70+ Fascinating McDonald’s Facts Most People Don’t Know
Updated: Apr. 07, 2020With billions of people served, McDonald's has played a fascinating role in shaping international culture since its first restaurant opened. Here, a compilation of surprising McDonald's trivia even its most loyal customers may not know.
It started as a BBQ restaurant
In 1940, brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened up the first McDonald’s restaurant—a BBQ joint—in San Bernardino, California (it’s now a museum). Eight years later, they switched to burgers, shakes, potato chips, and pie. The McDonalds purchased several Multi-mixers for use in their establishment, and when Multi-mixer salesman Ray Kroc visited, he was impressed by their success and efficiency. Kroc purchased franchise rights from the brothers. In 1955, he opened his first franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois.
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There are more McDonald’s restaurants than hospitals
There are almost more than one-and-half times more McDonald’s locations than hospitals in the United States: 14,350 versus 10,660.
The Ronald McDonald House makes a big impact
All those dimes and pennies do add up: In 2013, Ronald McDonald House Charities—the nonprofit organization that is McDonald’s charity of choice—raised around $450 million USD. It used those funds to help nearly nine-million children and their families worldwide. Today, RMHC has nearly 300 local chapters in 58 countries and regions.
It doesn’t have the fastest drive-through
The average McDonald’s drive-through transaction took roughly three minutes, or 189.49 seconds, according to one study; the fast-food leader was Wendy’s with a 133.63-second turnaround time.
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It’s one of the most famous symbols
The Golden Arches are said to be the most recognized symbol in the world, even ahead of the cross.
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The Golden Arches used to look different
Founder Richard McDonald first sketched the Golden Arches as an architectural feature to attract customers in cars looking from the roadside, but it took five more years for the arches to be linked into an M (shown at right, at a present-day restaurant in Downey, California, the oldest one still in operation). Did you know there are scandalous hidden meaning behind the arches?
The Golden Arches aren’t always golden
At its Paris Champs-Elysees restaurant, McDonald’s typically yellow Golden Arches are neon white to blend in with the lighting of that location.
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It’s home to the… turquoise Arches?
The McDonald’s in Sedona, Arizona, has the world’s only turquoise arches—the owners of that franchise were told that they needed to make the location more in keeping with the distinct desert environment. The blue was chosen to echo the sky, and the building is more orange and red to resemble the surrounding terrain.
McDonald’s menus look different all over the world
While many international McDonald’s look the same as their American counterparts, their menus contain unique items that reflect local tastes. Some examples: nurnburger, or three bratwursts on a bun (Germany); creamy stars, or deep-fried star-shaped pieces of cheese (Italy); McFalafel and McKebab (Israel); McSpaghetti, or pasta served with Chicken McNuggets on the side (Philippines); McRice burger, or a burger in which rice patties are used instead of a bun (Singapore); quiche de quejo, or cheese quiche (Brazil); red bean pie (Hong Kong); McAloo Tikki burger, or a spiced-potato burger (India).
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The famous Pulp Fiction line wasn’t quite right
Samuel Jackson’s character came pretty close in Pulp Fiction: a Quarter Pounder in France is called a Royal Cheese, not a Royale with Cheese.
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McDonald’s is banned in certain countries
Nations that have placed a ban on McDonald’s include Bermuda, Montenegro, Kazahstan, and Macedonia. Here are more countries that have banned McDonald’s.
One location is floating around
In all the world, there is one floating McDonald’s. Known as the McBarge, it’s in Vancouver, Canada. It was built for and served food at the 1986 World’s Fair, but it is now abandoned. Perhaps it should open as a sail-through?
Queen Elizabeth II owns a McDonald’s
The Queen of England owns approximately $11 billion USD of real estate in the United Kingdom; among her holdings is a McDonald’s near Buckingham Palace. So far, she has yet to dine there—but she may be more of a drive-through type.
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The fast-food joint will cater your wedding
Golden wedding arches: McDonald’s in Hong Kong offers a variety of wedding packages. The deluxe package, which costs around $1,200, includes a two-hour rental of a decorated McDonald’s location, 50 invitations, McDonald’s gifts for 50 guests, a pair of McDonald’s balloon wedding rings, a bridal bouquet, apple pie display, and an emcee.
It took nine years for fries to hit the menu
Fries debuted in 1949; before that, only potato chips were available.
The Filet-o-Fish was invented for Lent
A McDonald’s franchise owner in Monfort Heights, Ohio, noticed that residents in his highly Catholic town did not eat hamburgers or cheeseburgers during Lent so he created a meat-free alternative, the Filet-o-Fish, which swam onto menus in 1962. Today, 23 per cent of all Filet-o-Fish sales are thought to occur during Lent.
