Billions Served?

[AliciaLuvzDizne]

i might be wrong here but
i think...
that the billions they are refferring to are the burgers, not the people :-/ but i dunno


im probably wrong

 

[netenyahoo]

I take it we have nothing better to talk about?

This is like comparing apples and oranges.

It would be interesting to find out how many people have been served at an original restaurant at DL so that by the 50th Anniversery they could say X number of people have been served in 50 years.

 

[sgeist]

Okay -- in an effort to put the hamburgers vs. people thing to rest, I went to the source. No, not the cows! I called the McDonald's National Customer 800 number at 1-800-244-6227 (feel free to call and bug them too!).

The very personable McDonald's representative on the other end of the line informed me that the "billions and billions" refers to hamburgers. She also informed me that they actually stopped counting at one billion. So the current "billions and billions" must have been extrapolated from their previous data.

As for the "Hamburgers" being on the sign -- older signs did indeed say "Hamburgers", but the newer ones no longer do. Here's a picture with an example of both:

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~cirillo/mcdlebn.jpg

Since the new signs do not explicitly say they are referring to hamburgers, I think that McDonalds is opening themselves up for a messy lawsuit. Who's with me???

McLawyer

 

[Yellow Shoes]

Hmmm....reminds me of my favorite "Twilight Zone" episode.

The book, "To Serve Man"










it's
























a COOKBOOK!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Woody13]

Back in the late 1950's and most of the 1960's, all of the McDonald's signs had electronic tote boards on them listing the number of hamburgers sold in the millions. 1 million, 2 million, 3 million etc. The early signs only had room for 99 million. They changed the signs in the 1960's so they could display up to 999 million and every week or two the electronic sign would jump up another one or two million. Remember too that McDonald's hamburgers only cost $0.15 in those days. Here's a link to one of the old signs (999 million variety);

http://www.photo.net/summer94/ford-museum


Finally, due to energy conservation considerations and community standards, McDonald's did away with the big flashy electronic signs.

 

[AliciaLuvzDizne]

Originally posted by AliciaLuvzDizne
i might be wrong here but
i think...
that the billions they are refferring to are the burgers, not the people :-/ but i dunno


im probably wrong

Dear Alicia,
Try reading ALL of the posts before replying
Thanks,
You


hehe
sorry 'bout that!! :brick:

 

[Merlin]

Originally posted by sgeist
Okay -- in an effort to put the hamburgers vs. people thing to rest, I went to the source. No, not the cows! I called the McDonald's National Customer 800 number at 1-800-244-6227 (feel free to call and bug them too!).

The very personable McDonald's representative on the other end of the line informed me that the "billions and billions" refers to hamburgers. She also informed me that they actually stopped counting at one billion. So the current "billions and billions" must have been extrapolated from their previous data.

As for the "Hamburgers" being on the sign -- older signs did indeed say "Hamburgers", but the newer ones no longer do. Here's a picture with an example of both:

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~cirillo/mcdlebn.jpg

Since the new signs do not explicitly say they are referring to hamburgers, I think that McDonalds is opening themselves up for a messy lawsuit. Who's with me???

McLawyer

Actually, the representative you spoke with was either lying or was incredibly misinformed. It is true that McDonalds eventually changed their signs to say "Billions and Billions Served", but they definitely did not stop counting at 1 Billion. First of all, I can still vividly recall when the signs would say "Over 10 Billion Served", "Over 20 Billion Served", etc. Secondly, there actually WAS a lawsuit brought against McDonalds by a couple who worked some numbers when the signs said "Over 40 Billion Served". I think it was in 1979 that the signs said this. The couple calculated that in order for this to even be possible, it would have required enough beef to have come from all the cows ever born since, like, the 1500's. And they somehow figured out that each individual McDonald's location would have had to sell something like 1 burger every second since the first restaurant opened (keep in mind this was 1979 so there were fewer locations back then).

I don't remember all the specific calculations, but you get the idea. The interesting thing is it was shortly after this lawsuit (which ended up getting dismissed by the judge) that McDonalds switched to just saying "Billions and Billions Served".

 

[Merlin]

Oh, one other thing to keep in mind, also, is that Disney is not as widely recognized of a brand name as McDonalds. For those of us who live, eat and breathe Disney, it is hard to imagine. But according to Forbes, Disney is the number 3 most recognized brand name in the world, behind Coca-Cola (#1) and McDonalds (#2).

 

[WDWFREAK53]

Originally posted by spider-man
I always assumed it was per customer order, but I did some research and many articles say this is in fact burger counts. However, if that is the case, then do you consider that standard cheeseburgers, do you count Big Macs as one or two burgers. I still believe it stand for Billions and Billions of orders.


Boy, what a heated by hot lamps discussion. :lol:

Well, at one time they had Hamburgers on the sign...but this new one that I saw did not mention anything about a hamburger...(hmm...and why doesn't it say "Billions of Processed Meat Patties Served?")

 

[blm07]

I like some of the breakfast stuff, and I like the fries, but not much else really

 

[FutureCEO]

you know when billions and billions are served at Mickey D's plus billions at BK, KFC and Wendy's you know this society has a problem. Too many not fat but obese people-over 60% of Americans over 20. Plus we Supersize too much. Last time I went to Mickey D's was last year. I' ve gone to Subway twice since last year and you have to cross 3 lanes just to get to the place.

 

[isnet396]

Originally posted by One Lil Spark
Okay, everyone has seen on the McDonald's golden arches it says Billions Served. That's a helluva lot of people. Now, I was wondering if Mickey Mouse has "served" more people than Mickey D's.

Have billions come to WDW? Do more people go to a fast food chain rather than WDW?

What do ya'll think? :veryconfu

I believe that the billions refer to the amount of burgers served, not people, and not the people they use to make the burgers out of....If that's the case, then i'd say they're pretty equal.

Ian

 

[SykedOwt]

I'm not trying to sound Arrogant or anything but this question is ridiculous, Mcdonalds is ahead by so much its a joke. Everyone can go to Mcdonalds, not everyone can visit Walt Disney World including all the outside parks and attractions combined. I'm sure McD's has a good 10-15 Billion people lead.