By the Eighties, McDonald’s was already a well-established fast-food chain with an iconic menu and signature branding.
Ray Kroc opened the primary McDonald’s franchise location in Des Plaines, Illinois, on April 15, 1955. That yr, he additionally based McDonald’s System, Inc., which might develop into the McDonald’s Company we all know right now.
By 1958, McDonald’s had offered 100 million burgers, and the eating places had taken on a signature design type that prominently featured the chain’s iconic “golden arches.”
The Eighties have been a serious interval of development for McDonald’s.
The Deseret Information reported that McDonald’s restaurant gross sales reached $1.62 million in 1989, in comparison with $1 million in 1979, and gross sales exterior the US grew from $900 million in 1979 to $5.3 billion in 1989.
Whereas some points of consuming at McDonald’s have remained the identical, some really feel iconically ’80s.
Here is what it was prefer to eat at McDonald’s within the Eighties.
Some McDonald’s eating places within the Eighties retained the unique restaurant design from the Fifties and ’60s.
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Architect Stanley Meston designed the unique search for McDonald’s eating places, which featured a red-and-white colour scheme. When the McDonald brothers first noticed the design for his or her new restaurant, they have been involved that the roof was too flat.
Meston beneficial including the now-iconic golden arches to the constructing’s roof to create a extra dimensional look.
A location in Downey, California, is the oldest still-operating restaurant that includes the unique red-and-white design.
Whereas some eating places continued to characteristic the golden arches, different storefronts appeared extra trendy.
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This London restaurant, pictured in 1985, appears to be like remarkably much like city McDonald’s eating places of right now.
Some eating places have been constructed into giant colonial-looking buildings.
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This out of doors courtyard, with its picket tables and benches, appears to be like fairly completely different from most McDonald’s seating areas now, although some McDonald’s places are nonetheless housed in historic buildings.
This Sydney restaurant featured a big skylight and trendy seating.
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There are nonetheless stunning, distinctive McDonald’s eating places round.
Workers wore striped bowling-style shirts and hats.
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In the present day, staff typically put on T-shirts that replicate the chain’s hottest and present promotions.
Celebrities like British steel band Motorhead have been noticed taking images at McDonald’s.
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For McDonald’s clients within the Eighties, the restaurant was an emblem of America, which translated into the chain’s promoting campaigns.
In honor of the 1984 Olympic Video games in Los Angeles, McDonald’s launched the slogan “If the US wins, you win.” With each buy, McDonald’s clients obtained a scratch-off ticket that exposed a sure sporting class.
The New York Occasions reported that if a US Olympian gained gold in that class, they might change the ticket for a free Large Mac. A silver earned you free french fries, and a bronze medal gained clients a free Coke.
Even President Ronald Reagan was photographed chowing down on a McDonald’s burger.
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The Tuscaloosa Information reported that clients have been caught off guard when Reagan made an unplanned cease at an Alabama McDonald’s restaurant in 1984.
“The President of america ordered a Large Mac, a big order of fries and candy tea, proffered a $20 invoice from his proper entrance pant pocket, acquired his $17.54 in change, and appeared round for a spot to get pleasure from his meal,” a reporter on the scene later wrote in 2006.
When requested in regards to the final time he had eaten at McDonald’s, Reagan replied that it was earlier than he “acquired this job.”
“However I sort of miss it typically,” he continued. “I figured so long as I had the chance, I would as effectively make the most of it and cease.”