Memorable Quotes from John Carroll Lynch
10 quotesAdapting to Trends in the Restaurant Business
Mac McDonald
So, we moved the restaurant, we're setting up shop, but now we wanna do a few tweaks, because now it's 1940 and drive-ins are all the rage. I mean, they're the hottest thing going, and I say, "Dick, we gotta get in on this," and Dick says...
Dick McDonald
Okay.
Mac McDonald
And two months later, we opened for business: McDonald's Famous BBQ. 27-item menu, uniformed waitresses, bring your food right to the car, and it goes gangbusters. We're going "great guns!" But then, sales started to level off.
Dick McDonald
The drive-in model, as we've learned, has a few built-in problems.
Ray Kroc
Tell me about it.
Dick McDonald
I mean, for starters, there's the customer issue. Drive-ins tend to attract, shall we say, a less-than-desirable clientele.
Mac McDonald
Teenagers.
Dick McDonald
Hot-rodders and hooligans. Juvenile delinquents in blue jeans. And then, there's the service. It takes forever and a day for your food to arrive, and when it finally does...
Ray Kroc
It's usually wrong.
Dick McDonald
Yeah, the carhops are too busy dodging gropes to remember that you wanted strawberry phosphate, not cherry.
Ray Kroc
Well, that's a thing to remember at all.
Mac McDonald
And then, there's the expenses. The huge payroll due to the large staff required, dishes being constantly broken or stolen.
Dick McDonald
Tremendous overhead.
Mac McDonald
So, one day, Dick has a realization. He sees that the bulk of our sales are in only three items: Hamburgers, french fries, and soft drinks.
Dick McDonald
87%.
Mac McDonald
So, we say to ourselves, let's focus on what sells. And that's exactly what we do. Brisket, gone. Tamales, gone. But, we don't stop there. We look at everything. What else don't we need?
Dick McDonald
Turns out, quite a lot.
Mac McDonald and Dick McDonald
Carhops?
Dick McDonald
Walk up to a window, get your food yourself.
Mac McDonald
Dishes?
Dick McDonald
All-paper packaging, disposable.
Mac McDonald
Cigarette machines, jukeboxes.
Dick McDonald
Drive out the riff-raff.
Ray Kroc
Creating a family-friendly environment.
Mac McDonald
But that's not enough.
Ray Kroc
Alright.
Mac McDonald
See, our whole lives, we'd piggy-backed off other people's ideas. We wanted something that wasn't just different, it had to be better. It needed to be ours, and that's what brings us to the biggest cut of all.
Ray Kroc
Which was?
Mac McDonald
The wait.
Dick McDonald
Orders ready in 30 seconds, not 30 minutes.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Art of McDonald's Burger Assembly
Mac McDonald
Speed. That's the name of the game. The first stop for every McDonald's hamburger is the grill. Manned by two cooks, whose sole job it is to cook those all-beef beauties to perfection. Meanwhile, as the patty cooks, our dressers get the buns ready. Watch out. Burger crossing!
[giving Kroc his first tour of McDonald's]
McDonald's Employees
Burger crossing!
Mac McDonald
Every McDonald's burger has two pickles, a pinch of onions, and a precise shot of ketchup and mustard.
Ray Kroc
Now, where did you get those?
[points to the ketchup and mustard despensers]
Mac McDonald
We made them.
Ray Kroc
Made them?
Mac McDonald
Yes, custom-built. The whole kitchen is. Next, this is the finishing station where we put the whole thing together. And...
Mac McDonald
Voila! A fresh, delicious burger from grill to counter in 30 seconds.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Authority and Control in Business Relationships
Ray Kroc
Let me explain something to you, Dick... You boys have full say over what goes on inside the restaurants. But outside, above, below... your authority stops at the door. And at the floor. All right?
Mac McDonald
What is he saying?
Dick McDonald
He's buying the land.
Mac McDonald
Our land?
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Assessing Character: Bluster vs. Capability
Dick McDonald
A hothead like that, you don't know what he's capable of.
Mac McDonald
It's all bluster, Dick. His bark is worse than his bite.
Dick McDonald
That's what ] said.
[[Neville Chamberlain]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Business as War: Competing Philosophies
Ray Kroc
While you two boys were content to sit back and become a couple of also-rans... I wanna take the future. I wanna win. And you don't get there by being some "aw shucks" guy sap. There's no place in business for people like that. Business is war. It's dog eat dog, rat eat rat. If my competitor were drowning, I'd walk over and put a hose right in his mouth. Can you say the same?
Mac McDonald
I can't. Nor would I want to.
[pause]
Ray Kroc
Hence, your single location.
Mac McDonald
We want you out of this company, Ray.
Ray Kroc
Mac, how do you propose we do that?
Mac McDonald
We will sue you, whatever it takes.
Ray Kroc
And you'd probably win. But you can't afford to sue me. I'd bury you in court costs alone. Mac, I'm the president and C.E.O. of a major corporation with land holdings in 17 states... You run a burger stand in the desert. I'm national. You're fucking local.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Advice on Belonging and Self-Perception
Gregory
Can I give you some advice?
Donald Morton
Can I humanly stop you?
Gregory
Stick with the group. Compared to us, you're a god. And, uh, next to Isabelle, which you will *never* be again, you don't come off so hot.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Freedom of Forgiveness
Pruitt
Forgiveness doesn't have to wait. I'm free to forgive myself and so are you. It's a beautiful thing. It really is.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Chasing Dreams in Uncertain Times
Mac McDonald
Well, we were young and hungry. There wasn't a job to be had in all of New Hampshire, so we decided to pack our bags and head west, to Hollywood. I wanted to be in the movie business, and Dick, well, he wanted to be...
[telling Kroc the story behind starting McDonald's]
Dick McDonald
Employed.
Mac McDonald
So, we landed jobs at Columbia Pictures, driving trucks.
Ray Kroc
Huh.
Mac McDonald
And after a few years, we've had enough saved to buy our own little piece of show business-a beautiful little movie theatre in Glendora, which would've been swell-except for the timing: it was September of 29.
Ray Kroc
Oooh.
[cringes]
Mac McDonald
One minute, we're screening The Gold Diggers of Broadway, and the next it's "Brother, can you spare a dime?
Dick McDonald
I couldn't.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Haircuts and Unfiltered Conversations
Barber Martin
There. You finally look like a human being again. You shouldn't wait so long between haircuts, you cheap son of a bitch.
Walt Kowalski
Yeah. I'm surprised you're still around. I was always hoping you'd die off and they'd get someone in here that knew what the hell they were doing. Instead, you just keep hanging around like the doo-wop dago you are.
Barber Martin
That'll be ten bucks, Walt.
Walt Kowalski
Ten bucks? Jesus Christ. What are you, half Jew or somethin'? You keep raising the prices all the time.
Barber Martin
It's been ten bucks for the last five years, you hard-nosed Polack son of a bitch.
Walt Kowalski
Yeah, well keep the change.
Barber Martin
See you in three weeks, prick.
Walt Kowalski
Not if I see you first, dipshit.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Struggles Over Control and Profit in Business
Mac McDonald
Dick. We will never beat him. We will never be rid of him.
Mac McDonald
This is not your company, Ray!
Dick McDonald
Ray, we have no interest in a milkshake that contains NO MILK.
Harry J. Sonneborn
Mr. Kroc, if you're not making money hand over fist, something's terribly wrong.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.