Mickey and the D men
I watched Supersize Me, but you know what? I didn't need to watch Supersize Me. I mean, honestly, does anybody?
Let me start this another way. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I used to find myself often driving home from San Jose where my girlfriend lived, and quite often I would begin this journey by going to the McDonalds around the corner from her house and then braving traffic. Until one day, I looked up at the menu, and I realized that I didn't want any of it.
None.
I mean, you can kind of go down their menu in your head. Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, QP w/chi, Filet 'o' Fish, McChicken (in its various incarnations), Nuggets, and the sandwich of the week that they're trying to sell that's basically a Big Mac with character. I still remember the McLean. If you live in certain parts of the country, you may add the McRib sandwich. There, I've just mentioned a whole bunch of food. Do you feel hungry at all? Seriously.
Well, neither did I. I was sitting at the drive through being assaulted by the foul smell of their greese, and their bread (why does their fucking bread smell) and I realized I wanted none of it. The guy says, "can I take your order?" and I reply, "no thanks." That was probably ten years ago. I have not seriously sought out a McDonalds since (except for their breakfast menu for some reason, and that's maybe once a year). I simply drove through the drive through empty handed affecting a great cosmic revelation that what I wanted was not McDonald's; what I wanted was food.
That's why I made it through that drive through without ordering anything--even out of sense of propriety in that you're supposed to order something if you're in the drive through. But it isn't food. It's not that it isn't good food, though if I were forced to term it food, I would refer to it as ass food, but that's not the point. It doesn't actually belong in that catagory. That meat. When does ground beef ever cook up to look like that? It doesn't. It's as simple as that. I've already mentioned that bread shouldn't smell like McDonald's bread smells, and no ammount of sesame seeds is going to cover that fact up. They sell hamburgers for $.69. Try that. Try to go buy the ingredients necessary to make a hamburger on a budget of $.69. It can't be done.
People say that they like McDonald's because it tastes good, but for the most part, I don't see it. I mean, I've been smoking for fifteen years. My taste buds should be all but dead, and still I can't stomach that shit. Where are these golden arches where people are buying the good tasting Big Mac. They don't exist. These people are delusional.
Regardless, not food. Supposedly, arsenic tastes like almonds, but that doesn't make arsenic food. That's the point I'm getting at.
Now bring this all back to Supersize Me. The movie was made due to the legal claims that a steady diet of McDonalds has caused obesity and diabetes. But I'm curious how it ever got to that point. Once you realize that what they sell isn't food, you realize that McDonald's isn't actually a restaurant (an assumption that isn't hard to make), and then what legal claim can you make that the diet they supplied is unhealthy. Of course it's unhealthy, it isn't a diet. I don't sue my local hardware store because my steady diet of nuts and bolts is playing havoc on my colon.
Now, I could add that one should note that McDonald's isn't what it claims to be based on the logic of their scene. Sixty billion people cannot be served; there aren't sixty billion people in the world. However, that would be really close to knit picking. What it really comes down to is this:
McDonald's, in not being a restaurant, is failing as a restaurant without any sort of other business to define itself as. It is crumbling. Already it is the shit heel of fast food--similar to what K-Mart was about 15 years ago. K-Mart, of course, made a recovery not by its own hand, but by the prominance of other Mart stores like Target, Wal-Mart, Deals and Steals. Those kinds of places. It ceased to be a crappy department store, and started being an average Mart store. McDonald's will find no such salvation.
A class of my students asked me what I thought about Walmart. They asked me whether I believed their evil empire could crumble. My answer concerned Rome--a much grander edifice than Walmart will ever be--it fell. If Rome fell, so then shall Walmart. But Rome is a far away example. Sadly, people don't know enough about Rome to see the lessons inherent in imperial thinking. My new example is McDonald's. It's crumbling and who would ever thought it possible, even twenty years ago. It is my new Ozymandius. "Look on my Big Mac, ye mighty, and despair!"
Let me start this another way. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I used to find myself often driving home from San Jose where my girlfriend lived, and quite often I would begin this journey by going to the McDonalds around the corner from her house and then braving traffic. Until one day, I looked up at the menu, and I realized that I didn't want any of it.
None.
