They rechristened their business as a hamburger stand and later turned the company into a franchise, with the Golden Arches logo being introduced in 1953 at a location in Phoenix, Arizona.

[13][14] McDonald's is the world's largest fast food restaurant chain by number of locations,[15] serving over 69 million customers daily in over 100 countries[16] in more than 40,000 outlets as of 2021.

[41][42] In November 2020, McDonald's announced McPlant, a plant-based burger, along with plans to develop additional meat alternative menu items that extend to chicken substitutes and breakfast sandwiches.

[51] In the United States and Canada, after limited trials on a regional basis, McDonald's began offering in 2015[52] and 2017,[53] respectively, a partial breakfast menu during all hours its restaurants were open.

CYT food was served to the table on wooden boards, fries in wire baskets, and salads in china bowls with metal cutlery at a higher price.

In 1999, McDonald's first tested "E-Clerks" in suburban Chicago, Illinois, and Wyoming, Michigan, with the devices being able to "save money on live staffers" and attracting larger purchase amounts than average employees.

[86][87] On August 5, 2013, The Guardian revealed that 90 percent of McDonald's UK workforce are on zero-hour contracts, making it possibly the largest such private sector employer in the country.

The complaints allege that, because of a lack of first aid supplies, workers were told by management to treat burn injuries with condiments such as mayonnaise and mustard.

[135] The key trends for the McDonald's Corp. are (as of the financial year ending December 31):[136][137] The company owns the land on which many of its restaurants are situated,[13] which is valued at an estimated $16 to $18 billion.

[158] The United Kingdom and Ireland business model differs from the U.S. in that fewer than 30 percent of restaurants are franchised, with the majority under the company's ownership.

Employees are encouraged by McDonald's Corp. to maintain their health by singing along to their favorite songs to relieve stress, attending church services to have a lower blood pressure, and taking two vacations annually to reduce the risk for myocardial infarction.

[167] As of December 2024[update], the board of directors had the following members:[168] On March 1, 2015, after being chief brand officer of McDonald's and its former head in the UK and northern Europe, Steve Easterbrook became CEO, succeeding Don Thompson, who stepped down on January 28, 2015.

[citation needed] In November 2019, McDonald's board of directors voted to remove Easterbrook as CEO since he had violated corporate policies on personal conduct by entering into a relationship with a company employee.

[180][non-primary source needed] Thomas Friedman said that no country with a McDonald's had gone to war with another;[181][182] however, the "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention" is incorrect.

Exceptions are the 1989 United States invasion of Panama, NATO's bombing of Serbia in 1999, the 2006 Lebanon War, and the 2008 South Ossetia war—McDonald's suspended operations in its corporate-owned stores in Crimea after Russia annexed the region in 2014.

[184] On August 23, 2014, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich ruled out any government move to ban McDonald's and dismissed the notion that the temporary closures had anything to do with the sanctions.

McDonald's has partnered with Sinopec, the second largest oil company in the People's Republic of China, as it takes advantage of the country's growing use of personal vehicles by opening numerous drive-thru restaurants.

[190][needs update] On January 9, 2017, 80% of the franchise rights in mainland China and Hong Kong were sold for US$2.08 billion to a consortium of CITIC Limited (for 32%).

The franchise was transferred to Food Solutions KZ, after which the restaurants first changed their name to "We are open" (Біз ашықпыз); in August 2023, they were renamed in honor of the best employees, and in November 2023 the final rebranding was carried out.

Scott designed new uniforms for McDonald's employees and released Cactus Jack merchandise using vintage visuals from the fast food chain's history.

[226] In 2007, it was celebrated in 17 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, France, Guatemala, Hungary, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, and Uruguay.

[227] In 1995, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital received an anonymous letter postmarked in Dallas, Texas, containing a $1 million winning McDonald's Monopoly game piece.

McDonald's officials came to the hospital, accompanied by a representative from the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, who examined the card under a jeweler's eyepiece, handled it with plastic gloves, and verified it as a winner.

They made the annual $50,000 annuity payments for the entire 20-year period through 2014, even after learning that the piece was sent by an individual involved in an embezzlement scheme intended to defraud McDonald's.

In the late 1980s, Phil Sokolof, a millionaire businessman who had suffered a heart attack at the age of 43, took out full-page newspaper ads in New York, Chicago, and other large cities accusing McDonald's menu of being a threat to American health and asking them to stop using beef tallow to cook their french fries.

[231] In 2001, Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation included criticism of the business practices of McDonald's, particularly concerning its use of political influence and targeting advertisements to children.

[269] In 2023, the BBC conducted an investigation, and reported that more than 100 current and recent UK workers at outlets of the fast-food chain allege there is a continuing toxic culture of sexual assault, harassment, racism and bullying.

Employees shared accounts of inappropriate behavior, including homophobic remarks, sexual advances, and unwanted physical contact from managers.

Similar allegations had been raised in 2019, with the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union reporting over 1,000 cases of harassment involving female employees.

In 2019, a McDonald's employee, Jenna Ries, sued the restaurant chain over allowing sexual harassment in the workplace and described the working environment as "toxic".