each restaurant also gives the company about ten
percent of the money it earns in sales. Today, about seventy percent
of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by
independent businessmen and women.

VOICE TWO:

Ray Kroc was good at identifying what the public wanted. He knew
that many American families wanted to eat in a restaurant sometimes.
He gave people a simple eating place with popular food, low prices,
friendly service and no waiting. And all McDonald's restaurants sold
the same food in every restaurant across the country.

Ray Kroc established rules for how McDonald's restaurants were to
operate. He demanded that every restaurant offer "quality, service
and cleanliness." People lucky enough to get a franchise must
complete a program at a training center called Hamburger University.
They learn how to cook and serve the food, and how to keep the
building clean. More than sixty-five-thousand people have completed
this training.

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VOICE ONE:

McDonald's began to expand around the world in
nineteen-sixty-seven. Ray Kroc's business ability made McDonald's
the largest restaurant company in the world. There are now more than
thirty-thousand McDonald's restaurants on six continents.

The company operates in about one-hundred-twenty countries. Every
day, McDonald's restaurants around the world serve about
fifty-million people.

VOICE TWO:

In later years, Ray Kroc established the Kroc Foundation, a
private organization that gives money to help others. He also
established a number of centers that offer support to families of
children who have cancer. They are called Ronald McDonald houses.

Many people praised Ray Kroc for his company's success and good
works. But other people sharply criticized him for the way
McDonald's treated young employees. Many of the workers were paid
the lowest wage permitted by American law. Health experts still
criticize McDonald's food for containing too much fat and salt.

In the nineteen-seventies, Ray Kroc turned his energy from
hamburgers to sports. He bought a professional baseball team in
California, the San Diego Padres. He died in nineteen-eighty-four.
He was eighty-one years old.

VOICE ONE:

That first McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, was
torn down. It was replaced by a store and visitors center that
attempts to copy what was in the original building. Another museum
in nearby Oak Park describes the life of Ray Kroc. Ray Kroc's story
remains an important part of McDonald's history. And his way of
doing business continues to influence fast food restaurants that
feed people around the world.

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VOICE TWO:

This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was the
producer. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another
PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English.