Finished Fast Food Nation while driving from Phoenix to Mammoth Lakes. Ironically, we had Del Taco (even more ironically, I used to do work for BigMan Creative who did the Del Taco site) along the way. Fast Food Nation was a world view altering book: in one paragraph you learn (if you aren’t already convinced) that in numerous instances Big Business runs this country; in a second you learn that the majority of beef comes from cows that are eating ‘other dead animals’; in another you learn that ‘… about one quarter of American children between the ages of two and five have a TV in their room.’ (pg 46) Fast Food Nation will make you think twice (and sometimes three times) about eating Fast Food, but more importantly, maybe you’ll look into the eyes of someone who’s working at a fast food restaurant and see a person, a real live human being, with feelings. Many low income families will buy fast food because you can buy cheaper food, but if you need help with groceries you can learn how to apply for food stamps here. As usual, here are a couple quotes and interesting tidbits:
On advertising to children: “Many studies had found that young children could not tell the difference between television programming and television advertising. They also could not comprehend the real purpose of commercials and trusted that advertising claims were true.” (pg 46)
On profits: “Today McDonald’s sells more Coca-Cola than anyone else in the world. The fast food chains purchase Coca-Cola syrup for about $4.25 a gallon. A medium Coke that sells for $1.29 contains roughly $.09 worth of syrup. Buying a large Coke for $1.49 instead, as the cute girl behind the counter always suggests, will add another 3 cents worth of syrup — and another 17 cents in pure profit for McDonald’s.” (pg 54)
On corporations sponsoring various schools with advertising campaigns: “The spiraling cost of textbooks has led thousands of American school districts to use corporate-sponsored teaching materials. A 1998 study of these teaching materials by the Consumers Union found that 80 percent were biased, providing the students with incomlete or slanted information that favored sponsors products or views. Proctor & Gamble’s Decision Earth program taught that clear-cut logging was actually good for the environment; teaching aids distributed by Exxon Education Foundation said that fossil fuels created few environmental problems and that alternative sources of energy were too expensive…” (pg 55)
On how fast food restaurants value their employees: “The bonuses of Taco Bell restaurant managers were tied to their success at cutting labor costs. The managers had devised a number of creative ways to do so. Workers were forced to wait until things got busy at a restaurant before officially starting their shifts. they were forced to work without pay after their shifts ended. They were forced to clean restaurants on their own time.” (pg 75)
On profits (and how large corporations squeeze the life from small family owned organizations): “… Burger King’s assault on the supremacy of the McDonald’s french fry, launched in 1997 with a $70 million advertising campaign, was driven in a large part by the huge markups that are possible with french fries. The fast food companies purchase frozen fries for about 30 cents a pound, reheat them in oil, and then sell them for about $6 a pound.” (pg 117)
On what’s really in your fries: “The taste of a fast food fry is largely determined by the cooking oil. For decades, McDonald’s cooked its french fries in a mixture of about 7 percent cottonseed oil and 93 percent beef tallow. The mix gave the fries their unique flavor — and more satured beef fat per ounce than a McDonald’s hamburger.” (120)
On the power of Big Business: “Today the US government can demand the nationwide recall of defective softball bats, sneakers, stuffed animals, and foam-rubber toy cows. But it cannot order a meatpacking company to remove contaminated, potentially lethal ground beef from fast food kitchens and supermarket shelves. The unusual power of the large meatpacking firms has been sustained by their close ties and sizable donations to Republican members of Congress.” (pg 196-197)
On the amount of contamination in ground beef: “A series of test conducted by Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, discovered far more fecal bacteria in the average American kitchen sink that on the average American toilet seat. According to Gerba, ‘You’d be better off eating a carrot stick that fell in your toilet than one that fell in your sink.'” (pg 221)
On obesity: “The United States now has the highest obesity rate of any industrialized nation in the world. More than half of all American adults and about one-quarter of all American children are now obese or overweight.” (pg 240)
Debating whether or not these large fast food monopolies are good for the world: “…Henry Teller, a Republican Senator from Colorado, dismissed the argument that lower consumer prices justified the ruthless exercise of monopoly power. Fast foods are good if eaten in moderation. ‘I do not believe,’ Teller argued, ‘that the great object in life is to make everything cheap.'” (pg 266)
Finally, you must know that In-N-Out is held up as a shining example (pg 259) of a fast food corporation should be run… if they could only get out to the East Coast!
I highly question some of the claims that you cite in Fast Food Nation. For instance, the claim that McDonald’s makes “another 17 cents pure profit” when someone purchases a large Coke instead of a medium Coke. On its face, this is certainly not true. Presumably the larger sized cups cost McDonald’s slightly more money, as does the small additional amount of soda water, and the slight increase in the amount of time spent by an employee to fill the larger cup. As well, is the remainder still “pure profit”? Certainly not, as a fair percentage of that additional 17 cents goes to pay for employee wages, utility bills, and toliet paper for the bathrooms.
This is not to argue that soft drinks aren’t highly padded money makers for fast food restaurants. They probably are. But to call that money “pure profit” suggests a willingness on the part of the authors to tread lightly on precision in order to make a more compelling point.
Interesting thoughts… however, they’re not my claims, the author made them… and the author also noted at the back of the book that *all* of his references were backed up by fact. And in the new edition he made a point to mention that alot of people have tried to debunk the book, but haven’t provided many facts to back up their points… do you have *any* facts to refute his points?
As for you comment about Coke… I’m guessing that a) larger cup =$.01, larger soda water = $.01 = $.02 cents… but they get about $.30 or $.50 per a large compared to a medium… so the profit is probably more than 17 cents. As for your comment about the employee spending more time… does McDonald’s pay for units produced(ie: # of sodas poured) or by hour? Last time I checked it was by hour, so that point is worthless.
By the way, Eric Schlosser put his references in the bibliography… where is your email address? Your website? You chicken? Where do you get your facts?
In and Outs are on the West coast