The chain’s worst-selling item may have been the Hula burger
Invented by Ray Kroc as a meatless alternative for Catholics on Lent, it consisted of a grilled piece of pineapple with a slice of cheese in a bun. It lasted a brief while in 1962.
The McGriddle was designed to fulfill every craving
McDonald’s McGriddle was invented by product developer Tom Ryan because he wanted a handheld breakfast item that was both sweet and savory. He is the Dr. Frankenstein of fast food. In an earlier job at Pizza Hut, he created stuffed-crust pizza and the Meat Lovers, Veggie Lovers, and Cheese Lovers pizzas. He is now the founder and chief concept officer at Smashburger.
The Egg McMuffin was inspired by a brunch favourite
Franchisee Herb Peterson created the Egg McMuffin, which became available in 1971, by modeling it off his breakfast of choice, eggs Benedict. This is the only McDonald’s Breakfast made with fresh eggs.
McDonald’s Coca-Cola really is different
Some discerning diners believe that the Coke served at McDonald’s tastes better than it does at other places. They may be onto something: Only at McDonald’s is the Coke syrup delivered in stainless steel tanks to preserve its freshness; elsewhere, it’s transported in plastic bags.
One item has a day’s worth of calories
At a grand total of 1,880 calories, the 40-piece Chicken McNuggets are the highest calorie item on the regular menu. That’s more calories than many adults should consume in a single day.
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Menu items have dozens of ingredients
The number of ingredients in Chicken McNuggets? Forty, which is low compared to the ingredient list for the McRib, which has 70.
The McRib was thought to be a flop
The McRib was removed from the McDonald’s menu in 1985 due to its lack of popularity. But thanks to a loyal cult following, it came back in 1989 and was offered until 2005 in the chain’s restaurants in much of the world. From 2006 on, it’s been available for a few months every year. However, all along it has been a menu staple in one country: Germany.
You can hack the menu for a cheaper Big Mac
According to Reddit users, you can get a Big Mac for half the price if you order a McDouble without mustard or ketchup and add shredded lettuce and special sauce. The only difference will be the lack of a third bun.
Those in the know say that McDonald’s has a secret menu
The most popular items include the McLeprechaun shake (a chocolate shake mixed with their seasonal Shamrock Shake), the McKinley Mac (a Big Mac made with quarter-pounder patties), and the Land, Air, and Sea burger (a McChicken patty, beef patty, and Filet-o-Fish patty combined).
One sandwich could cost $25
Customer Moshe Tamssot posted a YouTube video that showed him creating the biggest burger possible with the old “Create Your Taste” initiative that let customers customize their burgers. Although he was limited to two quarter-pound beef patties, he was able to add 10 times all the other ingredients. His sandwich was topped by 10 slices of bacon, 30 slices of cheese, and 10 servings of guacamole, tomato, pickles, lettuce, mushrooms, jalapeno peppers, raw onions, and grilled onions (not to mention a variety of sauces). The sandwich weighed 1.7 kilograms and cost $24.89. We believe he is still digesting it.
Celebrity chefs have made McDonald’s gourmet
In a one-off event in 2013, McDonald’s challenged celebrity chefs to deploy McDonald’s ingredients to create a “McGourmet” meal. Guests at the NYC dinner enjoyed kung pao chicken (made with Chicken McNuggets and sweet-and-sour sauce), a tortilla espanola (hash browns and eggs), slow-cooked beef with blueberry pomegranate sauce (the chain’s blueberry-pomegranate smoothie) and gnocchi (French fries!), and washed it all down with mojitos (mango pineapple smoothie).
The mascot has a modern makeover
Ronald’s newest wardrobe consists of yellow cargo pants and a vest and a red-and-white striped rugby shirt; on special occasions, he tops it all with a red blazer emblazoned with golden arches on the front pocket. His new look was created by theatrical costume designer Ann Hould-Ward, who won a Tony for Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast.
Ronald McDonald robbed a competitor (sort of)
In 2005, a man from Manchester, New Hampshire, robbed a Wendy’s. His name? Ronald MacDonald.
One customer had a huge overreaction
In 2015, Shaneka Torres of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was sentenced to three to seven years in prison sentence after she was convicted of shooting a bullet in a McDonald’s drive-through window after she failed to receive bacon on her burger. She has also been banned from the restaurant for life.
Customers sue for the strangest things
In 2014, a McDonald’s customer sued the company for $1.5 million after claiming to suffer “undue mental anguish” after he received only one napkin with his order.
Sarah Michelle Gellar was banned from the restaurant
After starring in a McDonald’s-bashing ad for Burger King, the then-four-year-old actress Sarah Michelle Gellar was named in a lawsuit by the fast-food giant—and was banned from McDonald’s.
