Read Online Grinding It Out by Ray Kroc - Free Book Online Page B

metal container, drop in four scoops of this ice milk, and finish it off in the traditional way. The result was a much colder, much more viscous drink, and people loved it. The lines around his store in the summertime were nothing less than amazing. This ice-milk shake had a lot of advantages over regular milk shakes. Instead of being a thin, semicool drink, it was thick and very cold. Since it had substantially less butterfat, it would be digested more easily, or as we say in the food service business, it wore better: People didn’t go around belching and burping for half an hour after drinking one. I was selling Ralph Sullivan a lot of paper cups. This started in about 1932, and it kept growing and growing until I was selling him 100,000 sixteen-ounce cups at a time.
    Walter Fredenhagen was running the Prince Castles in my area from his office in Naperville. I’d never met Earl Prince. But I started working on Walter, trying to talk him into looking at Ralph Sullivan’s operation.
    â€œRay, you are a nice guy, and I like you. But I do not want to get into the milk shake racket,” he said. “We do a nice clean ice cream trade here, and the last thing I want is a big clutter of milk bottles to handle. It’s too messy.”
    â€œWalter, I am amazed that a forward-looking guy like you who keeps himself informed about the dairy business can be ignorant of the latest developments,” I said. “Now they are making a milk dispenser that takes a five-gallon can and keeps it refrigerated. You draw the milk from a spigot just like draught beer. You can make the ice milk in your plant right here in Naperville. It’s cheaper than making ice cream, and you’ll see profits you never dreamed possible.”
    At last, one day, Walter talked it over with Earl Prince, and they agreed to drive into Chicago and meet me. Then I’d drive them over to Battle Creek. We would return that same evening. I liked Earl immediately. He was a very plain-spoken, straight-forward guy. In later years the girls in my office would laugh about his frugality. Here was this highly successful, wealthy man who wore a musty old hat and somewhat seedy looking clothes. He could afford to take the entire staff out to lunch at the Pump Room, but he steadfastly refused to pay the prices at any Chicago restaurant. Instead, he’d send out for a peanut butter sandwich. I never knocked his frugality, of course; I respected it although he may have carried it to extremes.
    Both Earl and Walter had their eyes opened on that trip to Battle Creek. They were sold on the frozen milk shake and wanted to start with their own version immediately. The whole trip back to Chicago was spent planning for the new operation with the shake that Earl announced he was going to call the “One-in-a-Million.” As they chattered on about it, I waited for my opportunity to put in an idea of my own.
    â€œIt sounds great,” I said at last, “but there is one thing I want you to do.”
    â€œWhat is it?” asked Earl expansively.
    â€œI want you to charge twelve cents for this drink instead of a dime.”
    â€œHuh?” I could tell that both of them were genuinely flabbergasted.
    â€œThat’s right. Sell it for twelve cents. You’ll still be giving people a hell of a value, and it will actually increase interest and sales.”
    â€œRay, I respect your ability as a salesman,” Walter said gently. “But obviously you are out of touch with the retail end. People just don’t want to be bothered with extra change, counting pennies, you see? It is a big inconvenience for a cashier, too. So forget it.”
    That taken care of, they were prepared to go on talking about other matters in setting up “One-in-a-Million.” But I kept insisting on the twelve-cent price, and it caused a pretty heated discussion. Finally Earl turned around to Walter and said, “Son of a bitch, I am going to teach