When someone hears the word “McDonald’s,” they may automatically associate it with various descriptions and words such as American food, hamburgers, french fries, and chicken nuggets. Others may assume that McDonald’s is only famous in the United States, but what they do not know is that McDonald’s expanded their success outside of its origin to over 100 countries around the world. In the novel, Golden Arches East, the author, James L. Watson, focused on the company’s expansion in East Asia and studied how the American culture and traditions of McDonald’s influenced the Asian countries and their people. McDonald’s is involved in the cultural transformations of Beijing, Seoul, and Japan in multiple ways. Watson (2006) described, “For instance, in 1992 and 1993 customers in Beijing (as in Hong Kong and Taiwan) usually left their rubbish on the table, letting the restaurant employees do the clean-up work. However, during the summer of 1994 I observed that about a fifth of the customers, many of them fashionably dressed youth, carried their own trays to the waste bins,” (page 52). The usual dining etiquette of Chinese customers is that they would leave their leftovers and remaining garbage at their seat for the restaurant employees to take care of. They believed that since McDonald’s was a formal restaurant, what they paid includes full customer service. However, this example shows that the American etiquette of McDonald’s introduces a new form of dining to Beijing customers.
In Beijing, McDonald’s was like leisure time for people. For example, people could relax, chat, read, enjoy the music, and celebrate the birthdays in McDonald’s in Beijing (Yan, 72). McDonald’s in Beijing provided friendly environment and moderate place for middle-class people. When people went to McDonald’s, they were getting American culture experience that they had never been before. In Beijing, when customers entered the McDonald’s, they could see the kitchen and how their service works which is different to American culture. In addition, Beijing culture has been changed because of the familiar and peaceful place that McDonald’s provide for their customers. McDonald’s made favorite for young couples “because the eating environment is considered romantic and comfortable” (Watson 50). Also, McDonald’s was children favorite place like in American culture because kids could play and eat at the same time. Even they had receptionist whose responsibility were “to establish long-term friendships with children and other customers who frequent the restaurant” (Watson 61). McDonald’s in Beijing became most favorite placed for people because of affordable restaurant and friendly
In Paul Feine’s essay “McBastards: McDonald’s and globalization”, he addresses the negative views that many foreign cultures have about McDonald’s. He divides the essay into four sections. By breaking down the essay, he clearly shows his audience the ways in which the world views McDonald’s. He discussed the idea of cultural imperialism and the negative effects on foreign cultures, but shows the reader that these views may not be accurate. He ended his essay with a paragraph focusing on how McDonald’s brings people together.
McDonald’s is not some ordinary fast food restaurant with its trademark logo advertised almost everywhere in the U.S., many people all over the world know about these famous golden arches. The McDonald’s franchising started in 1955 and in less than fifty years, McDonald’s was introduced all over the world in countries such as, China, Japan, Great Britain, Sweden, France etc. McDonald’s global expansion has intermingled with cultural traditions because these countries are becoming more westernized. Since East Asia is becoming more westernized it also means that there is a cultural difference because of the influences from outside the country. The cultures are being changed because of how ideas are expressed by people and not by their
This chapter interested me a lot because it showed how the fast food restaurants stated in America. The most interesting thing that I learned was that McDonalds wasn't a fast food restaurant first; only after renovation, it became popular to the costumers due to the cheap
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, is categorized into two categories, “The American Way,” that examines the inauguration of the Fast Food Nation within the background of post World-War II in America and “Meat and Potatoes.” These two categories evaluate the industrialization of fast food, along with the dangers of consuming meat, the chemical flavoring of food, the working conditions of the meat industry, the global background of fast food, and the production of cattle. The book introduces the McDonald’s brothers and Carl N. Karcher which investigate their performance as developers in the fast food industry in California. This results to the inspection of Walt Disney and Ray Kroc’s intricate relationship on the rise to fame. All these well known
Throughout the con-fiction book Chew On This: Everything You Don’t Want To Know About Fast Food by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson, the McDonald’s fast food chain has been mentioned multiple times. In addition, McDonald's has not only been depicted as one of the most powerful fast food chains, but as well as one of the most influential upon many countries in the world. They are the symbol for America in a way. People around the world, especially, in America, has been so familiar and rely on McDonald’s in many ways, for food, drinks, wifi, or even for playgrounds. Additionally, McDonald’s has become a part of many people's’ lives.
