Mac McDonald quotes from The Founder (2016)

Ray Kroc

While you two boys were content to sit back and become a couple of also-rans... I wanna take the future. I wanna win. And you don't get there by being some "aw shucks" guy sap. There's no place in business for people like that. Business is war. It's dog eat dog, rat eat rat. If my competitor were drowning, I'd walk over and put a hose right in his mouth. Can you say the same?

Mac McDonald

I can't. Nor would I want to.

Ray Kroc

Hence, your single location.

Mac McDonald

We want you out of this company, Ray.

Ray Kroc

Mac, how do you propose we do that?

Mac McDonald

We will sue you, whatever it takes.

Ray Kroc

And you'd probably win. But you can't afford to sue me. I'd bury you in court costs alone. Mac, I'm the president and C.E.O. of a major corporation with land holdings in 17 states... You run a burger stand in the desert. I'm national. You're **** local.
[Mac collapses]

Dick McDonald

A hothead like that, you don't know what he's capable of.

Mac McDonald

It's all bluster, Dick. His bark is worse than his bite.

Dick McDonald

That's what Neville Chamberlain said.

Mac McDonald

Speed. That's the name of the game. The first stop for every McDonald's hamburger is the grill. Manned by two cooks, whose sole job it is to cook those all-beef beauties to perfection. Meanwhile, as the patty cooks, our dressers get the buns ready. Watch out. Burger crossing!
McDonald's Employees: Burger crossing!

Mac McDonald

Every McDonald's burger has two pickles, a pinch of onions, and a precise shot of ketchup and mustard.

Ray Kroc

Now, where did you get those?

Mac McDonald

We made them.

Ray Kroc

Made them?

Mac McDonald

Yes, custom-built. The whole kitchen is. Next, this is the finishing station where we put the whole thing together. And...

Mac McDonald

Voila! A fresh, delicious burger from grill to counter in 30 seconds.

Ray Kroc

Let me explain something to you, Dick... You boys have full say over what goes on inside the restaurants. But outside, above, below... your authority stops at the door. And at the floor. All right?

Mac McDonald

What is he saying?

Dick McDonald

He's buying the land.

Mac McDonald

Our land?

Mac McDonald

Well, we were young and hungry. There wasn't a job to be had in all of New Hampshire, so we decided to pack our bags and head west, to Hollywood. I wanted to be in the movie business, and Dick, well, he wanted to be...

Dick McDonald

Employed.

Mac McDonald

So, we landed jobs at Columbia Pictures, driving trucks.

Ray Kroc

Huh.

Mac McDonald

And after a few years, we've had enough saved to buy our own little piece of show business-a beautiful little movie theatre in Glendora, which would've been swell-except for the timing: it was September of '29.

Ray Kroc

Oooh.

Mac McDonald

One minute, we're screening The Gold Diggers of Broadway, and the next it's "Brother, can you spare a dime?"

Dick McDonald

I couldn't.

Mac McDonald

So, we moved the restaurant, we're setting up shop, but now we wanna do a few tweaks, because now it's 1940 and drive-ins are all the rage. I mean, they're the hottest thing going, and I say, "Dick, we gotta get in on this," and Dick says...

Dick McDonald

Okay.

Mac McDonald

And two months later, we opened for business: McDonald's Famous BBQ. 27-item menu, uniformed waitresses, bring your food right to the car, and it goes gangbusters. We're going "great guns!" But then, sales started to level off.

Dick McDonald

The drive-in model, as we've learned, has a few built-in problems.

Ray Kroc

Tell me about it.

Dick McDonald

I mean, for starters, there's the customer issue. Drive-ins tend to attract, shall we say, a less-than-desirable clientele.

Mac McDonald

Teenagers.

Dick McDonald

Hot-rodders and hooligans. Juvenile delinquents in blue jeans. And then, there's the service. It takes forever and a day for your food to arrive, and when it finally does...

Ray Kroc

It's usually wrong.

Dick McDonald

Yeah, the carhops are too busy dodging gropes to remember that you wanted strawberry phosphate, not cherry.

Ray Kroc

Well, that's a thing to remember at all.

Mac McDonald

And then, there's the expenses. The huge payroll due to the large staff required, dishes being constantly broken or stolen.

Dick McDonald

Tremendous overhead.

Mac McDonald

So, one day, Dick has a realization. He sees that the bulk of our sales are in only three items: Hamburgers, french fries, and soft drinks.

Dick McDonald

87%.

Mac McDonald

So, we say to ourselves, let's focus on what sells. And that's exactly what we do. Brisket, gone. Tamales, gone. But, we don't stop there. We look at everything. What else don't we need?

Dick McDonald

Turns out, quite a lot.

Carhops?

Dick McDonald

Walk up to a window, get your food yourself.

Mac McDonald

Dishes?

Dick McDonald

All-paper packaging, disposable.

Mac McDonald

Cigarette machines, jukeboxes.

Dick McDonald

Drive out the riff-raff.

Ray Kroc

Creating a family-friendly environment.

Mac McDonald

But that's not enough.

Ray Kroc

Alright.

Mac McDonald

See, our whole lives, we'd piggy-backed off other people's ideas. We wanted something that wasn't just different, it had to be better. It needed to be ours, and that's what brings us to the biggest cut of all.

Ray Kroc

Which was?

Mac McDonald

The wait.

Dick McDonald

Orders ready in 30 seconds, not 30 minutes.