In days past, McDonald's employees in hats would take your order at the counter.
McDonald's made money off its speedy service model.
At the original McDonald's Bar-B-Q restaurant in San Bernardino, California, customers could pull up to the restaurant for carhop service. Future locations would switch to the walk-up model.
Today, McDonald's is still trying to innovate ways to make the ordering process more efficient.
In 2018, Forbes reported that by 2020, self-service kiosks would be available in all US McDonald's locations.
McDonald's said it still has cashiers, but that the company found people take more time to browse and sometimes order more when using the machine.
The very first McDonald's menu was large. However, in 1948, the McDonald brothers reduced the restaurant's offerings down to just nine items.
The new menu included hamburgers, cheeseburgers, soft drinks, milk, coffee, potato chips, and a slice of pie.
Needless to say, the menu has drastically expanded since then.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdIn 1949, potato chips were swapped with french fries and McDonald's began selling milkshakes.
The new item called Triple Thick Milkshakes were made using Multimixer. The addition of milkshakes to the McDonald's menu would completely shift the future of the chain.
After Multimixer salesman Ray Kroc visited the original McDonald's brothers to sell them more mixers, he became intrigued in the business. He would go on to purchase the small business and become the tycoon and leader of the fast-food giant for thirty years.
The first McFlurry was created in Canada in 1995 and has become one of the chain's most famous items.
McFlurries have come out in a variety of delicious flavors including Oreo, M&M, and the brand new Oreo Shamrock McFlurry.
In addition to McFlurries, McDonald's still offers "triple thick" milkshakes in chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.
In 1993, McDonald's opened the first McCafé in Melbourne, Australia.
Brick-and-mortar McCafé locations have closed, but customers can still get McCafé drinks in McDonald's locations.
The first new item to be added to the national menu was the Filet-O-Fish sandwich in 1965.
It was created in 1962 by Lou Groen, a McDonald's franchise owner in Cincinnati, Ohio, after he realized hamburger sales were declining on Fridays during the season of Lent. By 1965, it was a staple on menus nationwide and is still popular each spring.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdIn 2009, a McDonald's commercial advertising the Filet-O-Fish went viral.
The ad, which showed a bass wall decoration singing "Gimme Back That Filet-O-Fish" cemented the sandwich's place in McDonald's history.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, 300 million Filet-O-Fish sandwiches were sold in 2013 alone.
Three years later, the Big Mac was released nationwide.
Created by owner and operator Jim Delligatti of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1967, the first "Big Mac" featured a triple-decker burger and sold for 45 cents.
When the burger was chosen to roll out across the US, there was a lot of deliberation over the name. Two other name options included the Aristocrat and the Blue Ribbon Burger, but both were nixed.
However, Esther Glickstein Rose, a 21-year-old secretary for the company's advertising department in 1967, had the winning name — "Big Mac." According to the AP, executives and other employees at the time laughed at the name. However, it stuck and went on to become "one of the best-known product names of all time."
Today, an estimated 900 million Big Macs are sold each year around the world.
Little has changed about the burger's appearance since its debut. However, McDonald's announced on October 1, 2018, that it would remove all artificial preservatives, flavors, and coloring from the Big Mac.
In 2007, McDonald's announced it would be releasing a brand-new Angus Third Pounder burger.
Today, you can't get a Third Pounder — but you can get a Double Quarter Pounder.
However, while Double Quarter Pounders are a staple on most US-based McDonald's menus, you won't always find them worldwide.
In August 2019, McDonald's announced it would be bringing the famous burger back to the UK and Ireland after an eight-year hiatus. However, the burger only remained on menus for seven weeks before it was discontinued again.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdOther menu items have undergone recipe and name changes.
McDonald's Chicken Selects, which debuted in 2004, became a massive success. However, they disappeared off of menus in 2013.
"As always, we are constantly evolving our menu and listening to our customers to meet their changing needs," McDonald's representative Danya Proud said in a statement.
In 2017, McDonald's answered fans and foodies' prayers by bringing back their tenders under the new name Buttermilk Crispy Tenders.
