How the fast food giant has stood the test of time
McDonald’s at 80: How the fast food giant has stood the test of time – and will survive coronavirus too Compared to Subway or Pizza Hut, when it comes to McDonald’s there are few agnostics ( Getty ) When Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant on 15 May 1940, in San Bernadino, California, they can’t have expected their company would spend its 80th birthday like this. The entire world is closed, and so is the chain that has become the world’s canteen. Still, one suspects the founders, and especially Ray Kroc, the rapacious entrepreneur who took over in the 1950s and steered the company to world domination, would have approved of an outcome in which most of the planet’s 4 billion locked-down people, if they’re being honest with themselves, could go for a Maccers right now. Enforced absence quickens the appetite, and it is a good moment to think about the enduring appeal of the golden arches. It is possible that no company has been responsible for as much human joy or