Adjusting prices for inflation/buying power using the CPI, a 15 cent burger in 1958 would be $1.23 now. So, the regular McDonald’s hamburger has actually gotten cheaper over the years in real terms. I believe a plain McDonald’s burger is either $0.89 or $0.99.
This may vary according to location, but at my 2 local outlets, you can get a double cheeseburger for $1 (plus sales tax) if you specify the Dollar Menu.
BIC Crystal ballpoint pens. Identical to what they were like in the 60s, except now there is a hole in the cap to prevent suffocating. And they are CHEAPER nowadays - famously 19 cents each back then, and now I can find them on sales sometimes at ten for 99 cents.
i remember this burger from half a century ago.
burgers are all a meaty blur.
As kids, we loved the McDonald’s burgers. My Dad used to say they were made out of sawdust, but they drove the truck past a cow to give it flavor.
Yeah, they keep changing it, so I don’t know. I know that for awhile, the double cheeseburger, with two slices of cheese, was replaced by the McDouble, with one slice of cheese, on the dollar menu. But I think even the McDouble went up in price, although now I think it’s back at a dollar. At any rate, cheaper than the fifteen cent plain burgers of yesteryear.
“Now, you might expect to pay as much as 15 or 20 dollars for a meal like this at some restaurants…”
One of my sisters worked for an actual Mom & Pop place. Burgers were 25 cents each or 5 for a dollar. We went there often, getting a bunch for our large family. At that time McD’s burgers were already at least 25 cents and no discount for more. And of course the Mom & Pop burgers were bigger and better.
The issue was speed and volume. Not really price. Having a limited menu helps a lot.
There have been 3 big changes in the way McD’s makes fries. First was the switch from peeled and cut on-site fresh potatoes to frozen ones starting in the 60s. Then the switch from mostly beef tallow to mostly vegetable oil in 1990. Then around 2001 they were caught adding beef-based natural flavoring, so that has been cut out. The switch to vegetable oil is probably the most noticeable.
I’m not sure if McD’s shakes ever used actual ice cream. In the 60s they used an “ice milk” product that was chilled, flavored and whipped with actual milkshake stirrers. Burger King’s shakes had a lot of thickeners that gave the shakes a soapy taste and feel. McD’s are still better than BK’s, but that’s not saying much.
We had to drive all the way to Des Moines to get a McD burger in the 50’s, and I only remember doing it once, with a friend whose mom was taking her to buy school clothes.
The McD burger was special because IIRC burgers weren’t served much at home. Ground beef was for meat loaf or hamburger steak, not a sandwich. And the burgers in restaurants were thick – man-sized food. A thin burger on a special bun was a treat for a kid.
Of course, that was their gimmick. Which they no longer have.
Their gimmick now seems to be wide choice, coupons and often, free food. For the entire month of January, they provided free small coffees even if you bought nothing else, and the receipt for the free coffee had free large french fries, which produced another receipt for more free fries. Maybe I was the only customer who used them, but the only reason I went there in January was the food was free. I think they stayed in business by selling outrageously priced fancy mocha-chucka-coffees to someone else.
I really don’t want to pay $6 for their now overpriced Big Macs. There are competitors with much better prices right across the street (Subway, Taco Bell, Arby’s, etc.), not to mention really good local restaurants for just a few dollars more. So I go to McDonald’s only when I want to splurge – how times have changed.
RE Mom & Pop stores in the 1950’s - 60’s…even though I lived in a populous suburban area near St. Louis, there were no McDonald’s within convenient driving distance for a long time. We highschoolers used to visit a Mickey’s clone, Sandy’s, for essentially the same menu, prices, decor, and outdoor burger stand/driveup setup. When I saw my first McDonald’s, I thought they had copied Sandy’s. So not all M&P shops were more expensive, just overrun.
My local McDonald’s runs a special where regular hamburgers are 2 for $1.
That’s about the best deal we get for McDonald’s around here.
I would venture a guess one difference would be the patties are thinner now because I am pretty sure they are thinner then they were even just a few years ago (the sausage patties too).
nm. Sorry.
My first experience at McDonalds was in the 60s and I see that was far too late for this thread.
