Sandy's was a chain of American fast-food

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

s begun in 1956 by four entrepreneurs from Kewanee, Illinois: Gus "Brick" Lundberg, Robert C. Wenger, Paul White and W. K. Davidson. Sandy's was the ancestor of the midwestern franchises of the Hardee's restaurant chain.

History

Beginnings

In 1956, the four men set out to start one of the first

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

franchises outside the McDonald brothers' home state of

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. Ray Kroc had just begun selling McDonald's franchises outside California, and the four friends partnered to buy the right to open McDonald's restaurants in central

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. In June 1956, they opened their first restaurant in Urbana, Illinois, only the third McDonald's restaurant to open outside California. The Urbana store proved popular with students, professionals, and young families at the

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. It did so well that the group decided to open additional stores in Decatur, and

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. However, Ray Kroc notified them that Peoria and Decatur were not included in the central Illinois territory, and furthermore, that changes to the terms of the franchise meant they would owe a higher percentage of their profits to McDonald's. Having invested heavily in the Peoria location, including erecting the building, Lundberg and his partners decided instead to open their own restaurant, and settled on the name ''Sandy's''. The chain adopted a Scottish-based theme to combat the Scottish-rooted ''McDonald's'', even though the latter was not based on a cultural theme of any kind. Lundberg was named president.

Early success

The menu of the first Sandy's restaurant included a 15¢ hamburger, a 20¢ milkshake, and a 10¢ bag of french fries, much like McDonald's. However, none of the four founders were interested in expanding their local chain. Lundberg, in particular, viewed the enterprise as a chance to build a "people-oriented organization whose members worked hard but also had some fun while earning a legitimate profit." Note: a new version of the reprint appears at http://anbhf.org/laureates/gust-e-brick-lundberg-2/ . Sandy's was different in a number of ways from other

fast food Fast food is a type of Mass production, mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. ''Fast food'' is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheat ...

chains of the time: * Operators of most restaurants owned their stores and did not lease from the corporation. * Operators were not required to buy supplies from the corporation, instead being permitted to "shop around" as long as the supplies met company standards. * Lundberg visited every store periodically and became personally acquainted with every employee. Ray Kroc did not act indifferently. He filed an ongoing series of lawsuits which finally ended with an out-of-court settlement in 1965. Despite this distraction, Sandy's grew from seven stores in Illinois in 1959 to 121 in five states in 1966. In 1961, insurance man Jack Laughery was so impressed with Lundberg and his business approach that he left a successful practice to join Sandy's, becoming president in 1967. Bill Schelly in his memoir ''Sense of Wonder'' reminisced about visits in the mid-1960s when in downtown

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he made to "a handy hamburger joint named Sandy's (a McDonald's imitator) for greasy cheeseburgers, mounds of salty fries, and massive sodas". In 2009 Schelly posted further comments on a Sandy's fan website:

Takeover by Hardee's

By the end of the 1960s, Sandy's, though still successful, was short of cash, a major handicap with the pricey new television advertising being actively employed by its competitors. Meanwhile, the successful Hardee's chain in the Southern U.S. (founded by Wilbur Hardee) had money and was looking to expand its operations. The solution was a

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

. On November 30, 1971, a Hardee's purchase of all of Sandy's stock was announced, and Sandy's plaid berets were soon to be seen no more. Sandy's had expanded to

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and

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before its dismantling. Originally, Sandy's was only to merge with Hardee's and maintain its own identity, but in 1973, ninety percent of the locations agreed to switch to Hardee's; the other ten percent remained Sandy's. In 1979, the last Sandy's location in Muscatine, Iowa, became a Hardee's. Any remaining locations went under independent ownership and changed their names to avoid infringing on the Sandy's name. These locations included Zandy's in

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until it closed in January 2009 after a break in and declining profits, Sandee's in

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, Andy's in Cincinnati, Ohio and Bucky's in

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and Winona, MN until it closed down on December 14, 2007 and November 5, 1989 respectively.

References

External links