It’s been in fierce legal battles
While the best-known McDonald’s lawsuit in America is the one involving scalding coffee, the company is known in the U.K. for a different legal matter. In 1994, two members of the London Greenpeace group were sued by McDonald’s for distributing pamphlets that claimed the company was responsible for hunger in the Third World, deforestation, food poisoning, cruel treatment of animals, and paying low wages. The trial—dubbed the McLibel case—still stands as the longest in English history at 300 days, generating 20,000 pages of trial transcripts. The defendants were found guilty of making some libelous statements and ordered to pay a fine. But in 2005, they brought their case to the European Court, which declared that the case was in breach of the right to a fair trial and right to freedom of expression (mainly due to the unavailability of legal aid for the Greenpeace members).
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‘H.R. Pufnstuf’ sued for copyright issues
Children’s television producers Sid and Marty Krofft sued McDonald’s in 1973, saying that McDonaldland ripped off the “concept and feel” of their TV show H.R. Pufnstuf. McDonald’s was ordered to pay the brothers $1 million.
One man has eaten more than 30,000 Big Macs
In the Guinness Book of World Records, one record is unlikely to be beaten anytime soon: “Most Big Macs Consumed.” When Don Gorske of Wisconsin set the record (again) in 2016, he’d already consumed 28,788 sandwiches. He eats two a day, and by May 4, 2018, he’d eaten his 30,000th burger. He had his first at age 18 in 1972 (it cost 49 cents). He liked the sandwich so much that after eating it, he had eight more of them—for a one-day total of nine, a limit he has never exceeded. Both his weight and cholesterol are said to be normal, and he was still running marathons in 2006.
There’s a Big(gest) Mac record
The world’s largest Big Mac can be found in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, at the Big Mac Museum (which bills itself “the most tasteful museum in the world”). While the mega-Mac is inedible—it’s a 14-foot-tall statue—hungry visitors can eat the real thing at the on-premises McDonald’s restaurant.
Mike Fountaine holds the record for owning the most McDonald’s related memorabilia
His 75,000-item collection—which includes buttons, uniforms, cups, and Happy Meal boxes and toys—spills over nine rooms of his Pennsylvania home. In 1968, a then-15-year-old Fountaine began working at the Golden Arches and began his collection one year later. Today he owns two McDonald’s restaurants.
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You can visit a massive PlayPlace on your next Florida trip
The world’s largest McDonald’s PlayPlace is in the Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. It includes a 500-gallon aquarium, waterfall, and 100 arcade games.
The Big Mac Special Sauce is in high demand
A limited-edition—one out of 200 produced in the world—500-ml bottle of McDonald’s Big Mac Special Sauce sold in Australia on eBay for $20,600 in Australian dollars, or around $16,144 U.S. One hundred per cent of the profits went to Ronald McDonald House Charities.
But the ingredients in the special sauce are no longer secret
According to the company website, it contains soybean oil, pickle relish, distilled vinegar, water (main components); egg yolks, onion powder, mustard seed, salt, garlic powder, vegetable protein, caramel colour, paprika and turmeric extracts (for flavour and colour); high fructose corn syrup, sugar (for sweetness); sodium benzoate, calcium disodium EDTA (for preservation of colour and taste); propylene glycol alginate, mustard bran, soy lecithin (for thickness and creaminess).
eBay bent the rules for a coveted McNugget
In 2012, Rebekah Speight of Nebraska auctioned off a truly one-of-a-kind possession on eBay: a chicken McNugget that resembled George Washington. The winning bid was $8,100, which Speight planned to donate to her church’s youth camp. At the time of sale, the nugget was already three years old. In general, eBay bans the sale of expired food products, but the company made an exception.
Usain Bolt loves McNuggets
Jamaican runner Usain Bolt claims to have eaten around 1,000 chicken McNuggets during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, where McDonald’s had an outpost in the Olympic Village. It was the lunch (or dinner) of champions: At those games, he won three gold medals and set three world records.
“McJob” is in the dictionary
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “McJob” is “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector.” McDonald’s threatened to sue to change the definition but ultimately responded with a clever U.K. ad campaign that extolled the company’s employee benefits. It ended with the line: “Not bad for a McJob.”
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Employee benefits are great
On a corporate level, McDonald’s has some pretty spectacular benefits. Employees get an extra week of paid time off in the years when they reach an anniversary ending with a “5” (5, 15, 25, etc.). They’re eligible for an eight-week paid sabbatical for every 10 years worked.
