Fast food, slow food, oganic food (ePub)

The fast food industry had an incredible upswing in the last 40 years. The upswing in the sixties and seventies was a milestone in the history of the industry. This upswing leads to an incredible increasing number of Fast Food chains and outlets in the whole world. Vignali (2001) argues that the key to the international success of Fast Food chains were mainly he franchise-system. By franchising to local people, the delivery and interpretation of what might be seen as US brand culture are automatically translated by the local people in terms of both product and service. It could be argued that the increased consumption leads to the economical upswing. A number of authors (Ritzer 1999, Pine 2002, Solomon 2006) argue that the growth of consumption can be explained by a number of key factors, including: 1. The economy, 2. The growth of the youth market, 3. Technological change, 4. Social change, 5. The mass media, 6. Facilitating means, 7. Globalisation. A fitting sample for the development of the fast food industry is McDonalds.
'McDonald's is one of only a handful of brands that command instant recognition in virtually every country of the world. McDonald's began with one restaurant in the US in 1955 and today there are more than 26,500 restaurants in over 119 countries, serving around 39 million people every day - making McDonald's by far the largest food service company in the world.' (McDonalds statement UK)1
Vignali (2001) argues that the concept of 'think local, act global' became a very often used business phrase of the twentieths century and increasingly topical when looking at globalisation. The concept of 'glocalisation' could be applied to McDonald's. On the on hand the aim of McDonald's is to create a standardised set of item on theirs menus that tastes the same in Japan, Italy or even America. On the other hand they try to think local and adapted the original menu to meet customer needs in different countries. [...]