Happy Meals came out in 1979 while Chicken McNuggets were released in 1983.
The original idea for the Happy Meal is said to have come from a McDonald's employee in Guatemala named Yolanda Fernández de Cofiño. Fernández de Cofiño developed a meal deal she called the "Menu Ronald," which included a hamburger, small fries, and a small sundae specifically for kids.
McDonald's advertising executive Bob Bernstein then introduced the idea to swap the small sundae for a plastic toy. In 1979, McDonald's rolled out its first Happy Meal nationwide. The first one was circus-themed.
However, in the early 2000s, McDonald's faced criticism of its meals marketed towards children as childhood obesity continued to rise.
McDonald's introduced the "Supersize" option in April 1992.
Supersize fries came in a 7-ounce carton, versus the 6-ounce carton of the "large" fries size. In 2004, McDonald's announced it would be phasing out its supersized options in what spokesman Walt Riker described as a move towards "menu simplification."
Many, however, believed the action to be a result of the 2004 documentary film, "Supersize Me," in which filmmaker Morgan Spurlock ate McDonald's food every day for a month and documented his deteriorating health.
Riker said at the time that the decision had "nothing to do with that (film) whatsoever."
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdIn 2004, Mcdonald's released its "Real Life Choices" menu with "healthier" options.
The menu featured items considered to be low-fat, low-calorie and low-carb, including a grilled chicken sandwich and fruit yogurt.
"McDonald's is always looking for ways to provide customers with convenience, variety, and value," Ed Acre, a McDonald's restaurant owner, said at the time. "We created the McDonald's Real Life Choices program to make it easy for our customers to eat at McDonald's no matter what their lifestyle."
Now, you won't find a specific diet menu at McDonald's, but you can still grab a salad.
In 1972, Herb Peterson of Santa Barbara, California, pitched his latest creation to McDonald's owner Ray Croc — it was what we now know as the Egg McMuffin.
Kroc later told the story of how the Egg McMuffin came to be in his 1977 autobiography, "Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald's."
"He didn't want me to reject it out of hand, which I might have done, because it was a crazy idea — a breakfast sandwich," Kroc wrote. "It consisted of an egg that had been formed in a Teflon circle, with the yolk broken, and was dressed with a slice of cheese and a slice of grilled Canadian bacon. This was served open-faced on a toasted and buttered English muffin. I boggled a bit at the presentation. But then I tasted it, and I was sold."
According to Time, Patty Turner, the wife of a McDonald's executive, came up with the name "Egg McMuffin." By 1975, the Egg McMuffin was being sold nationwide for the low price of 63 cents.
By 1981, breakfast accounted for 18% of all McDonald's sales, Time reported.
Today, you can get your McDonald's Egg McMuffin — and many other breakfast items — any time of day.
McDonald's restaurants in Hawaii began serving spam, eggs, and rice for breakfast in 2002.
The menu item may seem strange to mainland Americans, but spam is still extremely popular in the island state. According to one Hawaii-based blogger, you can still find the item on Hawaiian McDonald's menus.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdYou can still get a breakfast platter from McDonald's in most locations nationwide, but it's much more traditional to classic American breakfast foods.
McDonald's has had a number of seemingly strange items on its menu, including pizza.
Another unusual addition to the McDonald's menu was lobster rolls in the early 90s.
The infamous McRib sandwich first appeared on McDonald's menus in 1981.
In October 2019, the McRib made its triumphant return yet again.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdPlant-based fast food items are all the rage in 2020, but McDonald's began developing vegetarian burgers years ago.
In 2012, McDonald's opened its first vegetarian restaurant in Amritsar, India. In India, most of the population are Hindu and don't consume beef, and in 2012, 42% of the population reported avoiding meat altogether.
According to McDonald's India's website, the menu still offers a number of interesting vegetarian menu items, including the McVeggie and the vegan McAloo which features a fried patty made from potatoes and peas.
Today, plant-based menu options are soaring in popularity, and McDonald's is poised to release its own Beyond Meat burger in all US locations.