Fast Food Nation - Essay Example

Sociology Na ye Soc 357 Exam 2 04-08 In the book “Fast Food Nation”, Eric Schlosser says that fast food culture has speeded the milling of our scenery, broadened the gap between well of and poor, and spread American culture abroad. He argued that fast food has proven to be a revolutionary force in American life. “What people eat has always been determined by a complex interplay of social, economic, and technological forces.” (Schlosser, 2001) Fast food has become irreplaceable for Americans. People spend more money on fast food than on the computer, movies, books, newspapers, and new cars. Based on the reason more and more people love to eat fast food, fast food restaurants get expanded quickly in United States. Within the extraordinary growth of the fast food industry, the McDonald’s corporation becomes the most powerful symbol of America’s service economy. Schlosser give the idea about fast food culture rationalization as ‘efficiency over human value’ in his book, calling the triumph of fast food restaurant like McDonald’s as “the irrationality of rationality”( Schlosser, 2001) The rationalization theory is developed by a sociologist named Max Weber. Rationalization refers to the replacement of traditions, values, and emotions as motivators for behavior in the society governed by rational, calculated reasons. In Weber’s view, the fast food industry is part of the rationalization process. He regarded the fast food restaurants represent and lead the process of formal rationalization and bureaucracy. Formal rationalization is that people search for the best possible means to an end is shaped by regulations, rule, and large social structures. The bureaucracy usually leads to fewer options because almost everyone makes the same optimal choice. Rationalization as a process can be replaced by value- rational thought and action; mostly value- rational thought and act involve struggling to search for the most competent way to accomplish a treasured objective or outcome. In the context of fast-food industrialization, the ‘most efficient way’ means the fastest and most cost-effective way to make a profit. Schlosser gives some examples of it. For the purpose to increase the speed, lower prices, and raise the volume of sales, McDonald created a radically new method called the Speedee Service System in 1948. McDonald brothers eliminated the menu; got rid of everything that had to be eaten with a knife and fork; and got rid of dishes and glassware, replacing them with paper cups, paper bags, and paper plates. They also divided the food preparation into separate tasks performed by a different worker. (Schlosser, 2001) The McDonald brother’ Speedee Service System revolutionized the fast food restaurant business and efficiently increased profit. After McDonald’s Speedee Service System had got success, every fast food restaurant started to follow and copy it. Rationalization denotes to the progression of substituting the existing values, traditions and feelings of people, which motivate the behaviors with thoughts and actions that appear to be more rational. Based on this function of rationalization, fast food restaurants try to imply the fast food culture by Over-exaggerated advertisement and attempt to package themselves as the ‘happiest place to eat’ to attract their customers. The easiest targets are children. The explosion in children’s advertising occurred during the 1980s. Fast food restaurants spent lots of money on advertisement for promotion and established a perfect image ‘trusted friend’ for children. Also, they started to sell a toy to attract kids. For example, McDonald always sells their Happy Meal with toys. Schlosser says this in his book: McDonald’s 1997 Teenie Beanie Baby provide one of the most fruitful promotions in the antiquity of American publicity. At the time, McDonald’s vended almost 10 million Happy Banquets in a usual week. Seldom has a marketing determination attained such an unusual rate of sales among its envisioned clients. (Schlosser, 2001) Also, McDonald decorated their restaurants more colorful. They added the lights with bright color in the restaurant and gave children the playground. Children love to go McDonald because it is the bright, happy place that is serving food and toy. Children can eat in and play with other kids. It was wise strategies to win the kid consumers. They create the meaningful relationship between the fast food restaurant and children. America’s fast food culture has become indistinguishable from the popular culture of its children. (Schlosser, 2001) Not just bound the tie relationship with children make fast food restaurants succeed, they also spend lot effort for their food processed. Mostly, fast food restaurants add “natural flavor” in their food, which to make the food taste as the way it does. The “natural flavor” is the man-made additives that give most processed food most of its taste. Taste is invented to aid us distinguish food that’s ‘good’ or ‘bad’, however, after putting the man-made additives, people cannot tell the different anymore. Because fast food restaurants started adding flavor additives to the food, there’s no need to purchase the organic and fresh food anymore. As long as the tastes stay the same way, people will buy it. Also, the color additives in processed foods are very common in fast food restaurants. Schlosser says:” Studies have found that the color of food can significantly affect its flavor is professed. Brightly tinted foods regularly seem to sensitivity better than blended foods, even when the flavor mixtures are same. Foods that somehow look food-color often seem to have off tastes.” (Schlosser, 2001) The secret formula to keep the food fresh is to keep the color, which used color additives to make processed foods look appealing. Weber argued the way fast food restaurant prepared food is the rationalization process underlying the dimension of rationalization call Predictability. Rationalization increase effort to ensure predictability from one time or one place to another. Weber believed people’s social action could often be predicted. In a coherent society, individuals want to identify what to expect in all settings and at all times. They neither want nor expect surprises. People want to know that when they order their cheeseburger today, it is going to be identical to the one they ate yesterday and the one they will eat tomorrow. Fast food restaurants realized this inertia and caught their consumers’ mind. They give customers same service whenever they walk in and serve the same taste foods as last time they ate. It becomes rational for consumers because it matches consumers’ expectation of fast food restaurants, and no one thinks anything is wrong. (Schlosser, 2001) The fast food culture relevant Max Weber’s theory of rationalization to the modern world. Although the fast food restaurant would be the ultimate example of bureaucracy framed within the rational structure, the rationalization strengthens both sets of structures and processes remains as powerful force today as it was in Weber’s day. We have seen even closer to the ‘iron cage’ of rationalization today that Weber feared of. (Schlosser, 2001) Reference Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print. Read More