FAST+FOOD+NATION



APA Citation: Schlosser, E. (2001). //Fast food nation: the dark side of the all-American meal.// New York, NY: HarperCollins.

INTRODUCTION media type="youtube" key="TNwQXCniGkU" height="352" width="517" align="center"

pg. 3 "Over the last three decades, fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society. An industry that began with a handful of modest hot dog and hamburger stands in southern California has spread to every corner of the nation, selling a broad range of foods wherever paying customers may be found . . .In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food; in 2001, they spent more than $110 billion. Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music -- combined."

1. THE FOUNDING FATHERS

pg. 19-20. "By the end of the 1970s the McDonald brothers had grown dissatisfied with the drive-in business. They were tired of constantly looking for new carhops and short-order cooks . . . They were tired of replacing the dishes, glassware, and silverware their teenage custogmers constantly broke or ripped off. And they were tired of their teenage customers. The brothers thought about selling the restaurant. Instead, they tried something new. The McDonalds fired all their carhops in 1948, closed their restaurant, installed larger grills, and reopened three months later with a radically new method of preparing food. It was designed to increased the speed, lower prices, and raise the volume of sales. The brothers eliminated almost two-thirds of the items on their old menu. They got rid of everything that had to be eaten with a knife, spoon, or fork. The only sandwiches now sold were hamburgers or cheeseburgers. The brothers got rid of their dishes and glassware, replacing them with paper cups, paper bags, and paper plates. They divided the food preparation into separate tasks performed by different workers. . . For the first time, the guiding principles of a factory assembly line were applied to a commercial kitchen. . . Skilled and expensive short-order cooks were no longer necessary. . . No substitutions were allowed. . . An ad of thier seeking franchisees later spelled out the benefits of the system: 'Imagine -- No Carhops -- No waitresses -- No Dishwashers -- No Bus Boys --- The McDonald's System is Self-Service!'" pg. 22, 24-5. "America's fast food chians were not launched by large corporations relying upon focus groups and market research. They were started by door-to-door salesmen, short-order cooks, orphans, and dropouts, by eternaloptimists looking for a piece of the next big thing. The start-up costs of a fast restaurant were low, the profit margins promised to be high, and a wide assortment of ambitious people were soon buying grills and putting up signs. . .The leading fast food chains spread nationwide; between 1960 and 1973, the number of McDonald's restaurants grew from roughly 250 to 3,000. Th Arab oil embargo of 1973 gave the fast food industry a bad scare, as long lines at gas stations led many to believe that America's car culture was endangered. Amid gasoline shortages, the value of McDonald's stock fell. When the crisis passed, fast food stock prices recovered, and McDonald's intensified its efforts to open urban, as well as suburban, restaurants. Wall Street invested heavily in the fast food chains, and corporate managers replaced many of the early pioneers. What had begun as a series of small, regional business became a fast food industry, a major component of the American economy."

2. YOUR TRUSTED FRIENDS

pg. 32-33. "Kroc was the founder of the McDonald's Corporation, and his philosophy of QSC and V -- Quality, Service, Cleanliness, and Value -- still guide it . . . The Disneyesque tone of the museum reflects, among other thigns, many of the similarities between the McDonald's Corporation and the Walt Disney Company. It also reflects the similar paths of the two men who founded these corporate giants . . .The film critic Richard Schickel has described Disney's powerful inner need 'to order, control, and keep clean any environment he inhabited.' The same could easily be said about Ray Kroc, whose obsession with cleanliness and control became one of the hallmarks of his restaurant chain. Kroc cleaned the holes in his mop wringer with a toothbrush. Kroc and Disney . .. shared the same vision of America, the same optimistic faith in technology, the same conservative political views. They were charismatic figures who provided an overall corporate vision and grasped the public mood, relying on others to handle the creative and financial details. . . Kroc's attempts to add new dishes to McDonald's menu -- such as Kolacky, a Bohemian pastry, and the Hulaburger, a sandwich featuring grilled pineapple and cheese -- were unsuccessful. Both men, however, knew how to find and motivate the right talent." pg. 33-4. "Despite all their success as businessman and entrepreneurs. . . the most significant achievement of these two men lay elsewhere. [They] were masterful salesmen. They perfected the art of selling things to children. And their success led many others to aim marketing efforts at kids, turning America's youngest consumers into a demographic that is now avidly studied, analyzed, and targeted by the world's largest corporations." pg. 37. "'Don't forget this,' Disney told them, 'it's the law of the universe that the strong shall survive and the weak must fall by the way, and I don't give a damn what idealistic plan is cooked up, nothing can change that.' Decades later, Ray Kroc used similar langauge to outlline his own political philosophy. Kroc's years on the road as a traveling salesman -- carrying his own order forms and sample books, knocking on doors, facing each new customer alone, and having countless doors slammed in his face -- no doubt influenced his view of humanity. 'Look, it is ridiculous to call this an industry,' Kroc told a reporter in 1972, dismising any high-minded analysis of the fast food business. 'This is not. This is rat eat rat, dog eat dog, I'll kill'em, and I'm going to kill'em before they kill me. You're talking about the American way of survival of the fittest." pg. 41. "Children would be the new restaurant chain's target customers. The McDonald brothers had aimed for a family crowd, and now Kroc improved and refined their marketing strategy. He'd picked the right moment. America was in the middle of a baby boom; the number of children had soared in the decade after World War II. Kroc wanted to create a safe, clean, all-American place for kids. The McDonald's franchise agreement required every new restaurant to fly the Stars and Stripes. Kroc understood that how he sold food was just as important as how the food taste. He liked to tell people that he was really in show business, not the restaurant business. Promotoing McDonald's to children was a clever, pragmatic decision. 'A child who loves our TV commercials,' Kroc explained, 'and brings her grandparents to a McDonald's gives us two more customers.'" pg. 42. "The fantasy world of McDonaldland borrowed a good deal from Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom. Don Ament, who gave McDonaldland its distinctive look, was a fromer Disney set designer. Richard and Robert Sherman. .. were enlisted for the first McDonaldland commercials. Ronald McDonald, Mayor McCheese, and the other characters in the ads made McDonald's seem like more than just another place to eat. McDonaldland -- with its hamburger patch, apple pie trees, and Filet-O-Fish fountain -- had one crucial thing in common with Disneyland. Almost everything in it was for sale. McDonald's soon loomed large in the imagination of toddlers, the intended audience for the ads. The restaurant chain evoked a series of pleasing images in a youngster's mind: bright colors, a playground, a toy, a clown, a drink with a straw, a little pieces of food wrapped up like a present. Kroc had succeeded, like his Red Cross comrade, at selling something intangible to children, along with their fries." pg. 42-3. The explosion in children's advertising occurred during the 1980s. Many working parents, feeling guilty about spending less time with thier kids, started spending more money on them. One marketing experts has called the 1980s 'the decade of the child consumer.' . . . The growth in children's advertising has been driven by efforts to increase not just current, but also future, consumption. Hoping that nostalgic childhood memories of a brand will lead to a lifetime of purchases, companies now plan 'crade-to-grave' advertising strategies . . .market research has found that children often recognize a brnad logo before they can recognize their own name."

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