Part III: A McDonald's Primer

How a hamburger stand became a franchise, the franchise became a landlord, and the landlord became, in our view, one of the most emulated systems in the history of food

Disclosure: This is educational content. This is not business or investment advice and we can make mistakes in our research and calculations. Do not rely on this content in making any business or financial decisions.

We ended Part II: The Rise of Public Food in San Bernardino, California, with all the pieces of the American foodservice machine on the table... the standardization of the Harvey Houses, the brand of Childs, the commissary of the automat, the throughput of the cafeteria... and then enter a milkshake machine salesman.

This is the piece where we get to McDonald’s (MCD) itself. McDonald’s is four things at once, stacked on top of each other…