Presentation

McDonald’sThe Circuit of

Culture

COMU3005 Research Presentation

Nguyen Thu Trang

s42683999

Identity of McDonald’s

One of the most internationally recognized and controversial icons of America popular culture

1998: 24,500 restaurants in 114 countries, a new opening every 5hrs, 38 million customers are served per day, 20 million of them in US

Prefix “Mc-” has been used informally in English to describe any person or situation whose essential qualities are in terms of homogenization, predictability or banality. (Galley, Briavel, 321)

Appeared and play symbolic roles in many US TV programs and movies as a first-came-in-mind image of America. (Ritzer, 6-7)

Hundreds of letter poured into McDonald’s headquarters when plans were made to raze Ray Kroc’s first McDonald’s restaurant, including:

Please don’t tear it down!... Your company’s name is a household word, not only in the United States of America, but all over the world. To destroy this major artifact of contemporary culture would, indeed, destroy part of the faith the people of the world have in your company.

The restaurant was then rebuilt according to the original blueprints and turned into a museum.

“McDonald’s…is really a part of Americana”.

(Ritzer, 7)

The first McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino, California, 1955.

McDonald’s Production

McDonaldizationMcDonald brothers’ concept (1948): emphasis on efficiency, low prices, big volume, speedy self-service and jettisoning of anything would slow down the transaction such as carhops, plates, forks, knives, glassware, dishwashers, tipping and less menu items.

Ray Kroc’s strategy (1955): Ray Kroc did not invent McDonald’s but he transformed and developed it into a leading institutions that has revolutionized the food service industry and altered traditional eating habits throughout the world

Cleanliness, friendly service, and predictability – hallmark.

Called for a heavy investment and advertising and public relations. (Galley, Briavel ed, al., 321)

“In business for yourself, but not by yourself”: McDonald’s – franchisees – suppliers are all invited into the worldwide system => enlarge the production system and also product innovation

(The Ray Kroc’s Story)“If I had a

brick for every time I’ve repeated the phrase Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value, I think I’d probably be able to bridge the Atlantic Ocean with them.” – Ray Kroc (1902-1984)

4 success elements as Ritzer (2010) suggested: efficiency – calculability – predictability - control

“…workers in McDonaldized systems function efficciently. They are trained to work this way by managers, who watch over them closely to make sure they do. Organizational rules and regulations also help ensure highly efficient work”

Offer calculability – ‘bigger is better’ (Big Mac, Large Fries, Quarter Powder) – quantity has become equivalent to quality

Workers also tend to emphasize the quantitative rather than qualitative aspects of their work => expected to do a lot of work, very quickly for low pay

Products and workers are predictable in tastes and their words.

Control: customers are likely “forced” to eat fast and leave or even leave before they eat (drive-in model), workers are trained and controlled to work to a high degrees

McDonald’s Culture Space

ConsumptionFor most customers outside the United States, McDonald's offers an altered cultural and social experience that starts when the threshold is crossed. Consumers have used the space for different purposes from culinary:

"East Asian consumers have quietly, and in some cases stubbornly, transformed their neighborhood McDonald's restaurant into local institutions….”

Beijing, Seoul and Taipei,Singapore… treated (it) as leisure centers, where people can retreat from the stresses of urban life, students often sit in McDonald's for hours—studying, gossiping, and picking over snacks…

Sanctuaries for women who wish to escape male-dominated settings

France: afternoon meeting places for elderly women who enjoy chatting while drinking a coffee and eating an apple pie => fast-food no longer needs to be fast in eating]

(Galley, Briavel et. al., 323)

McDonald @ Singapore Changi Airport case could be a “con” in the transformation of McDonald’s into a culture space when students consume too much spaces which are primarily preserved for tourists for study.

Source: reclaimland.sg

McDonald’s Culture Space

Regulation Spaces:

provision beer with meal and large smoking sections in Belgium, France and Germany

comfortable, individual chairs and real plants had to replace the original fixed chairs and plastic foliage.

Some McDonald's restaurants in Europe supply free daily newspapers at breakfast-time and dress their tables with cotton tablecloths and small vases of dried flowers.

(Galley, Briavel, ed. al. 323)

Free wifi and air-conditioned space

Party room and party packages for event celebrations

Products:

Teriyaki McBurger in Japan,

McLacks in Norway, Kiwi Burgers in NZ,

No beef ingredients in Indian McDonald, there was curry sauce and flavor instead;

Rice burgers in Japan and Taiwan stores,

Red Bean pie in HongKong…

Source: internet

As a consequence, McDonald’s has twisted itself into the local culture: “local cultures and identities have constrained McDonald's to adapt to place and reveal local idiosyncrasies” How McDonald’s regulated Culture diversity:

McDonald’s Culture SpaceDesign The symbolic Golden Arches in Architect

has always been significant

But even McDonald’s interior design also blends itself into local style, varies depending on the city, designed to conform to the local architecture

Design quality compensates for the lack of space and higher densities of European McDonald's restaurants. (Galley, Briavel et. al. 323)

Modernism in Barcelona McCafe Art Nouveau in Brussels

Art Déco in Paris

McDonald’sthe Taste of Boredom

An interesting argument by Finkelstein J. (2003):

She has argued that the industrialization in food industries, of which McDonald’s is an significant evidence and example: has created the circumstances in which the opportunities for

being innovative and playful with food are being reduced

has changed many foods into less interesting objects that in some senses become impregnable, closed products (190)

=> industrial food has killed our anxieties about food, playful engagement individual can have with food (198)

She also presented the way McDonaldization has affected eating habits in Australian and they way it stole the majority in cooking at home and passed it to the dining-out sector.

But then, the stronger McDonald grows, the more bland and boring it gets because of being standardized, neologized brand name, unwelcome trivialization and debasement brought about by rationalization, and their food has been somehow boring in taste, too. (198)

ReferencePrimary

Galley, Catherine C., and Briavel Holcomb. "McDonald's." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 3. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. 321-324. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 23 May 2012.

“McDonald’s History” AboutMcDonalds.com, n.d. Web. 25 May 2012.

“The Ray Kroc Story” McDonalds.com, n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2012.

“Reclaiming Changi Airport”. Reclaim Land The Fight For Space In Singapore, 21 Jul 2010. Web. 23 May 2012.

Secondary Du Gay, Paul, et al. Doing

cultural studies: the story of the Sony Walkman. London: Thousand Oaks, 1997. Print.

Finkelstein J., “The Taste of Boredom: McDonaldization and Australian Food Culture”, American Behavioral Scientist. Vol. 42 No.2. Sage Publication, October 2003. 187-200. Web. 23 May 2012.

Ritzer G., The McDonaldization of Society 6, Fine Forge Press, 2010. Print.

Thank you!