Pictures of the Gone World: McDonald's Original Prices

My father had the opportunity to get into the Micky D. franchise business on the ground floor with Ray Kroc in 1956. My mother thought it was nothing but a foolish way toward bankruptcy. Guess who prevailed. A gone world indeed.

Posted by stuart at April 27, 2012 1:18 PM

The price of McDonald's food has remained more or less the same in dollar terms. It takes about eight 2012 dollars to buy the same amount of goods as one 1953 dollar. Therefore, if you multiply the 1953 menu price by eight you get the equivalent price in current U.S. dollars. That fifteen-cent Pure Beef Hamburger from 1953 cost the equivalent of $1.20 in 2012 money. McDonald's sells basically the same burger today for $1.00.

The most expensive item on the '53 menu, the twenty-cent Triple Thick Shake, has a 2012 equivalent price of $1.60. The price of a McDonald's large shake today is $1.75, which is higher in absolute terms, but a better value overall (the 2012 shake is much larger than the '53 shake).

Junk food and soda have become cheaper, not more expensive, since the 1950s. Ironically, locally-grown, farm-fresh fruits and vegetables -- the kind you could buy for a handful of coins at any small-town open-air market or roadside fruit stand back in '53 -- are now horribly expensive.

Posted by B Lewis at April 27, 2012 1:24 PM

I can remember when Casey Stengel christened the Mets "Amazin'" too.

Posted by PA Cat at April 27, 2012 1:53 PM

When I was a kid, McDonald's was .15, White Castle was .12. We liked White Castle better, but McDonald's did have the fries. Sometimes the family went high class and ate at the Big Boy.
There was no White Castle in California, but McDonald's was the same burger at the same price.('63)
Jump ahaed some-
My wife and I went east in 2000 on our honeymoon. White Castle was a major letdown- steamed yuck on a bun. The Big Boy in Flint Michigan would have spoiled a seagull's appetite. McDonald's was still the same.

JWM

Posted by jwm at April 27, 2012 4:49 PM

Speaking of which, does ANYBODY know what's in a McDonald's shake?

Posted by Ed at April 27, 2012 4:51 PM

I remember a family trip to NYC either in 1960 or 1964 (we went twice from Michigan's UP). Somewhere in PA we pulled up to a McDonalds, where you had to walk up to the counter to get waited on and served. I believe that was the first McD's I ever saw. The prices shown here seem about what I recall from back in the day........

Posted by BART SIMPSONSSON at April 27, 2012 5:08 PM

jwm:
I loved Frisch's Big Boy when I was growing up in Cincinnati back in the 60s. My family moved away from there in 1966, but in 1986 I had occasion to drive through the area. I made a point of stopping at one of the restaurants, and it was just as good as I remembered. I haven't been back there since then, alas.

Currently my favorite chain burger joint is Jake's Wayback Burgers, a regional chain in the Central Atlantic and New England areas. There's one near where I work, and in fact I ate there today.

I am partial to McDonald's Sausage McMuffins, and I pick up one on my way to work almost every day.

Posted by rickl at April 27, 2012 5:55 PM

My high school boyfriend worked at the first McDs in our city, Buffalo, NY (1961). Our fries were 12 cents, so for 37 cents each we could have a hamburger, fries and a coke. More than once, I talked my Mother into needing her car washed for the rock bottom price of 37 cents. If I recall, my boyfriend made 1.00 an hour. He was a pole vaulter in high school and a jump gone wrong knocked out one of his front teeth when the pole came down and hit him in the mouth. His Dad wouldn't pay to have a repair done, so he had to work for a few weeks with that missing tooth as he saved money to fix it. McDs immediately took him off the counter and put him in the back working the potato peeler, a job he hated. He was to stay out of sight of the customers. We splurged the night he finally got off the peeler and back to the front with a shake instead of a coke.

Amazes me the stupid stuff that can be resurrected from memory just by seeing a menu. I don't recall the exact amount, but the hamburgers sold sign out front was about a million.

Posted by Sara at April 27, 2012 6:28 PM

...White Castle was .12...

Yes, and Detroit also had Top Hat hamburgers, which were essentially the same as White Castles. Same price, too. That was my family's Sunday treat. Whether we stopped at the Castle or the Hat depended on if we were coming back from Grandma's or my uncle's place out in the "country". Michigan's version of Big Boy (Elias Bros.) was way too high-end for us, so I never ate there until I was in college.

Was just back in the States last summer. White Castle and Big Boy are still around southeastern Michigan, and I ate at both, but, sadly, Top Hat disappeared years ago, I hear.

