McDonalds, CrackDonalds, FactDonalds

Everyone knows that McDonald's makes a gazillion processed and chemically infused fast food and burgers all over the world. But those fat filled fries and burgers is NOT how the company makes its money. McDonald's corporation is technically a real estate company. Back in it's early stages they company was struggling turning a profit from the franchises and being able to cover the costs of keeping the doors open to its restaurants. Ray Kroc started the Franchise Realty Corp which purchases property and builds the franchise stores. The company then charges an upfront fee from each franchise owner to buy into the company (which it then uses to build more stores) and then charges each store the cost of the mortgage plus 40% (or 5% of all food sales for more successful stores) to each franchise store.

McDonald's as a corporation actually owns some of the most expensive real estate on the planet and combined owns more real estate than any other company on earth.