All material from this section is from the introduction chapter from the book:

Golden Arches East by James L. Watson

#1 : Tiananmen Square:
-One of China’s primary tourist spots
-Public arena for celebration and contestation of Chinese national identity
-Location of one of the world’s busiest McDonald’s was only a stones throw away

#2 : McDonald’s has become a saturated symbol:
Examples -
Beijing: a new class of yuppies uses it to connect with outside world
Korea: many equate eating a Big Mac with cultural and economic treason
Taiwan: has becoma a political act, reflecting an attitude toward independence or reunification with China

#3 : Cultural Imperialism
-Many European and American intellectuals have equated the American fast- food industry with C.I.
-This is a new form of exploitation that results from the export of popular culture from, mainly, the U.S., Japan and Europe:
Music, T.V., film, video, comics, advertising, fashion, home design, and mass-produced food
-Corporation that are capable of “manipulating personal ‘tastes’ will thrive as state authorities lose control over the distribution and consumption of goods”
Internet, globalization enhance this process

#4 : Cultural Imperialism (con’t.)
-It is the domination of popular culture - rather than outright military or political control - that matters most in the postmodern, post socialist, postindustrial world
-It is the U.S. that is the true revolutionary power...we push a culture based on mass entertainment and mass gratification....this message is transmitted through Hollywood and McDonalds...unlike most traditional conquerors, the U.S. is not contnet to merely subdue others: We insist they be like us

#5 : (Goal of book : to answer 2 questions:)
A. Does the spread of fast food undermine the integrity of indigenous cuisines?
B. Are food chains helping to create a homogenous, global culture better suited to the needs of a capitalist word order?
-Book goal is to produce ethnographic accounts of McDonalds social, political, and economic impact on 5 local cultures


#6 : McDonald’s influence on East Asian dietary patterns:
-Japanese consumers rarely, if ever, ate with their hands until McDonald’s was introduced
-In Hong Kong, McDonald’s has replaced traditional teahouses as the most popular breakfast venue
-Among Taiwanese youth, McDonald’s french fries has become a staple
-East Asian consumers have quietly transformed their neighborhood McDonald’s into local instituions. In the U.S. fast food implies fast consumption. In Beijing, Seoul, and Taipei, McDonald’s are leisure centers to retreat from the stress of urban life. Many McDonald’s have become “youth clubs”...studying, gossiping, etc...

#7 : The two new “isms”
(Ism #1:)
Globalism: describes the condition that prevails when people the world over share a homogenous, mutual, intelligible culture
-Proponents of globalism assume electronic communications and mass media (esp. T.V.) will create a “global village”
-It is argued that this global village is sustained by technologically sophisticated elites that speak the same language (American English), maintain a common lifestyle and share similar aspirations: economic forces mesmerize people everywhere with fast music, fast computers, fast food...MTV, Macintosh, McDonalds pressing nations into one homogeneous “global theme park, one McWorld”

#8 : The Digital Revolution
-According to Wired magazine, Internet enthusiasts (and cell phone enthusiasts) have already begun to creat a global cultrue that will negate - or at least undermine - the traditional state

***PASS out and read Forbes article on Korea’s wired world.

-But how is “culture” defined today........when speaking of a “global culture”??

#9 : Culture Defined
-In its early usage, culture was defined as a sharing of common beliefs, customs, ideas; this held people together in coherent groups.
-In recent decades, this definition has come under attack. Now, people in supposedly close-knit groups (bands of hunters, factory workers, bureacrats, etc...) do not share a single system of knowledge handed down from their ancestors.
-The opreative term is “local culture” : the experiences of everyday life, lived by ordinary people in specific localities: feelings of appropriateness, comfort, correctness govern the construction of personal preferences or “tastes”.


#10 : Ism 2: Transnationalism
-In the realm of popular culture, it is no longer possible to distinguish between what is “local” and what is “foreign”
-To millions of children who watch Chinese T.V., Uncle McDonald is probably more familiar than mythical Chinese folklore characters.
-A new field of study has surfaced called “transnational” that focuses on “deterritorialization”: the world economy can no longer be understood by assuming that the original producers of a commodity necessarily control its consumption.

