There were only a few in the inner cities when I was a kid, late 60’s early 70s, and on my Dad’s salary as a HS teacher going there was not something we did often, even at the lower costs. I seem to remember a burger being 39 cents, fries 29, and a soda kept it under a dollar.
I remember the introduction of the Quarter Pounder, which seemed wicked big to a little kid. I’ll look tomorrow but I think here they’re still sold under that name.
NYC gets almost all of the weird experimental stuff, and a lot of it sticks around. The veggie burger is actually pretty good, although I think they use beef flavorings. The salads are pretty new and seem pretty fresh too–the chicken caesar and some fries make a good half-balanced meal. We also get the fajitas and several kinds of chicken sandwiches here, most of which suck (I go to Wendy’s for chicken because for some reason I don’t like their burgers). I remember the Arch Deluxe and the McDLT, which was pretty pointless. The container for the latter took up most of your tray and hello, you needed to put together the damn thing to eat it. And how many people have said to themselves, damn, nice burger but the lettuce is too warm!
The hickory bacon one they tried last year was terrific, but it didn’t last long.
I remember orange-ade sort of shake which I loved, and the Shamrock shake. Occasionally a less busy franchise will have mocha and raspberry ones.
When I lived in Boston they tried a McLobster sandwich, but let us draw a discreet curtain over the carnage and pass on…
Styrofoam containers, oh yeah baby! The ones I remember had vividly colored Austin-Powers style writing all over them, and said Big Mac or Big Mac/QP With Cheese. We used to cut out the ‘with cheese’ parts and tape them to the locker of a kid who had a, uhm, gas problem.
I generally don’t go but in cold weather, when you are far from home and have no place to sit and eat a deli sandwich and you’re sick of pizza, you can get something and sit inside where it’s warm to eat for under six bucks, which can be hard these days.