Fast Food

Posted by admin on Feb 3, 2009 in Featured Articles | 0 comments

I recently accompanied a friend on some observatory research at a McDonald’s restaurant in Langley. He didn’t want to go alone because the idea of camping out on uncomfortable plastic chairs in a dingy fast food eatery for an hour is anything but appealing. The atmosphere we encountered when we got there, however, was slightly shocking.

This particular McDonald’s, off 56th Ave, seemed to have been upgraded from the typical grunge to a pseudo-restaurant aesthetic. The walls were covered in blown up portraits of young attractive multi-racial models having a grand ol’ time “lovin’ it.” A fireplace was installed in the center of the dining area, complete with multiple mounted flat-screen TVs playing sports highlights. The booths looked terribly out of place, way too nice for the $1.29 burgers they serve.

Walking into this “casual dining experience” made me highly uncomfortable. I wasn’t coming to sit and have a good time with friends; I came to McDonald’s for their mysteriously appealing and extremely cheap, over-processed food. It felt wrong.

Yet the restaurant illusion quickly wore off as we made our way to the counter. A horde of customers stood in haphazard formations before two young girls yelling above the roar of the TVs and conversations, “Does anyone else need to be helped?”

Behind the cashiers, the kitchen bustled. Burgers sizzled and fries were tossed. Managers yelled at employees encouraging catchphrases like “move it” and “look at the line!” The drive-thru line was constant and parents attempted to goad young children into a menu decision.

After eating my hot fudge Sunday unashamedly, I began to wonder what all the hype was for. This was the same McDonald’s products found at every other location, and realistically, all the same menu items found at other chains. Why would McDonald’s even bother pouring money into an atmosphere? I think it is because our culture is changing, and where fast food was once an ever-increasing phenomenon we couldn’t get enough of, we now crave something else. A newly found awareness of the effect our eating habits have on the world around us has raised dining standards. It isn’t enough that the world’s largest fast food chain can offer a cheap, generic product; they must offer us an experience. Like Starbucks Coffee before it, McDonald’s will need to adapt in order to keep serving the billions they boast.