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10 things you probably didn’t know about McDonald’s

McDonald’s recently celebrated its 75th anniversary. Over the past several decades since the first restaurant opened in California, there’s been a lot of ups (pizza!) and downs (when they took pizza off the menu). In honour, we rounded up 10 things you might not know about the fast food giant.

You've got Canada to thank for the McFlurry


Yes ,it's true. Our favourite ice cream treat has Canadian roots. The McFlurry, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, was created in the small coastal town of Bathurst, N.B. by franchisee Ron McLellan. Apparently McDonald's "fell in love with its creamy and crunchy taste" and added it to their regular menu.

McDonald's started as a barbecue joint

 
 

McDonald’s isn’t exactly known for their killer BBQ, but that’s how they got their start. In the 1930s, barbeque was huge across the south and western parts of the United States, so naturally when the McDonald brothers opened their restaurant, they had a smoke pit out the back. The original menu for McDonald's Famous Barbecue featured "our famous barbecued beef, ham, or pork" for 35 cents and a barbecue plate for 60 cents. They quickly realized their best-sellers were burgers and the rest is history. (Before opening the barbecue spot, the brothers sold hot dogs.)

The Queen of England owns one

Dare to dream! Getty Images/Yahoo Canada Shine
Dare to dream! Getty Images/Yahoo Canada Shine


According to the Daily Mail, several years ago, Queen Elizabeth II reportedly purchased a retail park near Windsor Castle, which includes a McDonald’s. We doubt she frequents the location – although we would totally understand if she did.

75 per cent of the sesame seeds produced in Mexico go to McDonald’s


Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, on a sesame seed bun! Three quarters of sesame seeds from Mexico reportedly go to McDonald’s to use for their sesame seed buns.

They serve 69 million customers a day across 100 countries

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That’s nearly double the population of Canada.

Vancouver once had a floating McDonald’s

Imgur
Imgur


The McDonald's Friendship 500 (nicknamed the 'McBarge') was a floating McDonald’s restaurant built for Expo 1986 in Vancouver’s False Creek. It was intended to remain a floating McDonald’s after the Expo, but it…didn’t. It remained in the Expo grounds until 1991, when it was moved to the Burrard Inlet north of Burnaby.

Here's what it looks like now:

Another floating McDonald’s was in service off the shore of St. Louis, Mo. until the early 2000s.

The first Canadian restaurant was in Richmond, B.C.

 
 


It was opened in 1967. The location was also the first Mickey D’s built outside of the U.S.

McDonald’s is the world’s largest distributor of toys

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Nope, it’s not Toys ‘R’ Us. Thanks to Happy Meals, McD’s is the largest distributor of toys. About 20 per cent of all McDonald’s sales include a toy.

It’s not the largest fast food chain

 REUTERS/Carlo Allegr
REUTERS/Carlo Allegr

Subway is. McDonald’s has 35,000 restaurants worldwide, while Subway has more than 43,000.

Not all arches are golden

Yelp
Yelp

McD’s is known for their golden arches, which are uniform worldwide – with a few notable exceptions. Here in Canada, our arches have small maple leafs in the centre. In Sedona, Ariz., the arches are turquoise. The restaurant in Monterary, Calif. has black arches, and the arches on the Champs-Elysses in Paris are neon white.

Do you know any weird facts about McDonald’s that we left out? Let us know in the comments.