In Eric Schlosser's Book Fast Food Nation, there appears to be an interesting section of how a lot of these fast food companies were born into existence. One has to ask, where did it start, who are the young men/women that started these franchises and what were the intentions. Did these intentions of young entrepreneurs start off as something of optimistic innocence ,or did it only appear that way to only show its true colors as time would come to pass? Like a Anakin Skywalker who started off with good intentions to only end up as a mega corporate pioneer of death in the Star Wars franchise, themes of humble beginnings , and its future ramifications will be examined.
Over all The book starts off with comparing fast food restaurants and military bases due to how strict and structural that they are when it comes to maintaining power in that sense. Its pretty metaphorical ain't it?
Getting past the introduction, Schlossen focuses on a specific individual, narrowing down how the fast food industry started.One of these individuals, was none other than Carl N.Karcher, who is one of the founding fathers of the fast food industry. Ah, Big things come from humble beginnings like small seeds to big trees. (you see where this is going right?) As schlossen continues examining and exploring karcher's beginnings, he then documents what was going on during karchers time starting out such as : The birth of Walt Disney theme parks, the GM motors collusion scams against trolly/railroads,along with buying out/shutting down businesses, the rise of car culture in places like California, Drive Through flourishing through out among other cultural impacting businesses and trends which are also spoken about in chapter 1. Many franchise were born such as Burger King, Wendy's , KFC , Taco Bell and others. But the main reason why the author focuses on Carl N. Karcher is all due to te fact that despite all of these great franchises (Mcdonalds being almost a chief monopoly) he managed to have one of the largest independent restraunt business amongst all of the madness and bloom of the fast food industry.
Over all chapter 1 is all about the humble beginnings of the Fast Food Industry, (much like the musical british invasion, or the 90's grunge scene) and how its started, as well as Key players, and events that also happened during those times of the 1930's-50's. Some of the arguments that could be made is how certain fast-food franchises have managed to infiltrate all corners and almost all aspects of life, such as public schools for example. Already they are trying to garner their market by getting the attention of a young market place. Now this can be disputed about how a large company or franchise approach their market, but as schlosser goes in depth with the rise of these fast food franchises, the reader can already make an assumption that children have no chance in making up their own mind due to being young and vulnerable to market and media advertising. And because of that kind of market exposure, they barely have a chance to think of other options once a bright and colorful mascot enters the scene. Once that happens, their bound to be trapped in the sugar coated prison of market media. What starts as a benefit of expansion, suddenly becomes a devoting establishment of a soon to be ( already present) global fast food empire. (boom. See what I did just there ? referenced star wars in the beginning and mentioned it at the end. Full circle. Yup. There we go.) -Ant.Andujar.
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