I’m pretty sure the burger patties have always been 1/10 lb.
ETA: The link sourcing it is dead, but here it says it was a 1.6 oz patty, which is what it is today. I don’t remember the regular hamburger or cheeseburger patties ever being bigger, and that’s part of the reason I like them.
Because the meat was fresh, the burgers either grilled or flame broiled, the fries made from fresh potatoes and the onion rings to die for. Oh, and milkshakes made from scratch. It was always worth the wait, but we’re talking 50s/60s. McDonald’s was a pioneer in undercutting everyone and driving them out of business, much like Wal-Mart perfected later on. I don’t patronize either one of them. Probably been to McD a total of ten times in my life, and then out of desperation or because the kids wanted McNuggets.
In the 60’s, I worked for a McDonald’s competitor. It was called Carrol’s, a serving a second, Hamburgers.
Hamburgers 15 cents
Cheeseburgers 19 cents
Soft Drinks 10/15 cents
Milk shakes 19 cents
Fries 12 cents
Meat patties were 10/lb. Diced onion was received dry and soaked in water overnight. Funnel-type guns would spray the ketchup/mustard on the toasted bun and one slice of pickle added. You could grill 36 patties/buns at a time. They would wait in a warmer until purchased. Sometimes they would wait for a long time and the bun would be hard and dry. Don’t remember the dry ones ever being thrown out or returned by customers. Special orders were frowned upon.
Potatoes came in 100 lb sacks. You would put a quarter sack into a round bin, the sides and bottom were coated with a coarse sand. The bottom would spin and with water sprayed it would “peel” the potatoes. Then they were sliced with a wall mounted, hand lever operated device. Rinsed in water, then blanched for a few minutes, stored in their fryer baskets until the final cooking fry. Then bagged and stored under heat lamps
A small amount of ice milk would be placed in a cup. Whipped for many minutes until it foamed to the top. Stored in a chest freezer awaiting sales.
There were four customer windows. People would stand in lines outside under a roof.
Huge parking lot and only one picnic table for those without cars.
Starting wage was $1.00/hour, The manager would take hourly readings on the cash register. One day there was a parade on the street. We hit an all time high of $164.00/hour. Which is a lot fifteen cent items. The boss was very happy.
When I started working there I was 13 years old. My friend’s dad was the manager. I memorized the multiples of 10/12/15/19 cents, and would total the orders in my head. The big boss came in from out of town and couldn’t believe it. He stood behind me for an hour trying to find an error. He couldn’t.
All my co-workers were a lot older. It was quite an experience for a young kid. The boss was fond of saying, “Bend over and I’ll drive you home”. It wasn’t until much later that I understood what he meant.
I remember stopping at McDonald’s for the first time in Minneapolis in what must have been January or February 1961. Freezing cold day, packed in a station wagon with four or five other screaming brats. The burgers tasted then the same way they do today.
I also remember eating TV dinners of that same period (and actually in front of the TV). The one big difference I remember, aside from the aluminum trays, is that back then you got real roast beef and turkey instead of that awful processed-pressed meat-food product they give you today. It may have been tough and often dry, but at least it was real meat. For that reason alone, I can’t say that today’s TV dinners are better than those of the past.
:eek:
Most of your post also applied to McDonalds at the time. I mentioned earlier the onions put on the burgers during frying. These were dried and “rehydrated” during the cooking. Sort of. No pre-hydrating for them. (Big Macs had actual sliced-that-day onions.)
But the part about adding up the order total in your head was also true at McDs. There was clunky and slow old cash registers, but you needed to do the Math in your head if you wanted speed.
Later they had fancier ones with buttons for each item price. That was too complicated for the workers! So they went to ones with pictures for each item. Just part of the downward spiral (grumpy old guy version). Now it’s computerized so that the order appears on a screen in the back, giving a whole extra way of screwing up the order.
Oh, the memories. A friend’s father took me and her to a McDonald’s in the early 1960’s. I remember telling my family about it: 15 cent burgers, 18 cent cheeseburgers, 15 cent fries, 15 cent soda and 20 cents for a milkshake. And it was good!"