There's a reason McDonald's has been one of the biggest food chains in the world for decades: The company got there first. Though , brothers Dick and Mac McDonald quickly shifted gears to become a burger joint once they realized the item that is now their bread and butter was by far their top seller. , but it was the first to establish what was essentially the assembly line system that's de rigueur in the industry today.
A look at the early menu pricing for the chain, though, is liable to make a modern-day customer's head spin. You probably guessed the prices were cheap, but the level of low pricing may flabber your gast, with burgers costing as little as 15 cents. This window into early McDonald's pricing also presents a stark contrast to today, where McDonald's prices have skyrocketed over the past decade — far outpacing the rate of inflation over the same period.
Nothing on the original McDonald's menu cost more than 20 cents , designed to provide a window into what it was like to get a meal at the Golden Arches back then. The San Bernardino, California site may have been the first-ever McDonald's burger joint in 1948 — converted from the original 1940 barbecue restaurant — but it wasn't until Ray Kroc bought the business in 1955 and opened its first franchise location in Des Plaines, Illinois, that the company started to grow into the global success we know today. It is, however, important to note that McDonald's early offerings were a whole lot more limited than it.