#11 : Transnationalism (con’t)
-Transnationalism describes a condition by which people, commodities, and ideas literally cross-trangress - national boundaries and are not identified with a single place of origin
-Transnational corporations are the best example given that business operations, manufacturing, and marketing are spread around the globe to dozens of societies:

Example: the Air Max Penny: the shoe contains 52 separate components produced in five countries: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, and the U.S. By the time the Air Penny is finished, it has passed through 120 pairs of hands

#12 : Transnationalism (cont.)
-The final product (Air Penny) is assembled by Chinese workers in a Taiwanese-owned factory just north of Hong Kong; design work is done by American technicians at a research center in Tennesee
-Nike itself, does not own any factories. Instead the company relies on an international team of specialists who negotiate with manufacturers, monitor production, and arrange shipment

#13 : Transnationalism (cont.)
-Dispensed production and centralized control appears to be the norm in transnational companies (esp. food and beverage):
Coca-Cola based in Atlanta
KFC in Louisville
Heinz in Pittsburgh
Kellogg’s in Battle Creek, Michigan
Carr’s Biscuits in Carlisle, England
-The headquarters of these and many other companies take on a non-national or antinational mode of production controlled by (in) a First World nation

#14 : McDonald’s
-From the outside, McDonald’s appears to be the biggest example of a traditional corp: It operates in more than 100 countries and has a sprawling headquarters complex in Oak Brook, Illinois (home of Hamburger University)
-If you look close, however, McDonald’s is a federation of semiautonomous enterprises. Their goal is to “become as mush a part of the local culture as possible.” The object when people call McDonald’s “multinationl” they like to be referred to as “multilocal” meaning McDonalds goes to great lengths to find local supplies and local partners whenever new branches are opened.

#15 : McDonald’s (cont.)
-To support this, in 1991 there were fewer than 20 American managers working in overseas operations
-Only 1 American worked in the McDonald’s Beijing headquarters
-All of the McDonald’s managers in Seoul were Korean
-In Japan, all decisions have been in local hands since McDonald’s opened there in 1971
-McDonald’s International refrains a 50% stake in its East Asian enterprise; the other 1/2 is owned by local operators

#16 : Localization Strategy
-In Korea, China, Taiwan, and Japan - McDonald’s goes to great lengths to find local supplies for its operations (vs. importing the food and other materials)
-McDonald’s Localization Strategy has become very successful:
Den Fujita (Managing director in Japan) and Daniel Ng (Managing director in Hong Kong) have become international celebrities [like Ray Kroc...founder of McDonalds in the U.S.]
-McDonald’s trnsnational success is due in large part to its multicultural/multilocal mode of operation

#17 : Children as Consumers
-Rising incomes have produced dramatic changes in lifestyles, especially among young people who live and work in metropolitan areas.
-Married women working outside the home has affected gender relations, childrearing practices, and residence patterns
-The balance is shifting away from the family norms that guided earlier generations and building a more comfortable life for themselves and their offspring.

#18 : Children as Consumers (cont.)
-This shift also shows a decline in the birth rate and the rise in the amount of money and attention lavished on children
-China’s one-child plicy has helped to produce a generation of “Little Emperors/Empresses” each commanding the affection and economic support of two parents and in many cases, 4 grandparents.

-McDonald’s has capitalized on the Little Emperor phenomenon treating children as independent decision makers who command substantial resources

#19 : Children as Consumers (cont.)
-Similar patterns have taken hold in Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong (where parents gave junior-high school students an average of $107 U.S. dollars/month to spend on snacks and entertainment) (1995)
-McDonald’s Ist appeared in East Asian cities during the early phases of this family revolution. (The good timing of McDonald’s has led to the restaurant’s success)

#20 : 5 Cities
-Tokyo (1971): An Affluent middle class had matured by the mid-70’s thus a new generation of consumers can afford to eat out on a regular basis. McDonald’s “takeoff” corresponds to the emergence of the “teens,” an unrecognized stage in the Japanese life course. For the ist time in Japanese history, all young people are expected to stay in school until age 18.
-These leisured youths become avid consumers of American - style fast food and pop. culture

