McDonald's

US fast-food chain, the largest in the world, specializing in hamburgers. By 2001 the chain had grown to nearly 29,000 outlets in 120 countries. In 2000, its total sales was over US$40 billion.

The company has been criticized by environmentalists for uneconomic grazing land use (see meat) and for contributing to the global waste problem and the greenhouse effect through its packaging.

The empire began as one restaurant in San Bernardino, California, owned by two brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald. It sold hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, soft drinks, and milk shakes at low prices. Rac Kroc (1902-1984) encountered the restaurant in 1954 when he was working as a food-mixer salesman, and proposed and managed a plan to open franchised restaurants around the USA. The original owners sold the company to him in 1961 for US$2.7 million. By 1963 over 1 billion hamburgers had been sold. That same year, the 500th McDonald's restaurant opened and its clown mascot Ronald McDonald made his debut.

In 1993 the chain opened the first McCafé in Australia, and by 2001, when the first McCafé in the USA opened, McDonald's operated over 300 McCafés in 18 countries.

In June 1997, McDonald's won the longest trial in British history. The case took seven years and cost the company an estimated US$16.4 million. It was ruled that McDonald's had been libelled by a pamphlet published by two vegetarian activists. They were ordered to pay McDonald's £98,000 in damages for claiming the company sold unhealthy food, exploited workers and children, and damaged the environment.