Due to the famous, well-known symbol of the golden arch, McDonalds is seen as a worldwide trademark. “Beginning the international venture into Canada in 1967, the McDonald’s Corporation has rapidly expanded abroad” (Curtis, 1982). This can be related to the documentary watched in class, showing the rapid progression of Coca-Cola becoming a necessity in our society, and the cultural ties connected to the commodity. The fascination and popularity grew rapidly, therefore creating an international symbol profoundly. The
The New York Times bestseller Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal is one of the most riveting books to come out about fast food restaurants to date (Schlosser, 2004). Fast food consumption has become a way of life for many in the United States as well as many other countries in the world. The author Eric Schlosser an investigative reporter whose impeccable researching and bold interviewing captures the true essence of the immense impact that fast food restaurants are having in America (2004). Beginning with McDonald’s, the first fast food restaurant, which opened on April 15, 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois to current trends of making fast food a global realization McDonald’s has paved the way for many fast food
So with the introduction of a foreign symbol into a host country like a new McDonald’s restaurant, the impact is not so dramatic and the host country does not fully take in the American culture but shapes it in a way to suit their lifestyle and tastes. For example, the food and names of the food at McDonald’s in Tokyo is slightly different to those in America. In India, it serves lamb burgers and in Germany beer is available. This shows that the American formula was not as international as had been hoped, and local cultural practices had to be acknowledged.
The way that Burger King and other fast food restaurant chains do business and markets their products to consumers is due to the change in our society to where the consumer wants the biggest, fastest, and best product they can get for their money. This change in society can be attributed to a process known as McDonaldization. Although McDonaldization can be applied to many other parts of our society, this paper will focus on its impact on Burger King and Taco Bell restaurants. My belief is that the process of McDonaldization has lead our generations toward a more a much more efficient lifestyle, with much less quality. From my observations and studies of these fast food resturants, several themes have become
Chinatowns are there in many countries in the whole world, with the inclusion of United States, France, Australia, India, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, among others. They are often marred with spectacular allusion to the stereotypic Chinese cultures in most cases. Nevertheless, the scope of the display of these definitive Chinese cultural elements in the Chinatowns varies a bit from one country to the other. The essay considers this in comparing the situation between American Chinatowns and the French Chinatowns, using a personal experience in a Chinese restaurant in Cambridge, where I have been every Saturday, since February, with the Massachusetts Go Association’s members. It considers the following as points of argument: dress codes in Chinese restaurants; overall conversations and interactions; use of exotic languages; the precise restaurant service mannerisms and architectural dimension.
The article I would like to discuss is “McDonald's in Seoul: Food Choices, Identity, and Nationalism” by Sangmee Bak. I chose this article because I found it very interesting and a very good example of globalization. Globalization can be defined as “the development and proliferation of complex, interdependent international connections created through the movement of capital, natural resources, information, culture, and people across national borders” (Oxford Bibliographies). Essential globalization is the interconnected sharing of goods and ideas between nations. This comes into play in this article with the incorporation of an iconic American restaurant, McDonald’s, in Korea. In this article, Bak describes his ethnographic study of the effect of the incorporation of McDonald’s in the Korean culture. I found that the ethnography was executed well and did a good job of identifying the role McDonald’s played in this culture.
Much like a smile, the “Golden Arches” can be understood in any language. The McDonalds brand is the most well-known, internationally embraced fast food empire. McDonalds operates over 31,000 franchises throughout the world, with the United States leading the way with a whopping 13,381outlets as of May 2009 [1]. McDonalds has the fast food market cornered, offering an increasing variety of food of beverages, marketed to people of all ages to eat at any time of the day. However, being a corporate giant has its issues. McDonalds has faced a lot of criticism for its high-fat, high-sugar, potentially addictive menu. While the corporation is not likely to outright admit responsible for its actions, McDonalds has seen some changes to address
Today’s society and culture is becoming more and more McDonaldized. This paper will illustrate what the process of McDonaldization is. In addition, this paper will show how today’s society has adapted to this process along with using the theories from Max Weber.
The company researched for the purpose of this paper is McDonald 's. This company 's history dates back since 1940 when Mac and Dick McDonald initially opened McDonald 's BBQ restaurant located in San Bernardino, CA. In 1948 they shut down the restaurant, just to reopen it as a self-service drive-in restaurant. According to About McDonald’s (2012), their menu included only 9 items, such as: milk, coffee, soft drinks, cheeseburger, hamburger, potato chips, and a slice of pie. Potato chips were then replaced by French fries. The history of this company is significantly market by Ray Kroc, who in 1954 at a visit to McDonald 's in San Bernardino decides to have a franchise of McDonald 's. A year later, in 1955, he opens his first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois. The franchising plan allowed growth and by 1965 there were more than 700 restaurants across United States. McDonald 's