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In 1939 two brothers , Mac and Dick McDonald , started a drive-in restaurant in San Bernadino , California . They carefully chose a busy corner for their location . They had run their own businesses for years , first a theater , then a barbecue restaurant , and then another drive-in . But in their new operation , they offered a new , shortened menu : French fries ,hamburgers , and sodas . To this small selection they added one new concept : quick service ,no waiters or waitresses , and no tips .

Their hamburgers sold for fifteen cents . Cheese was another four cents . Their French fries and hamburgers had a remarkable uniformity , for the brothers had developed a strict routine for the preparation of their food , and they insisted on their cooks ' sticking to their routine . Their new drive-in became incredibly popular , particularly for lunch . People drove up by the hundreds during the busy noontime . The self-service restaurant was so popular that the brothers had allowed ten copies of their restaurant to be opened . They were content with this modest success until they met Ray Kroc .

Kroc was a salesman who met the McDonald brothers in 1954 , when he was selling milkshake-mixing machines . He quickly saw the unique appeal of the brothers' fast-food restaurants and bought the right to franchise other copies of their restaurants . The agreement struck included the right to duplicate the menu . The equipment , even their red and white buildings with the golden arches .

Today McDonald 's is really a household name . Its names for its sandwiches have come to mean hamburger in the decades since the day Ray Kroc watched people rush up to order fifteen-cent hamburgers . In 1976 , McDonald 's had over $1 billion in total sales . Its first twenty-two years is one of the most incredible success stories in modern American business history .