San Bernardino - Original McDonalds Site & Museum: Original Barbeque Menu, November 8, 2025
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By 1948, the McDonald brothers realized that customers, tired of complicated menus and long waits, wanted hamburgers fast. So the brothers shut down and reinvented their business model.
The First McDonald's 14th & "E" St. , San Bernardino, Calif., November, 1948, Courtesy to the McDonald's Museum in San Bernardino California
"If we gave people choice, there would be chaos... Our whole concept was based on speed, lower prices and volume. We were going after big, big volumes by lowering prices and having the customer serve himself. My god, the carhops were slow...The supermarkets and dime stores had already converted to self-service, and it was obvious the future of drive-ins was self-service."
~ Richard McDonald, from McDonald's: Behind The Arches, N.D.
The Speedee Service System ran like an assembly line, with nine workers assigned to specific stations.
The Assembly Line at the Original McDonald's in San Bernardino, California, circa. 1950's, Courtesy of Michael Corenblith
The menu was streamlined from 25 items to 9, with burgers prepared uniformly, using precise sauce dispensers.
The price board inside the McDonald's USA First Store Museum in Des Plaines, Illinois, Ralf-Finn Hestoft, March 22, 2005
San Bernardino - Original McDonalds Site & Museum: Mustard & Katsup Dispenser, November 8, 2025
San Bernardino - Original McDonalds Site & Museum: Potato Press Cutter, November 8, 2025,
"Burgers were cooked ahead of time, wrapped in paper, and kept warm under a heat lamp, which meant customers received their food in record time."
~ Erin McDowell, A reporter at Business Insider, from How McDonald's got its start as a barbecue restaurant in the 1940s, 2023
San Bernardino - Original McDonalds Site & Museum: Original McDouble Bag, November 8, 2025
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They replaced silverware with disposable packaging to remove the need for a dishwasher, saving both space and time, and by not allowing modifications, kept speed the top priority.
At first, customers were reluctant to leave their cars, but affordability, speed, and reliability quickly won them over.
"When they reopened, their profits initially tanked, and it looked like they had made a losing bet...But soon, the revamped McDonald’s began to attract a new, highly desirable crowd. Working and middle class families began flooding the restaurant, lured by the low prices, quick service and friendly atmosphere."
~ Hadley Meares, Author and Historian, from The Real McDonald’s: The San Bernardino Origins of a Fast Food Empire, 2016
The original McDonald’s restaurant, featuring a ten-item menu built around a 15 cent hamburger, in San Bernadino, California, circa. 1955, Courtesy of the CSU Archives/Everett Collection
Customers at the McDonalds hamburger restaurant in the mid 1950s in San Bernadino California, McDonald's Corp., circa. 1950s, Courtesy of the Everett Collection
The brothers began franchising in 1953; however, like Anderson, they feared losing quality and lacked motivation to expand.
“Drive-in operators and restaurant owners...wanted to know if they could come out and copy the operation...So many people were coming to see us that Mac and I were spending most of our time just talking to them.”
~ Richard McDonald, from McDonald's: Behind The Arches, N.D.
McDonald's restaurant crew member at the window handing a customer a bag, McDonald's Corp. photo, circa. 1950s, Courtesy of the Everett Collection
But everything changed when Ray Kroc recognized the system’s potential and set McDonald’s on the path to becoming a global fast‑food phenomenon.
