The first McDonalds was opened in California on May 15, 1940. It opened in Omaha in 1960. (Infographic of Micky’s history below)
Don’t feel bad – the ‘Arches’ weren’t created from branding until 1952 so we were only 8 years out.
Despite our research we’ve not found when McDonalds first came to McCook. According to this article from The McCook Gazette, it was 1985. One of our editors remembers vigorously urinating in the ball pool (joking!) when they were a kid. Kearney had one that was THREE STORIES TALL! These playplaces were actually a subsidiary and would later merge with other companies to become acquired by Chuck E’ Cheese.
This one from Fruita, Colorado seems pretty close, too.
*As a side note, kudos to runza for keeping their gigantic plastic cesspit way past when it was cool. Fantastic memories (or horrific if you were one of the parents, I’m sure). Perhaps they’ll continue the tradition at the McDonalds spin-off restaurant.
Moving on!
Recent McCook Mcdonalds has been a textbook example of how not to run your restaurant. According to an unnamed employee:
“One of the owners from McCook, I won’t say who, told us ‘I’m working on that Air Conditioner guys, just you wait!’ – turns out the f**kin’ thing was up there the whole time he just didn’t have it plugged in.”
This was during times when temperatures would hit 130 degrees inside the kitchen. I’ll take another sweat burger, please!
Remember that remodel in 2011? Us either. One of our reporters recalls doing IT work for a previous owner which would always call it ‘The Restaurant.’
Ah, it’s coming back to me. Lots of Maroon and upper class in 2011.
After that they made the coffee crew angry and they went to Arby’s to which you’ll still find them huddling with biscuits and gravy to this day.
A local Facebook business complaint group had McDonalds featured at number one. Pictures of raw burgers were everywhere. With a Tripviewer rating of 3.5 and a Yelp rating of 2.6 it’s clear that it’s not just the local residents who were fed up with a place previously known for their consistency, if anything.
Remember, it took a city council member to purchase Taco Johns for it to become *not* the joke in town. Similarly, owners from North Platte still keep Runza running well when it was on its last legs in 2001.
In light of all of these massive issues, OGMedia was cautiously optimistic about the new owners who took over in March. They boast a ton of other locations but that doesn’t always mean a lot. We asked them for an interview or comment but they haven’t gotten back to us yet.
We did, however, interview the staff.
Apparently things are going well for the staff. “The minute they walked in the building, I got a $2 dollar raise.”
That’s a pretty good way to incite loyalty!
“Wages aside, there’s been a noticeable difference. Previous owners didn’t care about us, you could just tell. It’s been a while since an owner gave a f**k about us. It’s a lot better, ain’t no comparison.”
If the staff are this excited, it should invigorate the food! We’ll update this story as things progress.
