Hw 7 - Reading Response

Fast Food Nation by Eroc Schlosser
Chapter One: Carl Kacher was born in 1917 in Ohio. He quit school after eighth grade to continue working long hours on the farm with his father. When Carl turned 20, he moved to Anaheim,CA to work at a Seed and Farm job his uncle had offered him. He saved enough money to by his own Hot Dog stand and soon after opened a drive in barbecue restaurant. Meanwhile, the McDonald brothers began their speedee service system by providing a self service system taking out drive in restaurants and bringing in customers into their highly efficient restaurant.
Qoutes: "The McDonald's fired all the carhops in 1948, close their restaurant, installed larger grills, and reopened three months later with a radically new method of preparing food. It was designed t0 increase the speed, lower prices, and raise the volume of sales. The brothers eliminated almost two-thirds of the items on their old menu. They got rid of everything that had to be eaten with a knife, spoon, or fork. The brothers got rid of their dishes and glassware, replacing them with paper cups, paper bags and paper plates." (19-20).
Questions/Responses:
1. It's interesting and quite funny to see how Schlosser described McDonald's new speedee service system helped advance the fast food industry by providing fast self servicing restaurants.

2. How is it significant to know about the history of Carl's Jr in relation to the new development of Self-servicing systems?

Chapter Two:Ray Kroc dropped out of high school and served in WWI and eventually became successful by buying the right to franchise McDonald's. Walt Disney was born in Illinois a year apart from Ray and together they developed the world's view on product advertsising. Kroc's strategy was to target the children by providing the kids with entertainment and with that along came McDonald's, Ronald McDonald clown. Disney developed clear and efficient marketing strategies such as creating an atmosphere in which visitors felt as though they had escaped the real world, and coining the “synergy” strategy, which sold the rights to use Disney characters to other companies, thus increasing product recognition.
Quotes: "If they were drowning to death, I would put a hose in their mouth.” Ray Kroc says this of the Walt Disney Company as their fortunes declined in the 1960s "(41)
Questions/Responses:

1. To see how much the fast food industry is an actual competitive business in the light of Ray Kroc and Walt Disney was interesting because it really did develop the future of the world and at the sametime made the future worse providing unhealthiness to many.
2.The rivalry between Ray Kroc and Walt Disney explains how in most cases that money is the main inportant drive in successful businesses.

Chapter Three: In Colorado Springs, CO, the military bases became predominant since the outbreak of WWII which brought forth more people and with more people came more change and modernization of the food industry in that area of that time. The workforce at that time was mainly made up of adolescents who were trained to work at machines and do praticed task that they had to preform at work. After the teens would move on from working where they were at, they were easily replaced because it was not hard to do what was being asked of. Since the workers were paid such low wages, often ex-employees would rob the places where they once worked furthermore getting back at the job that treated their work efforts unfairly.
Quotes: "No other American industry is robbed so frequently by its own employees.” Joseph A. Kinney, the president of the National Safe Workplace Institute, says this about the fast-food industry when he urges restaurants to pay their employees higher wages in addition to updating security measures. (86)