The first chapter

January 31, 2001 12:07 AM

The first chapter of Eric Schlosser's new book piqued my interest; this and this solidified my desire to read Fast Food Nation. Has anyone else read the book yet? Comments?
posted by JDC8 (11 comments total)

Picked it up last week and have had the time to read the first few chapters which have been really interesting. It's been focused on McDonald's in the beginning, but there's been a good discussion of the parallels of McDonald's and Disney. In the way that they market to kids, marketing in general, the brand recognition that they concentrated on creating, and so forth. Two tidbits that amaze me, and these apparently come from McDonald's headquarters, so listen with a grain of salt. First, 25% of the US population eats at McDonald's every day. Second, 0.5% of the *world's* population eats at McDonald's every day. That's staggering. McDonald's is the largest purchaser of beef, potatoes, and pork in the US.

Lot's of good stuff in the book and I'm glad that I picked it up.
posted by warhol at 5:41 AM on January 31, 2001

I just read a good review of the book in the Washington Post.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:04 AM on January 31, 2001

what am i missing? why is mcdonald's the largest purchaser of pork in the us?
posted by o2b at 7:43 AM on January 31, 2001

McRib? Milkshakes?
posted by hijinx at 7:50 AM on January 31, 2001

McMuffins, bacon for burgers. I remember a few years ago when one of its new bacon burgers (name?) was a hit and the commodities market for pork went nuts.

Personally, I haven't been to a McDonald's since baseball season and am determined to make 2001 a McDonald's-free year and take it from there. No compromise!
posted by luke at 8:05 AM on January 31, 2001

I just started the book. Should be fun... of course, in the last 15 years I've eaten at McDonald's twice. So there's no skin off my back.
posted by silusGROK at 8:07 AM on January 31, 2001

Math check!

270,000,000 * 0.25 = 67,500,000
6,000,000,000 * 0.005 = 30,000,000

I'm going to call bullshit on the 25% figure. That's my guess.
posted by whatnotever at 8:10 AM on January 31, 2001

At 12,800 U.S. franchises, that's 5,273 customers a day. I think you're right: That's a little on the high side, though I have no doubt that many urban locations clog that many arteries in a day.
posted by luke at 8:20 AM on January 31, 2001

1 burger = 1 customer ? Could be the flaw in the numbers.
posted by ojsbuddy at 9:14 AM on January 31, 2001

Another book to read along with this one is The McDonaldization of Society.
posted by gluechunk at 9:31 AM on January 31, 2001

i reviewed it for the philadelphia weekly a few weeks ago.

(warning: self-link due to the weekly's archives not being up-to-date)


posted by maura at 10:18 AM on January 31, 2001