#21 : 5 Cities (cont.)
-Hong Kong (1975): McDonald’s opening date here marks the beginning of a long economic boom in Hong Kong. A white - collar middle class rapidly replaces Hong Kong’s post - war working class.
-By the mid - 70’s, the majority of residents are living in neolocal (households separate from their parents), conjugal (married couple) units and are preoccupied with their own offspring vs. a wide network of kin.
-Children and young adults emerge as full-fledged consumers in the late 70’s and early 80’s. McDonald’s becomes the “in” place to eat

#22 : 5 Cities (cont.)
-Taipei (1984): McDonald’s is the 1st foreign food company allowed to operate in Taiwan’s previously closed market
-The start-up corresponds to the beginning of a new political era: local interests challenge the authoritarian Nationalists’ party. (and arrived with Taiwan took-off in global electronic and comp. markets)
-Taiwan’s emerging middle class begins to have time and money to spend on leisure activities: family pattern change rapidly to accommodate urban life and regular employment of married women
-Older forms of childhood socialization (filiality and obedience) are gradually de-emphasized to accommodate practices that encourage consumerism. Taipei’s youth embrace McDonald’s as a symbol of their new lifestyle

#23 : 5 Cities (cont.)
-Seoul (1988): McDonald’s is first food chain (foreign) permitted in Korea
-An emerging middle class (after decades of personal sacrifice) allows salaried employees (mostly male) to have little spare time for family activities, but their time dependents begin to enjoy a lifestyle defined by consumerism.
-Korean children become socialized with american fast-food and the persuasive power of this new generation is impressive: Many parents who object to foreign imports find themselves arranging birthday parties for their children at McDonalds

#24 : 5 Cities (cont.)
-Beijing (1992): In the 1970’s and 80’s, China experienced many economic reforms
-McDonald’s enters the scene when independent entrepreneurs are permitted for the 1st time since the Communist victory in 1949
-Affluent families begin to distinguish themselves by engaging in conspicuous consumption and McDonald’s becomes a powerful symbol in the new lifestyle
-McDonald’s is expanding rapidly in China to capitalize on this new lifestyle and consumerism and plans to have 600 outlets by 2003

#25 : The McDonald’s System
-Previous books on the fast food industry have focused on production. This book places its primary focus on comsumption: role of the consumer.
-Keys to McDonald’s success has been consistency and predictability worldwide
-McDonald’s did not invent fast food but they are responsible for standardization: “speed up production w/o sacrificing consistency”
-Corporate goals: fill walk-in orders w/i 90 sec. and no more than a 3 1/2 min. wait for drive-thru customers.

#26 : The McDonald’s System (cont.)
-A 600 page “operations and Training Manual” guides production. Nothing is left to change - photo layouts show where sauces should be placed on the bun and the exact thickness of sliced pickles.
-All equipment must be purchased from approval supplies and the architectural design of both interior and exterior is carefully controlled.
-McDonald’s does not condone “absentee owners” --- franchise holders must be involved in the day-to-day management of the restaurant.

#27 : The McDonald’s System (con’t)
-Only 10% of those that apply for new franchises reach the interview stage and only 1% recieve franchises. (ex. if 20,000 apply, 2000 are interviewed, 200 are accepted)
-McDonald’s sells a system, not products. The aim is to create a standardized set of items that taste the same in Singapore, Spain, and South Africa.
-Studies reported in the N.Y. Times have maintained that Big Macs eaten in
14 different countries have all tasted the same.

#28 : The McDonald’s System (con’t)
-But McDonald’s understands it cannot completly control the exact taste of every item but it can make the experience of eating predictable: size of counters, booths, make the experience of eating predictable: size of counters, booths, overhead backlit menus, colors of walls, style ofdecoration.
Goal: “Just like home feeling” even in foreign countries
-This “familiarity factor” is central to McDonald’s success:
-Societies like U.S. where job mobility is high
-To many disoriented, lonely children, the Golden Arches symbolize more than just food - it stands for home, familiarity, friendship

#29 : McDonald’s System (con’t.)
-A surprisingly high % of young people in Tokyo, Taipei, and Hong Kong have grown up w/ McDonald’s as their favorite venue for entertaining family and friends
-It was not an accident that McDonald’s was the “official food service partner” in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games: athletes from around the world were familiar enough with McDonald’s to accept it w/o question
-Bill Gates on his way home from China: “We were happy to find a 24-hour McDonald’s in Hong Kong”