I mean, you can kind of go down their menu in your head. Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, QP w/chi, Filet 'o' Fish, McChicken (in its various incarnations), Nuggets, and the sandwich of the week that they're trying to sell that's basically a Big Mac with character. I still remember the McLean. If you live in certain parts of the country, you may add the McRib sandwich. There, I've just mentioned a whole bunch of food. Do you feel hungry at all? Seriously.
Well, neither did I. I was sitting at the drive through being assaulted by the foul smell of their greese, and their bread (why does their fucking bread smell) and I realized I wanted none of it. The guy says, "can I take your order?" and I reply, "no thanks." That was probably ten years ago. I have not seriously sought out a McDonalds since (except for their breakfast menu for some reason, and that's maybe once a year). I simply drove through the drive through empty handed affecting a great cosmic revelation that what I wanted was not McDonald's; what I wanted was food.
That's why I made it through that drive through without ordering anything--even out of sense of propriety in that you're supposed to order something if you're in the drive through. But it isn't food. It's not that it isn't good food, though if I were forced to term it food, I would refer to it as ass food, but that's not the point. It doesn't actually belong in that catagory. That meat. When does ground beef ever cook up to look like that? It doesn't. It's as simple as that. I've already mentioned that bread shouldn't smell like McDonald's bread smells, and no ammount of sesame seeds is going to cover that fact up. They sell hamburgers for $.69. Try that. Try to go buy the ingredients necessary to make a hamburger on a budget of $.69. It can't be done.
People say that they like McDonald's because it tastes good, but for the most part, I don't see it. I mean, I've been smoking for fifteen years. My taste buds should be all but dead, and still I can't stomach that shit. Where are these golden arches where people are buying the good tasting Big Mac. They don't exist. These people are delusional.
Regardless, not food. Supposedly, arsenic tastes like almonds, but that doesn't make arsenic food. That's the point I'm getting at.
Now bring this all back to Supersize Me. The movie was made due to the legal claims that a steady diet of McDonalds has caused obesity and diabetes. But I'm curious how it ever got to that point. Once you realize that what they sell isn't food, you realize that McDonald's isn't actually a restaurant (an assumption that isn't hard to make), and then what legal claim can you make that the diet they supplied is unhealthy. Of course it's unhealthy, it isn't a diet. I don't sue my local hardware store because my steady diet of nuts and bolts is playing havoc on my colon.
Now, I could add that one should note that McDonald's isn't what it claims to be based on the logic of their scene. Sixty billion people cannot be served; there aren't sixty billion people in the world. However, that would be really close to knit picking. What it really comes down to is this:
McDonald's, in not being a restaurant, is failing as a restaurant without any sort of other business to define itself as. It is crumbling. Already it is the shit heel of fast food--similar to what K-Mart was about 15 years ago. K-Mart, of course, made a recovery not by its own hand, but by the prominance of other Mart stores like Target, Wal-Mart, Deals and Steals. Those kinds of places. It ceased to be a crappy department store, and started being an average Mart store. McDonald's will find no such salvation.
A class of my students asked me what I thought about Walmart. They asked me whether I believed their evil empire could crumble. My answer concerned Rome--a much grander edifice than Walmart will ever be--it fell. If Rome fell, so then shall Walmart. But Rome is a far away example. Sadly, people don't know enough about Rome to see the lessons inherent in imperial thinking. My new example is McDonald's. It's crumbling and who would ever thought it possible, even twenty years ago. It is my new Ozymandius. "Look on my Big Mac, ye mighty, and despair!"
posted by Monstro D. Whale at
9:55 AM
4 Comments:
Ah, yes the breakfast menu. For myself as well that is probably their only siren call when I am at my weakest frame of mind -- not a morning person, synapses not all firing, and so tired that even their golden promises seem tantalizing if not an easy filler.
Even then it's filler -- not food.
At one time there were two objects on the menu that I did occasionally have a yen for, both for nostalgic reasons more than really their epicurean qualities. First the Filet o' Fish, because that is what I always got as a kid. But they don't make those particular items the way they once did. I have given up on eating a Filet o' Fish as it tasted in the 80's, mainly because the current ones always taste and look like they were cooked back in said times.
The second were Chicken McNuggets -- with all their from day one inherent parts is parts problematic nature. But they don't make those the same way either. Dark meat and fat are good, they taste good. The current "all white meat" versions are tasteless horrific concoctions without any of the delicious chicken fat and gristle that once made them edible.
