Why Ronald McDonald Is a Killer Clown
Food was never meant to be this way. It was never chasing after the dream of standardized food, it encouraged different styles, ways of thinking and…
According to Forbes, McDonald’s is the largest restaurant chain in the world. The question that naturally arises is why. Is it the tastiest? A subjective question, but a strong majority of answers would be no. Is it the healthiest? Most people would say no. So what is the appeal of McDonald’s that makes it the most widespread restaurant chain in the world?
The answer lies in the fact that McDonald’s is fast, cheap, and very addictive. Even if other brands serve better food, the McDonald’s brand value is something which has been built up in the eyes of the consumer over a number of years.
With the advent of globalization and rapid improvements in technology, the speed of any commodity is crucial to its success in the market. In a capitalist system, everything which is a commodity is looked at through the lens of profit. It results in a system that champions monetary gain rather than customer satisfaction. This means serving a customer as quickly and as cheaply as possible. As a result, assembly line organisation in restaurants is really important for delivering food in the fastest time possible. If you are looking for visual proof of this, look no further than your local McDonald’s.
The time taken from placing the order to receiving it rarely takes more than two minutes, three if it is a big one. In the 2016 movie ‘The Founder’, which is the story of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, McDonald’s 60 second Kitchen to Window formula is highlighted. It details to painful extents how much tomato is to be put in the burger, how much lettuce, and even the exact amount of sauce the consumer will receive in their food.
Food was never meant to be standardized. Food is essentially an extension of a person’s creative skill and ability, and trying to put a cap on a person’s creative ability is unfair to those who practice it. Time is essential in order to extract the maximum flavor from any meal. There is a reason why fresh food tastes better than pre-cooked or ready-to-eat meals, and the latter are, of course, a product of capitalist culture. They save time and can be mass-produced. These also earn their manufacturers maximum profit. As a result, why would anyone pay extra to eat in a restaurant when they can get the same dish much faster and on the go?
The answer is simple: when you take the time to cook food, or go to a restaurant, you are getting more than just a meal. You are getting an experience.
When you eat with your family and friends, food becomes a catalyst between you and other people to enjoy your time, slow down just a bit ,and bond with one another. In other words, what you buy is not food, but the time for food to work its magic in the form of relationships. Then again, yes, you do buy the food too.
Sacrificing quality to speed up production has been historically used to lower costs, and consequently, increase profit margins. This is, perhaps, alright for goods that a consumer uses such as cars. Food on the other hand, is judged by parameters other than just price. To sell food, it must be tasty (and I must admit a McDonald’s burger is). To sell food fast, firms face a constraint between taste, nutritional value, and affordable price points. The only negotiable element for a firm like Mcdonald’s is the quality of the food. To sell food fast and keep prices low, inferior quality ingredients are used. Numerous examples across the web can be found as to why exactly McDonald’s is unhealthy.
For example, a regular McDonald’s McVeggie sells for 90 rupees. Now, let us assume that a regular veggie patty can only be so tasty when mass produced. Hence, to appeal to the consumer, the burger is loaded with mayonnaise and cheese. These ingredients are not healthy and have been constantly blamed for the obesity epidemic in the United States. Long-term effects of obesity include high-blood sugar, heart conditions, and cholesterol problems, to name a few. When consumers constantly go to McDonald’s or other fast food chains, they eat enormous amounts of these ingredients. While sit-down restaurants are by no means always healthy, they are much healthier than McDonald’s due to the use of fresher and better quality ingredients.
Contradictory to my argument so far, it is not even McDonald’s fault. At the end of the day, McDonald’s is aiming to make profits in order to keep its shareholders happy and stay afloat in a cutthroat world. There is a global misconception that ‘fast is better’ brought on by capitalist value systems.
In fact, the appeal of McDonald’s might not have even been so widespread if it weren’t for its innumerable competitors, who in combination with McDonald’s and their own interest, promote fast food worldwide, enticing consumers with guaranteed taste and affordability. Each of these promise service at lightning fast speed without mentioning the unforeseen impacts on the person themselves. Some may argue for McDonald’s stating that they tried to provide healthy food into their daily menu with items like their McSalad or their oatmeal available in stores abroad. While McDonald’s did introduce these items in their menu, it was in order to capture more of the consumer demand rather than their concern for the consumers health.
We must remember that McSalads are made the same lower quality ingredients that are used in the rest of their products. This fact alone makes their salad not particularly healthy.
Another limitation is that these items will not sell as McDonald’s does not have a market for them. Other restaurants simply do a better job than them capturing the health food market. This is witnessed by the fact that these items have been discontinued in stores worldwide.
Quality, in economic terms, has the least opportunity cost, therefore the lack of it is easily forgiven. What we have lost is perspective.
Fast food and a fast paced lifestyle of today are pushing local regional cuisines further towards the fringes. The advantage that a restaurant offering local regional cuisine has over chain restaurants is that they use fresh ingredients sourced locally, hence, enhancing the flavor. For a chain restaurant, in order to standardize the food, local produce can not be used if they are to maintain the same taste throughout the country. Hence, travel-hardy ingredients have to be imported from a single destination. These ingredients are grown so that they do not get spoilt during travel rather than for their taste. This very fact makes them inferior to produce which is grown without any such intention. A simple example is of tomatoes. I, for one, am the first to remove any tomatoes from a McDonald’s burger as they lack the same taste you would get in a local cafe, where the tomatoes are noticeably juicer and have better taste. Instead of prioritizing fresh ingredients which are healthier than ingredients which have traveled vast distances to be standardized, we time and time again choose to save a few hundred rupees. And what better place to spend it on than between the two golden arches that offer good taste. The result is the creation of an individual who looks for good taste at cheap prices. Unfortunately, few can claim to be in the price range of McDonald’s and those who can, are either not as tasty or are similar fast food chains. Diversity is hence killed in the eyes of the consumer who goes back every time to the ‘tried and tested’ McD to enjoy exactly what they ate the last time.
Food was never meant to be this way. It was never chasing after the dream of standardization, it encouraged different styles, ways of thinking and was an essential part of any culture around the world.
What market integration has also done over the years is subdue this very cultural variation to the point where each city’s restaurants resemble another without much, if any, variation. Ronald McDonald is a name now known to almost every child in our generation, yet, the irony of the situation is that the very clown we know and love is killing our individuality, making us accept the sub-par products sold by him, and making us believe that we are indeed, lovin’ it.
Written by Jai Verma. Illustrated by Aakash Reddy.
Editors: Madhurima Khadilkar, Maitreyi Menon.