#30 : McDonald’s Adapts
-Key to McDonald’s worldwide success is that people everywhere know what to expect when they pass through the golden arches
-However, McDonald’s knew it had to adapt to local customs to survive: i.e. In Israel, Big Macs are now served w/o cheese in several outlets permitting the separation of meat and cheese (daily products) required of kosher restaurants

-In India: Vegetable McNuggets (Mutton-based Maharaja Mac) (Hindus do not eat beef), (Muslims do not eat pork)

#31 : McDonald’s Adapts (con’t.)
-In Malaysia and Singapore, McDonald’s underwent rigorous inspection by Muslim clerics to ensure ritval cleanliness - the chain was rewarded with a Halal (“clean,” “acceptable”) certificate indicating the total absence of pork products
-Other variations:
-Chilled yogurt drinks (ayran) in Turkey
-Expresso and cold pasta in Italy
-Teriyaki burgers in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong
-Vegetarian burgers in the Netherlands
-McSpagetti in the Phillipines
-McLaks (grilled salmon sandwich) in Norway
-Frankfurters and beer in Germany
-McHuevo (poached egg hamburger) in Uruguay

#32 : McDonald’s Adapts (con’t.)
-The keystone, however, of any McDonald’s main course all over the world is not the Big Mac or the generic hamburger...it is the “fries”
-The main course may vary widely (fish in Hong Kong to veggie burgers in Amsterdam) but the signature innovation of McDonald’s -- thin, elongated fries cut from potatoes is ever present and consumed by Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, vegetarians, communists, marathoners, and armchair athletes
-This is why McDonald’s continues to work on improving the delivery of this industry winner: The Chairman of Burger King acknowledges “Our fries just don’t hold up”

#33 : Automation
-A central feature of McDonald’s: divide work into a series of tasks that can be performed by an average worker with minimum training. There are no chefs @ McDonald’s: hamburger and fries are produced in Henry Ford assembly-line fashion.
-McDonald’s didn’t invent assembly-line food production (China used it in the late 19th century in public dining halls and in U.S. Howard Johnsons (1st opened in 1935 with 150 outlets by 1941)
-McDonald’s expansion can be traced to the past WWII boom in automobile traffic and the American infatuation w/ brand-name products that promised consistency, predictability, and safety.

#34 : Automation (con’t.)
-McDonald’s franchising began in 1955, and by 1963 they were selling 1 million hamburgers a day. The 1st drive-through operation started in 1975...an innovation that today accounts for 1/2 of McDonald’s sales in U.S.
-McDonald’s was the 1st fast food company to use computers that automatically adjusted cooking time and temperatures.
-The fast-food industry in the U.S. reports that their biggest problems are rising labor costs and shortages of reliable workers
-The turnover rate for nonmanagerial employees is close to 300% per year in many American cities. Al fast food chains are embracing technology that reduces ordering time (touch screen ordering) to reduce time and release employees from counter duty

#35 : Consumers
-The fast food business is based on an implicit contract: We’ll provide fast, reliable, inexpensive service if the customer agrees to:
A. Pay in advance
B. Eat quickly
C. Leave w/o delay (making room for others)
D. Behave like “proper” (educated and disciplined) customers
-Children in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Boston learn at a very early age to place order, find a table, and eat w/o embarassing their friends. During McDonald’s first weeks of operation in Moscow, employees distributed info sheets on how to order, what to do after paying (employees stood outside with a bull horn during busy periods)

#36 : Consumers (con’t)
-In Moscow with a bullhorn: “The employees inside will smile at you. This does not mean they are laughing at you. We smile because we are happy to serve you”.
-In Beijing in 1994, Chinese families frequently gathered around a large, pictorial and held lengthy discussions before venturing inside to place an
order.
-One very important feature of any “industrialized” food system is the
QUEUE: to line up and wait. This is not a human reaction: bottlenecks resulting
when one person serves many. McDonald’s is responsible for introducing
the queue to Hong Kong.......queue was largely unknown there until the
mid-1970’s.