You can attend a real-life Hamburger University
In 1961, the company opened Hamburger University to train its executive employees; today, there are more than 2750,000 graduates. The original campus is in Oak Brook, Illinois, where McDonald’s is headquartered. Other campuses are in Tokyo, London, Sydney, Munich, Sao Paolo, and Shanghai. All together around the world, Hamburger U. employs more than 60 full-time college professors.
Employees have their own singing competition
McDonald’s holds its own version of American Idol. Called the Voice of McDonald’s, the competition shines the spotlight on the vocal talent of its 1.8 million employees. In its most recent contest, 58,000 McWorkers from 63 countries entered. Lucy Ospitia of Bucaramanga, Colombia, won the $25,000 grand prize. Rocky Rosabal from the Philippines won second prize ($17,500); third prize ($12,500) went to Ashlae Nelms from Illinois.
You can gauge a country’s currency by its McDonald’s prices
The Economist created the “Big Mac Index” in 1986 as a shorthand way to determine whether a country’s currency is inflated. The index uses the international prices of a Big Mac, a globally available food product, to illustrate the differences in monetary value between nations. It’s still referenced today. In January 2019, the average price for a Big Mac was $5.58 in America and $6.62 in Switzerland. (All prices are in U.S. dollars.) Russia and Ukraine were among the cheapest places at which to buy a Big Mac, $1.65 and $1.94, respectively.
Super Size Me showed the scary side of McDonald’s food
In the 2003 documentary Super Size Me, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock chronicled his 30-day, all-McDonald’s diet. At month’s end, Spurlock had gained 11.3 kilograms, sent his cholesterol sky-rocketing, and caused serious harm to his liver. McDonald’s removed Super Size fries and drinks from its menu six weeks after the film’s release, although it said Super Size Me did not influence its decision.
Its jingle was made by famous pop stars
The “I’m Lovin’ It” McDonald’s jingle was co-written by Pharrell and recorded by Justin Timberlake.
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Pro ice hockey goalie Andrew Hammond is nicknamed Hamburglar
How he earned it: A fan threw a burger on the ice at Hammond after a recent win (in 12 starts, he’d amassed an impressive 10-0-1 record); the goalie graciously accepted it but did not eat it because he said it was too cold. To ensure that he always has access to a hot burger, Hammond received—courtesy of McDonald’s in Canada—a special card that entitles him to a lifetime of free eats.
An elderly couple’s 60-plus year tradition was ruined there
Octogenarians Carl and Barbara Becker of Virginia were regulars at their local McDonald’s, where they liked stopping in for “scrunch”—a snack between lunch and supper. One day, an employee was sweeping up near them, and when asked if it bothered them, the couple answered that it did. A manager then told the Beckers that they’d exceeded their allowed 30 minutes in the restaurant and had to leave. The Beckers wrote a heartfelt letter to their local paper in which Carl explained how the incident had marred their McDonald’s ritual. For the pair, scrunch is “a sweet time of fellowship, which we enjoy, which helps sustain our marriage of 63 years,” wrote Carl. In response, McDonald’s corporate offices sent the couple coupons for two small coffees. The Beckers refused them but said they’d still patronize the chain—just not the Culpeper location.
There’s a happy ending to the couple’s story
The Beckers were not left burger-less, however. Shawn Moss, who owns Shawn’s Smokehouse BBQ restaurant in Culpeper, was so moved when he heard about the couple’s experience that he offered them one free “scrunch” a week for the rest of their lives.
One man has a potentially regrettable McDonald’s tattoo
In 2014, 18-year-old Stian Ytterdahl from Norway had a tattoo artist ink a McDonald’s receipt onto his arm after his friends dared him; a week later, he had the same receipt tattooed on his other arm. For the rest of his life, he’ll always know what he ate at 7:36 PM on March 24, 2014: a Coke, three cheeseburgers, a cheeseburger Happy Meal, a McFlurry NonStop with three extra toppings, and an extra Happy Meal toy.
Fans can get Big Mac paraphernalia
At the McDonald’s online shop smilemakers.com, customers can purchase Big Mac-patterned pajamas, wallpaper, long underwear, rain boots, dog coats, and (human) bedding.
Mixed-sex groups affect eating behaviours
Scientists studying McDonald’s patrons found that female diners ate less when they were eating in mixed-sex groups rather than in same-sex groups, while male diners ate more in mixed-sex groups than in pairs, according to a study published in the Journal of Health Psychology.
It has a huge social media following
While only McDonald’s is on Twitter (with more than 3.52 million followers), both McDonald’s and Ronald McDonald have Instagram accounts. McDonald’s boasts 3.3 million followers to Ronald’s 47,600.
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The four McNugget shapes have names
Look for the boot, bone, ball, and bell in your next order.
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