McDonald's (MCD) revolutionized the food industry in mid-20th century. Prior to McDonald's being owned and operated by Ray Kroc, it was owned and operated by a two brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald. The brothers started the hamburger stand and met Kroc, who came through the restaurant and wanted to help expand their business. Kroc was a milkshake mixer salesman at the time.
The McDonald brothers only goal was to earn $1 million by the time they turned 50, and Kroc made sure that happened when he bought them out. He reportedly paid $2.7 million to ensure each brother earned $1 million after taxes. After inflation is calculated, that would be $24,777,118 in 2022 for the 1961 $2.7 million purchase price. Clearly it was a huge deal! McDonald's is now one of the highest recognized brands in the world.
McNuggets Came to Light as an Accident in the Kitchen
The buyout wasn’t smooth, but what business transaction goes according to plan. A short 20-odd years later, McDonald's added the chicken McNuggets to their menu. A chef was toying with the deep-fried onion, and someone mentioned, hey forget the onion, use chicken! Thus, the nugget was born. It was marketed to fast food restaurants, and McDonald's added the nugget to their menu in 1983.
Burger King (QSR) jumped in on the nuggets and introduced the BK chicken tender in 1985. Adding the tenders was in response to McDonald's success with the McNuggets. BK also introduced the chicken fries in 2005, which was made to be an easier item to eat while in your car. The design of the packaging was made to fit in a car cupholder. The unsolved problem with eating tenders on the go was yet to be solved...where to stick your sauce!
Moms Everywhere Want What’s Best for Their Kids
Parents want their kids to eat healthy, as many parents these days grew up with a nugget or tender in their hot little hand on a regular basis. Some might even say their kid is half nugget!
The age of information traveling faster than the speed of light means that if one mom goes viral about how she got her kid to eat asparagus, 3 million moms will try it.
Martha Stewart is a household name when it comes to all things in the home, including food. She recently commented that she doesn’t think kids should be given ‘chicken fingers or french fries.’
So, McNuggets and fries are off the table?
Martha has over 3.5 million Twitter followers (TWTR) @MarthaStewart. She has been nominated for 28 Daytime Emmy Awards and won 12 of them. She has been nominated for 14 James Beard Foundation Awards and won six of them. The James Beard Foundation is an organization which strives to support and bring to public eye those behind the proverbial kitchen curtain. They set the bar when it comes to good food.
Martha has won the awards in food spanning from 1995 to 2015, thus cementing her in many minds when it comes to cooking and food. Even with Martha’s stay in prison, parents everywhere still take notice when she talks about home or food.
When she says that parents shouldn’t be feeding their kids chicken nuggets or fries, you have to wonder where this is coming from. It is also a bit crazy since she herself has a recipe for crispy nuggets at home. Her adverse thoughts on the fast-food way of preparing the nuggets can’t stem from deep frying, because her recipe calls for frying in vegetable oil. Maybe it is in the number of sugars that are in the breading and seasoning.
Martha believes that kids have a more refined palate than most parents believe and to expose children at a young age to as much different foods as possible. She claimed that her own daughter had an open mind and ate just about everything. She said that her grandchildren have the same palate for foods. She stated they are mostly pescatarians, who eat fish instead of other meats.
Moms everywhere just say from birth, fed is best!
