A Story About Ray Kroc, and McDonald’s, and One Insight Into His Success

There was an article in our local media recently about the 15-acre Kroc Center that’s about to open on Oahu. Among other things, it will include a pool, a gym, a theater, an athletic field and a banquet facility. It all comes with a $133 million price tag, most of which has been paid for by the late Joan Kroc, widow of Ray Kroc, founder of the McDonald’s hamburger empire. There’s a Kroc Center in San Diego and others in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and Salem, Oregon. Eventually, there will be some 50 centers around the country, all the result of a $1.6 billion bequest.

You’ve got to sell a helluva lot of hamburgers and fries to give away money like that.


Anyway, the article reminded me of a time when, by sheer chance, I spent 20 minutes sitting on a bus next to Ray Kroc himself. Bear with me now … it’s a bit complicated.

It was in December of 1978 and I had just been named General Manager of the Hawaii Islanders, our local professional baseball team in the Pacific Coast League. At that time, the Islanders were the Triple-A farm team for the San Diego Padres, who provided our players … and Ray Kroc owned the Padres.

My first official duty as the new Islander GM was to attend the baseball Winter Meetings, which were held that year in Orlando, Florida. I flew to San Diego where I joined a lot of other people who either worked for the Padres or for one of the minor league teams connected to the organization. Together, we flew from there to Orlando on – ahem! – the Padre’s private jet.

In Orlando, we all boarded a bus and headed into town to the hotel where the meetings would be starting the next day. I was in a window seat on the bus and who should climb aboard and plunk down in the seat next to me, but Ray Kroc himself. I introduced myself and we chatted as the bus left the airport and headed off into the city.

About ten minutes later, and right in the middle of a sentence, Kroc suddenly pulled himself up and lunged across me, pressing his nose against the bus window. It took me a second, but I realized that we were, at that moment, passing a McDonald’s restaurant … and he was counting the cars in the parking lot!

After a few seconds, he sat down, glared at me and said, “There oughta be more cars there this time of day!” He fished around in his coat pocket for a pen and a small notepad and scribbled a few words on a blank page. Then he muttered, “I gotta call the manager of that store.”

And now you know how Ray Kroc sold all those burgers.