Hw - 7b Reading Response

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Chapter Four: Dave Feamster, former NHL player was injured while playing and could no longer pursue his former career. He struggled at first at what he was going to do after his accident until he bought his on franchise from McDonalds which had become successful when fast food chains started to emerge. Franchising became a big part of the fast food industry because it made for great business, one could make millions following the rules the major corporation set them in, or one could fall into dept depending on how well you carried out the plans/rules.
Quotes: "In 1998 an IFA survey claimed that 92 percent of all franchisees said they were "successful." The survey was based on a somewhat limited sample: franchisees who were still in business. Franchisees who'd gone bankrupt were never asked if they felt successful."
Questions/Responses:
1.Franchisees that went bankrupt, how would the IFA respond to their survey if they were never asked and how does this survey fair with current franchise owners of today?
2. If supposed innocent people like Dave Feamster can successfully own a franchise, why is that those who failed like three quarters of the American companies that started selling franchises in 1983 went out of business by 1993?
Chapter Five: Potatoes of the 1900's were a big part of the food industry. J.R. Simplot was born in 1909 and grew up working on a potato farm with his family until he left school around the age of fifteen to find work in a potato house. At age sixteen, Simplot had become a potato farmer and soon was buying, selling and sorting potatoes. During WWII, Simplot became successful selling dried onions and potatoes to the military and in 1950, invested in frozen food technology afterwards selling frozen french fries to McDonalds.
Quotes:"...the current market for potatoes as an oligopsony - a market in which a small number of buyers exert power over a large number of sellers."
Questions/Responses:
1. The potato business seems unfair due to the fact that the sellers make ultimately less then what the buyers buy them at. If the sellers were not to provide anymore, would fast food chains end up being ran out until they paid fairly?
2. J.R. Simplots involvement in the rise of McDonalds french fries bettered his money situation but for those who pick and peeled the potatoes before the frozen food technology were now payed less creating this unequal shift.
Chapter Six: Hank, a Colorado rancher lives and works on his farm, and while I was there he was intent on showing me the difference between what he does and "raping the land" does. The difference he intended on showing me was how the runoff from the city's drainage system damaged the environment. There were these trusts such as the Steel, Tobacco and Sugar trusts and a few major players completely controlled the price of goods on their own. Soon after in the 1910's there was a beef trust and when the owners of major slaughterhouses got together they would decide the appropriate price of beef. In the market the cost of being a farmer is so expensive that most farmers sell the land they own to be able to pay for it.
Quotes: "It would be wrong to say that Hank's death was caused by the consolidating and homogenizing influence of the fast food chains, by monopoly power in the meatpacking industry, by depressed prices in the cattle market, by the economic forces bankrupting independent ranchers, by the tax laws that favor the wealthy ranchers, by the unrelenting push of Colorado's real estate developers. But it would not be entirely wrong." (p.146).
Questions/Responses:
1. Since major industries had a lot of control over the different trusts, the few major companies that still run all the little companies have new similar patterns they did so long ago which basically still puts them on top of others.
2. The death of Hank represents how intense the food industry competition is and how hard it is to stay current in a rapid growing food economy.
3. How would Hank's death personally effect those who work in the food industry competing in competitive business?