While this does not quite answer the OP’s question, I worked at a McDonald’s
circa 1977 and still remember some the prices.
Hamburger - .35
Cheese burger - .40
Quarter Pounder - .75
Quarter Pounder w/ cheese - .80
Filet o’ fish - .45
I think the fries were .30, .40 and .50 depending on the size
The drinks were about this same price as the fries.
A small hamburger, fries and drink with tax would have come to a little over
a dollar.
We didn’t have electronic cash registers at the time. We were given a pad of forms
and had to check off what the customer wanted, write down the prices and add it all
up by hand. A sheet taped to the counter had a tax table so we could look up the
taxes on the completed order and add it to the total. After a few weeks you would
know all prices by memory.
I don’t know when you were young but I was in elementary school in the 1970s and I remember that Kentucky Fried Chicken actually tasted pretty good. (Pizza Hut pizza also did as well.)
So it’s not just my imagination? I remember absolutely loving their mashed potatoes and gravy as a kid. Especially that gravy. I could put it on anything. As an adult, I find the potatoes watery and the gravy to not have much flavor at all. It’s still edible, but just barely. There was a time that any time I got anything there, I made sure to get the mashed potatoes. Now I avoid it.
If I had to pick a time where it really changed dramatically, I think it was the 90s. Just going off of the last time I remember getting it and really liking it. I even think the gravy was a different color; it used to be darker.
I was curious so I looked up if and when KFC changed their gravy recipe. They did… Around 1970. Because the original gravy Sanders came up with was very expensive and very difficult to make. That’s certainly not the change I’m thinking of, because I wasn’t even born until the late 70s.
I’m guessing they’ve changed the recipe multiple times over the years for different reasons (changing consumer tastes, changing their image, easier to manufacture, easier to store, cheaper, etc.). Apparently they even came out with new kinds of gravy last year (peppercorn and cheddar). I haven’t eaten at a KFC for a while though. I just don’t do fast food much anymore.
It’s always amused me that the one on Queen Anne, which is always busy after shows at Climate Pledge, is just two blocks away from the most expensive Taco Bell location in the entire country.
Colonel Sanders, the founder and face of KFC, loved to cook and perfected his recipes until he was proud to share them. The gravy recipe was no exception. But it might surprise the average customer to find out that the original gravy the Colonel created isn’t what you’ll taste if you walk into a KFC today.
