Carl's Jr. began as a chain of hamburger stores in 1956, growing out of the existing restaurants owned and operated by Carl Karcher. He started his first restaurant in 1941. His first restaurant consisted of a hot-dog stand purchased for $350 and opened additional hot-dog stands before adding hamburgers to the menu. He was operating a full-sized restaurant in the Anaheim in the fifties called Carl's Drive-In Barbecue. In 1956 Karcher opened two smaller restaurants and called them Carl's Jr., which is the reason for the name the chain still carries (Barrier, 1988, pp. 63-64).
The company grew slowly until the 1970s, after which it expanded more rapidly. Throughout, the company remained a family enterprise, and Karcher used the company to provide for family members and loyal employees. Two brothers, two sons, a daughter, and a grandson own 60 of the company's 226 franchised units, and former employees make up half the company's 50 franchisees.
Karcher himself is a devout Catholic who attends church each morning at 6:30 and who often starts company meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance and the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. Carl Karcher Enterprises is said to be among the most generous in terms of its treatment of staff, providing a broad benefits program that extends to hourly employees, higher than average managerial salaries, and relatively short work weeks.
By the 1980s, the company was experiencing problems affecting its performance on the stock market. The company experienced a series of retrenchments in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Karcher stumbled in the mid 1980s when he launched a national expansion plan by opening units in Texas and Arizona, a move foiled by the slump in oil states and by intense competition from others made it difficult for Carl's Jr. to gain a foothold, especially in Texas. In fiscal 1987 the company closed its Texas operations, taking a $15 million write down, and
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