History
The Quarter Pounder was created by Al Bernardin, a franchise owner and former McDonald's Vice President of product development, in Fremont, California, in 1971. Bernardin had moved to Fremont in 1970 after purchasing two company-owned McDonald's restaurants.
Bernardin began experimenting with new menu items for his McDonald's franchises. According to a 1991 interview, Bernardin noted that he "felt there was a void in our menu vis-à-vis the adult who wanted a higher ratio of meat to bun." In 1971, Bernardin introduced the first Quarter Pounders at his McDonald's in Fremont using the slogan, "Today Fremont, tomorrow the world." His Quarter Pounder became a success and was added to the national American menu in 1972.
In early 2007 the meat in the United Kingdom changed to "Moo Meat", a new style patty which has a smaller diameter but larger height. The new patty is more like a "home-made" burger than the older ones.
In November 2008, McDonald's Japan (which did not ordinarily offer the Quarter Pounder) converted two Tokyo restaurants into "Quarter Pounder" branded restaurants which only sold Quarter Pounder meals. These promotional branches closed on 27 November 2008 coinciding with the re-introduction of the Quarter Pounder at regular McDonald's branches throughout the Kantō (Tokyo) region from 28 November. The Quarter Pounder was launched at one McDonald's restaurant in the Kansai (Osaka) region on 23 December 2008. It was later reported that 15,000 customers had visited the restaurant on the first day, generating a record 10.02 million yen in sales for a single restaurant in one day. It was however also revealed that McDonald's had hired 1,000 "extras" to queue up on the first day. McDonald's Japan explained that the hirees were used for "product monitoring purposes".
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