Golden Arches East: Mcdonald's In East Asia

Everybody has a favorite place to eat. Eating out can be a very pleasant experience or a disastrous one. People are free to choose from a wide range of different restaurants where to spend time and have a meal. Although, not all restaurants are the same and each has different characteristics regarding class, interior, cuisine and service. This paper provides a comparison of 4 different restaurants (fast food, casual, upscale): McDonald’s, Panda Express, Applebee’s and Delmonico’s.

McDonaldization, as defined in, George Ritzer’s book ‘The McDonaldization of Society,’ is when a society begins to exhibit the values and practices of the fast-food restaurant. The four main values are: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. McDonaldization could benefit an aspiring entrepreneur developing a business model, one which is sustainable in a capitalist economic system.

The way that Burger King and other fast food restaurant chains do business and markets their products to consumers is due to the change in our society to where the consumer wants the biggest, fastest, and best product they can get for their money. This change in society can be attributed to a process known as McDonaldization. Although McDonaldization can be applied to many other parts of our society, this paper will focus on its impact on Burger King and Taco Bell restaurants. My belief is that the process of McDonaldization has lead our generations toward a more a much more efficient lifestyle, with much less quality. From my observations and studies of these fast food resturants, several themes have become

Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser, is a stark and unrelenting look into the fast food industry that has ingrained itself in not only American culture, but in culture around the world. There is almost no place on earth that the golden arches has not entered. Aside from Antarctica, there is a McDonalds on every continent, and the number of countries that have fast food restaurants is growing on a daily basis. Schlosser describes in detail what happens behind the scenes, before the hamburger and fries come wrapped in environmentally safe paper and are consumed by millions of people daily

McDonald’s is not some ordinary fast food restaurant with its trademark logo advertised almost everywhere in the U.S., many people all over the world know about these famous golden arches. The McDonald’s franchising started in 1955 and in less than fifty years, McDonald’s was introduced all over the world in countries such as, China, Japan, Great Britain, Sweden, France etc. McDonald’s global expansion has intermingled with cultural traditions because these countries are becoming more westernized. Since East Asia is becoming more westernized it also means that there is a cultural difference because of the influences from outside the country. The cultures are being changed because of how ideas are expressed by people and not by their

So with the introduction of a foreign symbol into a host country like a new McDonald’s restaurant, the impact is not so dramatic and the host country does not fully take in the American culture but shapes it in a way to suit their lifestyle and tastes. For example, the food and names of the food at McDonald’s in Tokyo is slightly different to those in America. In India, it serves lamb burgers and in Germany beer is available. This shows that the American formula was not as international as had been hoped, and local cultural practices had to be acknowledged.

The segment of the general environment that ranks the highest between the global and socio-cultural considerations is the socio-cultural. The reason being that McDonald’s represents a very strong aspect of the American culture and a major part of the American culture is the food industry. The food industry, in terms of American food consists of a good old- fashioned hamburger, French Fries, and soda and McDonald’s mastered this concept of American food to perfection. On the other hand the global segment especially in

When fast food comes to mind, one fast food mammoth comes to mind: McDonald's. The imperial fast food giant can be linked visually to several images, but namely its trademark golden arches. Other visual images, primarily for advertisement purposes, are also stamped into the minds of Americans associating the idea of burgers and fries with the ubiquitous franchise.

McDonalds has always been able to face the challenges that arise when trying to expand to foreign cultures. They have successfully expanded to over a hundred countries, including countries in East Asia. In the book “Golden Arches East” by James L. Watson, he studies different cities and how McDonalds has played a role in their cultures. Three places that he mentioned in his writing were Beijing, Seoul and Japan. They all share similarities in the way the culture was impacted positively and negatively, in society and politically. They have their differences in the way things were dealt with and how the public viewed the American company coming to their countries. In this paper, I will be talking about how McDonalds is involved in the

When someone hears the word “McDonald’s,” they may automatically associate it with various descriptions and words such as American food, hamburgers, french fries, and chicken nuggets. Others may assume that McDonald’s is only famous in the United States, but what they do not know is that McDonald’s expanded their success outside of its origin to over 100 countries around the world. In the novel, Golden Arches East, the author, James L. Watson, focused on the company’s expansion in East Asia and studied how the American culture and traditions of McDonald’s influenced the Asian countries and their people.

The middle of the chapter talks about popular culture, and the spreading of fast food corporations across the world. Fast Food Nation tells us that McDonald’s opens at least four new restaurants in other countries besides America everyday. With so many Mcdonald’s

The New York Times bestseller Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal is one of the most riveting books to come out about fast food restaurants to date (Schlosser, 2004). Fast food consumption has become a way of life for many in the United States as well as many other countries in the world. The author Eric Schlosser an investigative reporter whose impeccable researching and bold interviewing captures the true essence of the immense impact that fast food restaurants are having in America (2004). Beginning with McDonald’s, the first fast food restaurant, which opened on April 15, 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois to current trends of making fast food a global realization McDonald’s has paved the way for many fast food

Globalization refers to the “tendency of investment funds and businesses to move beyond domestic and national markets to other markets around the globe, thereby increasing the interconnectedness of different markets. Globalization has had the effect of markedly increasing not only international trade, but also cultural exchange”³. Globalization is closely related to foreign investment in the sense that foreign investment is a contributing aspect of globalization. It has also been noted that globalization can especially impact developing countries as it “helps developing nations "catch up" to industrialized nations much faster through increased employment and technological advances” . McDonald’s is a prominent example of a company that has embraced the opportunity to globalize and achieve success doing so. McDonald’s is the largest fast food restaurant chain in the world consisting of more than 35,000 outlets spread across 118 countries. Although the company was founded in the United States, they have not limited themselves to North America; they now spread worldwide into every continent. Similar to their global growth increase, the company has also seen their revenue tremendously increase as they continue to share their product with more and more people around the world. “McDonald’s key to success is its business mantra of “think global, act local”. This has allowed the company to achieve financial success in every region it opens its fast food restaurants”4. McDonald’s has clearly found the right strategy in terms of growing their product internationally as they’re seen to be one of the most successful companies doing so, their numbers support their success as they receive around 65% of their revenue from international

Food is very much a part of pop culture, and the beliefs, practices, and trends in a culture affect its eating practices. Pop culture includes the ideas and objects generated by a society, including foods, and other systems, as well as the impact of these ideas and objects on society. For example, Mcdonald's is another of the thousands of fast food chains that populate our cities though they often use the term “popular culture” only to refer to media forms. Their popularity has also increased internationally. Although all humans need food to survive, people's food habits and how they obtain, prepare, and consume food, are the result of learned behaviors. Mcdonald’s, like other food chains, has made an effort to ‘localize’ its products so that they will be more successful in each different cultural context. These collective behaviors, as well as the values and attitudes they reflect, come to represent a group’s pop culture.

Today’s society and culture is becoming more and more McDonaldized. This paper will illustrate what the process of McDonaldization is. In addition, this paper will show how today’s society has adapted to this process along with using the theories from Max Weber.