Fast Food has been a prominent global industry since the beginning of the 20th century. The term ‘fast food’ is defined as “food that can be prepared and served quickly” (Miriam-Webster Dictionary). Although any meal with low preparation time is technically fast food, usually the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a packaged form for takeout. During the past century, Western culture has had a shift in the values of everyday life. “The 1920s is often called the “roaring” twenties, a time when America underwent dramatic changes in its lifestyle, values, and technology” (Hogan, pg. 24). The cause of popularity of fast food is the affordability and immediate service.
After World War I, automobiles were becoming quite popular and affordable. The drive-in restaurants were thus introduced to accommodate the vehicles. In 1912, the first fast food joint called the Automat opened in New York. “The Automat was a cafeteria with food behind glass windows and coin operated slots” (HyunJeong para. 4). The company is famous for making the idea of ‘dining out’ popular throughout the East Coast. In 1921, another American company called White Castle, opened
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In 1940, McDonald’s opened as a simple walk up barbecue and progressed into a hamburger joint. By 1955, McDonald’s opened several restaurants under the new leadership of Ray Kroc. The well- known assembly line first designed for the production of the Ford Model-T, came to the ‘Golden Arches’. Over the next few decades, small chains and franchises grew into giant corporations. “Fast food franchises had become popular dining stops from coast to coast, thanks to their standardized menus, easily recognized signage, and unified advertising strategies” (Accupos para. 5). Dinner frequently was now eaten outside the home and not around the
Schlosser tells the history of how the fast food nation got its start with Carl Karcher and the McDonalds brothers as the first people to start the first fast food restaurants in California. Then he examines Ray Kroc and Walt Disney’s difficult relationship
First, Schlosser and Wilson describe the history of fast food. Everything started with a fifteen-year-old boy named Charlie Nagreen at a county fair squishing a meatball between two slices of bread, creating the hamburger. The authors then go on to talk about how McDonald’s was the first restaurant to introduce a quick system for customers to get their food. After seeing the success of the McDonald brothers, a businessman named Ray Kroc made a deal with them to travel the country, spreading the chain. Later, Ray Kroc would buy McDonald’s from the McDonald brothers. When other restaurants, such as Wendy’s and Burger King, saw the success of McDonald’s, they began to do the same thing, having a chain of identical restaurants across the United States. Not only did restaurants adopt this idea of complete sameness, but so did other companies such as
In his book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All- American Meal, Eric Schlosser, an investigative journalist, argues that “the fast food industry has helped to transform not only the American diet, but also our landscape, economy, workforce, and popular culture” (3). He supports this claim by first describing the history of the fast food industry, then explaining the current condition of the chemistry and the labor in the industry. Schlosser’s purpose is to inform the consumer and describe the state of the fast food industry in order to call to attention the impacts of the industry on the lives of Americans and on America as a country. He establishes an optimistic tone in the beginning but then develops a gloomy tone for consumers to
In Eric Schlosser’s 2001 piece, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, he examines the rise of the fast food industry in the 1950’s as it was associated with the rampant consumerism of the era and shows how this led to the fast food industry becoming one of the most unethical, manipulative, and greedy industries that ever existed. Schlosser shows how fast food corporations, through mass appealing advertising, were able to manipulate consumers, especially young generations, into buying their products. Children were made the targets of advertising campaigns because these corporations knew that they were the most gullible audience. The 1950’s were filled with consumer trends in which buyers went after products that they believed to be popular and wanted to have the same things as everyone else. Corporations knew that they would have a very easy job in luring consumers because many other products and services had become trend setters in the 1950’s, so consumers would line up to buy fast food if it was presented as being “modern” and “trendy” in a sense. This paper will detail how consumerism and advertising played a large role in constructing American cultural identity during the post-war era.
Eric Schlosser is one of the authors who describes the fast food phenomenon in his book Fast Food Nation. According to him, the biggest problem is the fast food industry that is increasing day by day. Fast food has affected not only the restaurants and the market, but also all the sectors of people's life, from the professional life to the personal one. This affirmation is sustained by Schlosser's statement: "Fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society. " ( Schlosser 3 ) The fast food industry has got into institutions and parts of the world that no one believed would be affected. Moreover, the power of fast food can be seen by taking a look at the American individual, who gives fast food different
Could you even begin to think of how fast food and grocery stores would be if there were no mandatory monthly inspections or no required food sanitation guidelines? Food plays a huge role in our lives. Food keeps us going through the day. Food to us is like gas to cars. Without gas, the car cannot drive.But is the food we are putting into our systems having a bad impact on our bodies that we can't control? In the early 1900s, the food was incredibly unsanitary. The food was more dangerous than when "The Jungle" was written. We have come a long way.
