Sandy's facts for kids
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Formerly
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Sandy's Drive-In (1956–1981) |
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| Private | |
| Industry | Fast-food restaurants |
| Fate | Company became a Hardee's franchisee |
| Successor | Hardee's |
| Founded | June 1958 as Sandy's Drive-In in Peoria, Illinois |
| Founders |
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| Defunct | 1979 |
| Headquarters | Kewanee, Illinois, U.S |
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Number of locations
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Over 120 |
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Area served
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Key people
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Gust "Brick" Lundberg, W.K.Davidson |
| Products | Hamburgers |
Sandy's was a popular fast-food restaurant chain in the United States. It was started in 1956 by four friends from Kewanee, Illinois: Gus "Brick" Lundberg, Robert C. Wenger, Paul White, and W. K. Davidson. Sandy's eventually became part of the Hardee's restaurant chain in the Midwest.
Contents
History of Sandy's
Starting a Restaurant Chain
In 1956, these four friends wanted to open some of the very first McDonald's franchises outside of California. Ray Kroc, who was in charge of McDonald's expansion, allowed them to open restaurants in central Illinois.
In June 1956, they opened their first restaurant in Urbana, Illinois. This was only the third McDonald's to open outside California. The Urbana store became very popular with students and families from the University of Illinois. It did so well that the group decided to open more stores in Decatur and Peoria, Illinois.
However, Ray Kroc told them that Peoria and Decatur were not part of their agreed-upon area. He also said that the rules for their franchise had changed, meaning they would owe McDonald's a higher percentage of their earnings. Since they had already invested a lot in the Peoria location, Lundberg and his partners decided to open their own restaurant instead. They chose the name Sandy's. To compete with McDonald's, Sandy's used a Scottish theme. Lundberg became the president of the new company.
Early Success and Growth
The first Sandy's restaurant had a simple menu, much like McDonald's. It included a 15-cent hamburger, a 20-cent milkshake, and a 10-cent bag of french fries. The founders were not just interested in making a lot of money. Lundberg wanted to build a "people-oriented organization" where employees worked hard but also had fun.
Sandy's was different from other fast-food chains in a few ways:
- Most restaurant operators owned their stores instead of renting them from the company.
- Operators could buy their supplies from different places, as long as the supplies met Sandy's quality standards.
- Lundberg regularly visited every store and got to know all the employees personally.
Ray Kroc, from McDonald's, was not happy about Sandy's. He filed many lawsuits against them. These lawsuits finally ended in 1965 with an agreement outside of court. Even with these challenges, Sandy's grew quickly. It went from seven stores in Illinois in 1959 to 121 stores across five states by 1966. In 1961, an insurance salesman named Jack Laughery was so impressed with Lundberg that he joined Sandy's. He became president in 1967.
A writer named Bill Schelly remembered visiting a Sandy's in Pittsburgh in the mid-1960s. He described it as a small place where he would buy "greasy cheeseburgers, mounds of salty fries, and massive sodas." He would then take the food back to his dad's office.
Becoming Part of Hardee's
By the late 1960s, Sandy's was still doing well, but it didn't have a lot of extra money. This was a problem because TV advertising was becoming very expensive, and their competitors were using it a lot. At the same time, the successful Hardee's chain in the Southern U.S. had money and wanted to grow.
So, the two companies decided to merge. On November 30, 1971, Hardee's announced that it had bought all of Sandy's stock. Soon, the Scottish plaid hats worn by Sandy's employees were no longer seen. Before the merger, Sandy's had even expanded to Belgium and Canada.
At first, the plan was for Sandy's to merge with Hardee's but keep its own name. However, by 1973, 90% of Sandy's locations agreed to change to Hardee's. The remaining 10% stayed as Sandy's for a while longer. In 1979, the very last Sandy's restaurant, located in Muscatine, Iowa, also became a Hardee's. Any other remaining locations became independent restaurants and changed their names to avoid using the Sandy's name.
