Tuesday, 19 November 2013

Our Neighbor---McDonald's


Globalization has affected almost every aspect of life in almost every country. From economic to social to culture, this widespread exchange of goods, services and ideas have influenced changes around the world. Food is one of the elements in defining culture.

In globalization, one of the most influential changes came with the introduction of fast food restaurants like McDonald’s into foreign countries. McDonald’s has become the best-known fast food brand in the world. It has 30,000 restaurants in over 120 countries.

McDonaldization is the term invented by George Ritzer to describe a sociological phenomenom. We may think it started with Ray Kroc in the 1950's when he bought his first hamburger restaurant, but actually it is much earlier than that. In fact, Henry Ford was the first McDonaldization pioneer with his vision of an assembly line for improving the production of automobiles. His revolutionary idea dramatically changed how many automobiles could be produced and was very efficient.

In essence, McDonaldization is the process of rationalization. The process of McDonaldization takes a task and breaks it down into smaller tasks. This is repeated until all tasks have been broken down to the smallest possible level. The resulting tasks are then rationalized to find the single most efficient method for completing each task. All other methods are then deemed inefficient and discarded. According to Ritzer, the four main dimensions of McDonaldization are efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. In additional, there are some important areas that Ritzer had not mentioned, which are irrationality, deskilling, and consumer worker.

McDonald’s revolutionized the food industry, affecting the lives both of the people who produce food and the people who eat it. The McDonalds applied automation to food, just as Henry Ford had to car-manufacture. When McDonald’s Pushkin Square opened in Moscow on January 31, 1990, it broke all opening day records for customers served, and is still the busiest branch in the world.

Currently, the slogan of “I’m lovin’ it”, which is the new theme that McDonald’s has been promoting globally since 2003. It shows that they had changed their strategy to target the market group of youngsters from children and family consumers. They try to create a young and vibrant image, targeting at young people.

Moreover, we can see that how can they get into a new culture. In Italy, McDonald's serves Mediterranean salads, and teriyaki burgers are available in Japan. In Israel, there are several kosher McDonald's restaurants, and in Mexican outlets sell burritos. These are just a few examples of when McDonald's has actually changed itself to fit into the local culture. In India, the people in this country usually do not eat beef, but consumers can get McDonald's sandwiches made with mutton and chicken instead of beef, respecting their religion.

Lastly, under globalized environment, people always do not enough time to sit down and have a good meal due to the amount of work. Therefore, fast food is the only way to go. McDonald's has come up with all sorts of ideas to fit all sorts of people. They have a morning menu for those that wake up early and the "24hr" drive-thru strategy.



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