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
Knowing what is in your fast food might make you think twice the next time you devour it. As the rise of the fast food nation in America has increased to an all-time high, so has the weight and waists of Americans all around the country. Not only has the United States grown to love the acquired taste of greasy golden fries and juicy burgers, it has also grown ignorant to the way their food is prepared. In the novel, “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal”(2002), by Eric Schlosser, he makes compelling points in his position against the fast food industry.
“In many respects, the fast food industry embodies the best and worst of American capitalism at the start of the twenty-first century – its constant stream of new products and innovations, its widening gulf between gulf between rich and poor” (Schlosser 6). In 2001 Eric Schlosser published “Fast Food Nation.” Eric Schlosser’s early 21st century muckraking text, “Fast Food Nation,” attempts to shed light on the consequences of the fast food industry on American society. The rise and growth of the fast food industry, like the meatpacking industry, illuminates the evolution of the American dream in post-World War II America. “Fast Food Nation” is a book about fast food, the values it embodies, and the world
Many people believe that the first fast food restaurant was a McDonald’s, but contrary to popular belief, the history of fast food did not begin at the same time as the history of McDonald’s. According to Katie Colburn’s article “The History of Fast Food in America,” the name and location of the first fast food restaurant is lost to history. There is some evidence, however that it began in Ancient Rome. The Urban living in Rome included multi-storied apartment buildings that has little to no cooking area. Therefore, such things like “street vendors and walk-up restaurants fed large segments of the populace” (Colburn). In this situation, fast food seems very harmless and convenient, but as I have learned over the semester so
All aspects of fast food have been criticized significantly, especially since the health food trend craze came around. An argument by culinary Luddites that is often thrown around is that our ancestors never had the access to these options and lived a much happier natural lifestyle. Rachel Laudan brought these points to the forefront to be critiqued in her writing “In Praise of Fast Food”. Rachel Laudan brings the argument that individuals have always participated in the consumption of convenience based foods, the goal in growing and producing food has always been to alter produce to make it more convenient as well as better tasting. Fast food is not as new of an invention as many believe it to be. Modern mainstream media outlets have pushed the belief that processing food has been the worst thing for the well being of the human body. Rachel Laudan makes some very solid points in the fast food debate that should be noted.
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
McDonald has been a well-known and valuable brand for over half a century. The company’s mission and vision is striving to be the world’s best quick service restaurant and formalizing their beliefs into “People, Vision, and People Promise”. “Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value” also became the company’s motto. The company’s first McDonald store was built “in 1940 by the original McDonald brothers, Dick and Mac. Later in 1954, Ray Kroc became the first official franchisee appointed by Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California” (Chandiramani, Ravi). Soon after, Mr. Kroc opened his first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, and the McDonald’s corporation was created. The new franchise began to grow rapidly as a result of its
The fast food empire is one of the largest and highest earning industries in the world. Yet even with the lime light constantly on it, fast food organizations continue to poorly treat workers, serve unhealthy food and find ways to carry out corrupt business. This paper will discuss these hidden secrets and also compare and contrast the differences in the book “Fast Food Nation” and the movie “Fast Food Nation”. The book and movie follow the same ideas but both uniquely describe and display the workings behind the fast food business, thus giving the widest possible perspective on the industry. By examining the images of the movie and the descriptions of the book, we can truly see why the United States has become a fast food nation.
Since Richard and Maurice McDonald founded in 1948, McDonald's has grown from a small restaurant in California into one of the most recognized brands in the world with a chain of outlets that spans the globe. For over 50 years, McDonald's defined the fast food industry while indelibly etching its golden arches logo on the face of both American and global culture through such icons as character Ronald McDonald and the Big Mac sandwich. Millions of people started their very first jobs at McDonalds while even more began to have their eating habits redefined by the chain. Concepts like the drive-thru window were introduced along with the Happy Meal for children in order to provide a fast, affordable, and enjoyable dining. Ray Kroc, saleman