So I don't give them my business.
I can say, having lived life at such a level that this was of some importance to me, that one can make a hamburger for less than 59 cents. No it isn't phenomenal, but it is at least the equal if not better than a McDonald's hamburger in healthful ingredients, taste, and sustenance.
It involves going to a grocery store in a depressed area that sells slightly old loaves of bread for 25 cents. Buying two at once will allow you to almost make enough "sandwiches" to use up all the meat in the hambuger chubb. The chubb of the cheapest possible hamburger meat is your big outlay, as this is usually about 5 bucks and is almost 45% fat -- but oh how you can stretch it. Mustard and ketchup are each bargain bin items at 50 cents each, and those stretch too. A white onion 25 cents.
Total $6.75
Two loaves of bread have 60 slices, so 30 sandwiches with probably a little hamburger, quite a bit of onion, and most of your condiments left over. Pickles are the real luxury here and I left them out since they would totally ruin the overall cost. For some reason it is hard to buy a cheap pickle. Nor would you want to. I usually grew my own cucumbers and made my own pickles.
But all that comes to about 23 cents a hamburger. People live this way -- where even 59 cents is too much to eat out.
Although “Supersize Me” did some damage to Mickey D’s revenue, the corporation bounced back by first eliminating the “Super Size” option and then offering healthy alternatives to their otherwise crappy fare. Corporation representatives claimed that the movie had nothing to do with the elimination of the “Super Size” option. Suuuuuure.
McDonald’s is hardly crumbling, though. According to a 2003 study by Technomic, a market research firm, McDonald's share of the market has fallen 3% in five years and is now at 15.2%.
McDonald’s US Revenues were $14.87 billion for 2001, $17.141 billion for 2003, and $19.06 billion for 2004. Check wikipedia for some of these stats.
Interesting you should choose the Roman empire, though, as McDonald’s is synonymous with globalization. McDonald’s business is hurting more on in other countries than in the US. This is due in large part to fears of Mad Cow Disease, but it also stems from the backlash one would expect after McDonald’s several-decade honeymoon with foreign cultures: it’s unhealthier than citizens’ normal faire, and regardless of whether spinach replaces lettuce at the Russian McD’s, it is culturally monolithic.
America is a different story. As this guy points out, the problem is one of convenience: if you’re busy, it’s too damn easy to grab a burger to fill the belly. It’s more difficult to seek out food that’s healthier. As a person who eats more fast food than he should, I can second this.
That is, I don’t see the empire crumbling until its citizens radically change the way they view the way that food fits into their daily lives. Same goes for Wal-mart, America's largest corporation: until Americans are willing to go back to shopping in six different places for the things they can pick up in one trip to Wally World, the empire will remain intact.
Well Driv, Avram...
I'm inclined to agree with both of you in some ways, and totally disagree with you (the Drivler, anyway) in others.
Yes, it is true that McDonald's is making money hand over fast and that they will most likely do so for some time to come. As you've said, it's an American edifice.
But you're analyzing that edifice from one point of view, and I'm hitting it from another. McDonald's is the quintessential fast food, but that also means that it is the quintessential bad food. It's reputation rests on its putrescence. People who eat fast food are more likely to see other restaurants as being better alternatives, and this will probably not change without great effort on the part of McDonald's itself. I don't know why people still eat at McDonald's. I know that they do. But I also know that these same people know that of all the fast food joints, McDonald's is the lowest in terms of quality. It doesn't matter if that statement is true or not. That's what people believe.
In the long run, this corrupt image can only slowly choke out the life of the company. Part of the reason that Supersize Me worked is because it was telling people what they already know. Hell, the number of people who have worked in a McDonald's at some point in their life suggests that this information was already out there. If Supersize Me had been about Arby's, nobody would have cared--it wouldn't have been reaffirming.
I can only imagine that this means that people who eat at McDonald's are suffering from a muted form of copraphelia. They know that what they consume is disgusting, that it's socially ostracized, that their eating it represents a break from good taste and common sense, and yet they eat it anyway, perhaps because of all these characteristics.
I know I'm late to the conversation, but I wanted to add this note:
Oddly enough, Drivler, McD's "healthy" options actually contain more fat than many of their other menu items.
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