Carl Karcher, Founder of Carl's Jr. Dies at 90

Carl Karcher, who borrowed $311 to buy a Los Angeles hot dog cart in 1941 and turned it into a fast-food empire with more than 3,000 Carl's Jr. and Hardees restaurants in 13 countries, has died. He was 90.

It all started with a Hot Dog cart and it almost didn't happen.

Hot Dog Cart

At age 20, Karcher moved to Anaheim, California, to work for an uncle at a feed and seed store where a customer offered him a job delivering baked goods.

One stop on Karcher's route was a hot dog cart on the corner of Florence and Central in Los Angeles, part of a local chain named Hugo's. Impressed with the business, Karcher and his wife, Margaret, borrowed $311, using their Plymouth auto as collateral, added $15 of their own money, and bought the cart.

``Two weeks after I started, Mr. Hugo told one of my workers that the cart belonged to him and that he'd be by the following Monday to take the cart over,'' Karcher told Copley News Service in 2001. ``I called him that evening and said that I bought the cart from his brother-in-law, and he said his brother-in-law didn't own the cart.

``I said, Mr. Hugo, I'm 24, married and have a child. My wife is upset with me for buying the cart and I owe $311 to the Bank of America that I gave to your brother-in-law. He said, `I don't care.' I was beaten down, but stayed on the phone with him for 45 minutes and finally he said, `Keep the damn cart.' The lesson is never give up.''

Carl's Jr.

Within two years, the Karchers had three carts. They added hamburgers to the menu and in 1945 opened a restaurant, Carl's Drive-In Barbecue. In 1956, the couple opened two smaller versions of the restaurant, calling them Carl's Jr. Karcher's brother Donald served as manager.

The smaller restaurants were notable for another innovation that became an industry standard: Customers paid for food when their order was placed, not after the food was delivered.

By 1975, the Karchers operated more than 100 Carl's Jr. units in Southern California, then expanded into Northern California and Las Vegas. At decade's end sales exceeded $100 million.

In 1981, with 300 restaurants, Karcher took his company public in a $13.8 million initial public offering and embarked on an expansion that by 1990 increased the number of restaurants to 534 with annual sales of $480 million.