How McDonald's Revolutionized Modern Fast Food Restaurants

JAKARTA - The news of the closure of the first Indonesian branch of McDonald's in the Sarinah Thamrin Building has become a byword. This legendary restaurant leaves many memories in the minds of its customers. That appreciation may not be an exaggeration if you look at the track record of how McDonald's has successfully revolutionized the world of modern fast food restaurants.

McDonald's Indonesia will be forced to close its iconic outlet in the coming days, May 10 to be precise. The reason is that the building will be renovated and change its business strategy. Many McDonald's lovers regretted the closure of the legendary outlet.

Not a few feel that they have many memories at McDonlad's Sarinah. Until someone admitted that it was the first time he went to McDonald's Sarinah since he was five years old and continued there until he was an adult. From those who are still being escorted by their parents, until they can go there themselves.

McDonald's may not be the first fast food restaurant. But McDonald's is arguably the first modern fast food restaurant to successfully open branches in many countries. So how did the long road for the establishment of a restaurant known for its hamburgers to become a giant in the world of fast food restaurant franchises?

Dick and Mac McDonald are two brothers who created the McDonald's fast food restaurant. Citing the McDonald's website, they first founded the Bar-BQ McDonald's restaurant in 1940 in California, United States.

In 1948 the store closed for three months due to changes. December, the restaurant begins to reopen with a self-service drive-in restaurant. They also revamped the menu on offer: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, soft drinks, milk, coffee, french fries, and pies. Their main menu hamburger sells for 15 cents.

They succeeded in implementing a fast food restaurant operation which they named "Speedee Service System". They then began to develop a franchise concept. Several years later, at least nine branches were operational.

In those years this McDonald's restaurant was actually doing quite well. But one of McDonald's regular milk shaker vending machines, Ray Kroc, saw an even greater opportunity. He has the ambition to build McDonald's outlets throughout the country, even the world.

Mac McDonald initially rejected Kroc's suggestion. The owner of the restaurant is satisfied with this achievement. "We sat on the porch at night and watched the sun go down. It was reassuring," Mac said.

Opening many branches will make their heads dizzy taking care of many things such as finding locations, checking on managers, and having to move places at one time. But Kroc convinced his friends to allow him to expand their restaurant chain.

Three decades later by the time Kroc died, McDonald's already had thousands of outlets that made billions of dollars. He succeeded in expanding the McDonald's franchise business to many places in America.

McDonald's in turn succeeded in revolutionizing the fast food restaurant business into a very modern one. John F Love in his book McDonald's: Behind the Arches notes what they do to grow their business.

They were credited with inventing a new type of spatula, a dispenser that could spray the same amount of sauce and mustard each time it was used, until the machine spun to speed up hamburger making.

The McDonald brothers did what Henry Ford did to the car building process. They both cut the production process to be more concise. This means that they can make food quickly, cheaply and consistently. Nothing like that back then except McDonald's operating system "Speedee Service System".

Until now, McDonald's has thousands of restaurants spread across more than one hundred countries including Indonesia. McDonald's first entered Indonesia in 1991 by opening its first restaurant in Sarinah, Thamrin.

As written on the McDonlad's Indonesia website, in 2009 the permit to open new restaurants throughout Indonesia was completed. Until now, McDonlad's Indonesia, which is under the auspices of PT. Rekso Nasional Food (RNF) has opened more than 200 outlets in various cities in Indonesia and employs more than 14 thousand employees throughout Indonesia.