#37 : Consumers (con’t)
-There are some cultures that ignore queue etiquette and “clump”.......however
most in the world queue.
-The physical setting of fast food restaurants encourage queues.
-McDonald’s establishes an “egalitarian relationship” which makes it seem
reasonable that consumers would perform tasks that they would otherwise
delegate to paid staff: drawing your own drink, distributing napkins and flatware,
clearing tables, etc.....MsDonald’s is a “theater of equality” ....in contrast to
conventional restaurants.

#38 : Consumers (con’t)
-The egalitarian model does not apply to all McDonald’s. Exceptions are made
where local dining customs demand more formality. In Rio de Janeiro, waiters
serve Big Macs with champagne in candle-lit restaurants. In Caracas,
Venezuela, hostesses seat customers, take orders, and deliver meals.
-Interviews around the world, however, show that the egalitarian model of fast food is the attraction people had to McDonald’s because of its lack of “pomp”
and its unrelenting predictability.
-There is no competition in ordering: What does one do when the big spender
at the next table in a conventional restaurant orders shark’s fin soup and
braised quail? This won’t happen at McDonald’s.

#39 : Smile
-Since its inception, McDonald’s has made friendliness a hallmark of its image.
-It could be argued that, following McDonald’s lead, that a cultural expectation....
“smiling service”....is now a commodity.
-McDonald’s and its imitators promote 4 things associated with customer service: convenience, cleanliness, prediciability, and friendliness. It is a shock
when some Americans travel abroad for the 1st time and discover that public
friendliness is not the universal norm.

#40 : Smile (con’t)
-This is a difficult practice in the far East where “seriousness” is given high
value associated with attention to detail and determination.
-Sometimes the “smile” in the far East makes consumers suspicious.......this
is why the longer McDonald’s operates in East Asian cities, the less evident
are the forced smiles.

#41 : Cleanliness
-McDonald’s is widely credited with starting a revolution of rising expectations
among East Asian consumers who had never experienced high standards of
public hygiene in eating establishments.
-In Taipei, Beijing, Seoul, and Hong Kong, local restaurants had to match this
new standard or watch their customers go elsewhere.
-Young people especially began to draw a connection between clean toilets and the state of a restaurant’s kitchen
-Earlier generations had to accept the unsanitary conditions.........they had
little choice (except to go to an expensive restaurant).

#42 : Cleanliness:
-One consequence of this focus on cleanliness: a rising rejection of traditional
street cuisine and a preoccupation with food hygiene.
-Aided by the 1996 outbreak of e.colifood poisoning in Japan, and the rumor
that dozens died in Beijing eating contaminated youtiar (deep-fried dough
sticks) at a roadside stall, many parents now worry about what their children
consume outside the home.
-Competing chains, many small operations, try to capitalize on McDonald’s
reputation by close sounding names: McDuck’s, Mcdonald’s, Modornal,
McKiver’s, McDonny’s (far East) to MacFastFood, McAllan in Europe.

#43 : Cleanliness (con’t)
-The equation between McDonald’s and reliability is especially strong
in China where competitors not only dress their staff in McDonald’s style
uniforms, but also engage in what is best described as public exhibitions
of cleanliness.
-In Beijing, local fast food chains regularly employ one or more workers
to mop floors and polish windows- all day long, everyday.......especially in
the entryway where they are observed by prospective customers.
-McDonald’s is one of the few chains that carries cleanliness into the kitchens
which are on display.

#44 : Conclusion
-McDonald’s has been and has become such a powerful symbol of
standardization and routinization of modern life that it has inspired a new
vocabulary: McThink, McMyth, McJobs, McSpirituality and McDonaldization.
-Eating at the Golden Arches is a total experience, one that takes people out
of their ordinary routines. One “goes to” McDonalds, it does not come to the
consumer (like Coke). In most parts of the world, McDonald’s is not taken
home. Unlike packaged products, McDonald’s items are sold hot,
ready-to-eat, seperating the buyer from acts of cooking and preperation. One
consumes a “complete set” of products.

#45: Conclusion (con’t)
-For children in the far East, by the time they have grown, McDonald’s is no
longer percieved as a foreign experience. Parents see it as a haven of
cleanliness and predictability.
-Children see McDonald’s as fun, familiar, and a place where they can choose
their own food - something that may not be permitted at home.