Page 17 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Introduction

n February 15, 1966, store number 768 opened in a typi-
Ocal suburban New York town on Long Island. It was an
average winter day, 42 degrees and clear, and, as was done with
most McDonald’s stores at the time, the opening was held on a
Tuesday. It was a “red-and-white”-style store identical to the
hundreds before it that were beginning to dot the U.S. landscape.
The store opened with reasonable sales, and within seven
months, on Labor Day weekend, I began working there as a
bright-eyed, eager 16-year-old.
Like thousands before me, I found my position at McDon-
ald’s to be my first real job. In 1966, McDonald’s had a total of
$219 million in sales from its 862 restaurants. Thirty-four years
later, when I retired from McDonald’s, the company had reached
sales of more than $40 billion and a total store count of more
than 28,707 units worldwide.
This is my story, though there are thousands of individuals
like me who benefited, grew, and had the privilege of working
in this intriguing system called McDonald’s. And although my
career took me to many places, it primarily was about my expe-
riences in the New York metropolitan region. Some of us
became managers and supervisors, some middle managers, some

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