Posted by waltj at April 27, 2012 7:08 PM

Yeah, but back then a White Castle was 5 cents.

Posted by Fat Man at April 27, 2012 8:21 PM

I don't go all the way back to McD's origins. But while I was in college I remember the ad: get a Big Mac, fries and a Coke-- and still get change back from your dollar...

Posted by Al Johnson at April 27, 2012 9:13 PM

Here is a story about a guy who started out working the grill at McDonalds and is now the Chief Operating Officer. (That is working for the same company for 40 years)

Utica-native-named-McDonalds-Corp-chief-operating-officer

[Fixed and rescued. But I don't always see them when they are filtered. -- GV]

Posted by Milford at April 28, 2012 12:35 AM

What I like about that menu is all the adjectives!

Posted by Sarah Rolph at April 28, 2012 3:46 AM

My link was filtered by the spam filter so here is the article. This guy has worked for McDonalds for 39 years, started out flipping burgers is now the COO.

Today McDonald’s Corporation announced the election of Utica-native Tim Fenton to the position of chief operating officer.

Fenton, 54, currently works as president of McDonald’s Asia, Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and will assume his new position on July 1.

He is a 39-year veteran of the company, and began his career working as a crew member in 1973 at the McDonald’s on Oriskany Boulevard, in Yorkville.

“I’m honored to serve McDonald’s in this new capacity and look forward to working closely with our leadership teams around the world to continue to elevate our brand and make our system even stronger,” Fenton said in a news release.

Posted by Name at April 28, 2012 6:22 AM

Speaking of which, does ANYBODY know what's in a McDonald's shake?

Yes, some flavoring, red dye #2 and minute plastic pellets which give it the thickness. Why do you think that shake never loses it's thickness?

These pellets are inert to the body, pass through and fill up the purification plants or your septic tank.

Drink up!

Posted by Peccable at April 28, 2012 10:13 AM

Ingredients: Whole milk, sucrose, cream, nonfat milk solids, corn syrup solids, mono and diglycerides, guar gum, imitation vanilla flavor, carrageenan, cellulose gum, vitamin A palmitate.

The plastic rumor has been going around a long time. If you believe that you probably believe that Ronald Reagan was a limited government president.

Posted by Wrapper at April 28, 2012 10:53 AM

Yesterday I went to a McDonalds for the first time in several years and it was surreal.

Walking through the door was like stepping into a rancid fat smelling third world Amazonian jungle starvation hut with country club pretensions.

20 minutes later, when my "fast" "food" was finally passed over the counter like a sack of valueless government shit by tired young Soviet pioneers, I realized that I had willingly parted with 17 and change bucks of hard-earned in exchange for three burgerishy looking things, hippie compliant fries, and a bucket of chocolate shake that the frowning server said was a "little chocolate" - because they had run out of chocolate goop to inject into the vanilla flavored base stream.

Never again. For what I spent in that fallen craphole of FDA.gov PC deconstruction, I could have gotten two huge styrofoam-defended plate lunches -that equaled four decent meals for a mortal human- of tasty stewed chicken or pork chops with seasoned rice, beans, and salad greens from my favorite local Puerto Rican joint...Served by people who knew my name, in a third of the time.

Posted by monkeyfan at May 16, 2012 5:15 AM

He is a 39-year veteran of the company, and began his career working as a crew member in 1973 at the McDonald’s on Oriskany Boulevard, in Yorkville. “I’m honored to serve McDonald’s in this new capacity and look forward to working closely with our leadership teams around the world to continue to elevate our brand and make our system even stronger,” Fenton said in a news release. Today McDonald’s Corporation announced the election of Utica-native Tim Fenton to the position of chief operating officer. My link was filtered by the spam filter so here is the article. This guy has worked for McDonalds for 39 years, started out flipping burgers is now the COO. Fenton, 54, currently works as president of McDonald’s Asia, Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and will assume his new position on July 1.

Posted by Allen at November 4, 2012 1:40 PM

Memories of eating at the newly opened McDonalds #3 in North Hollywood California, a year before Ray Kroc bought the company. Hamburgers were 15 cvents and fries were 11 cents. You bought the fries in a separate line and paid 3 cents for catsup.

Posted by Mark at December 10, 2013 5:01 PM

Memories of eating at the newly opened McDonalds #3 in North Hollywood California, a year before Ray Kroc bought the company. Hamburgers were 15 cents and fries were 11 cents. You bought the fries in a separate line and paid 3 cents for catsup.

Posted by Mark Evans at December 10, 2013 5:03 PM