The Fast Food Employee and Industry, McDonald's and Other Fast Food Giants Market Research

The fast food industry has always had one purpose in mind, to maximize profits. Similar to any other fast food restaurant, McDonald's takes this goal to heart and is doing quite well in attaining it. Essentially, any fast food restaurant uses the concept that "food nourishes the society just as it sustains the individual" to legitimize many of their practices. However, how do fast food restaurants succeed? How do they interact with the customers so that one chain out does its nearest competitor? The answer lies in the basic employee. He or she does the entire behind the scenes work in order to provide the customer with nourishment and establish a "dining room away from home" experience, while increasing the company's revenue. Employees are the gears that make the company work and produce, but similar to gears, they are easily replaced. The basic employee is an expendable part of the fast food industry and the company treats the employee likewise or even worse to maximize its profits. McDonald's is no exception to the norm. In 1997, after an arduous trial dubbed the McLibel Trial, protestors belonging to London Greenpeace succeeded in unveiling McDonald's ethical shortcomings when it comes to the general worker.

The fast food industry is a standardized hybrid of the general restaurant industry. In an age where people spend more money to meet the standard of living, an affordable food supply would lighten the financial burden of the monthly food bill. Furthermore, "Americans are finding there is simply no time or energy left to cook a meal after all the work, personal improvement and social activities of a ‘New Age' day," leaving them in search of a quick source of food. The fast food industry is the combination of speed and affordability at the cost of quality and personality. Standardization is the signature of the fast food industry and conversely the bane of the traditional restaurant trade. Although the personal attention paid to each patron of the industry is lost, efficiency, convenience, and profit are gained. In fact, the purpose of the stringent uniformity of a fast food chain is "to increase the profit margin of the seller, not the convenience of the customer" meaning that the thirst for greater profits outweighs the traits of a family oriented eatery. McDonald's is the pioneer and a prime example of a modern fast food industry's practices.

Founded by Ray Croc, McDonald's is the epitome of fast food industry success grossing profits that amount to the GNP of many small countries. Its practices and operational procedures are revolutionary leading to both applause and protest. McDonald's success is a combination of three terms: quality, service, and cleanliness. Quality refers to providing the customer with a standard menu that can be found at any of McDonald's locations. Service is the brief time it takes to serve the customer. Cleanliness does not refer to health concerns, but instead to the appearance of the workplace in order to promote sales. The general idea is that everything that has to do with McDonald's corporation has an ulterior motive of maximizing profit. For example, franchising allows individuals to own a business and profit from it, but there is a catch. They do not own a part of McDonald's and they are trained and granted the business under the supervision of McDonald's. As a result of this individual ownership, McDonald's still profits from the sales, but does not have to deal with the daily routines of each business. Franchising is just one-way McDonald's promoted growth. Advertising domestically and overseas expanded the market for its product so much that it now has over "28,000 locations in 121 different countries". However, the corporation's policies and treatment of employees account for a large part of the company's success.

Overall, McDonald's success lies in its utilization of technology, routinization of work, and general deskilling of labor. Computers, machines, and automation drastically reduce the demand for skilled workers leaving subsets of one group, the unskilled laborers. This labor pool is essentially the cheapest and most available because it consists of just about anyone including women seeking employment, teenagers, immigrants, and other minorities. There is no shortage of workers because there is always someone else to be trained and fill the void. However, this un-sculpted group of people needs to be trained and motivated to work to maximum efficiency without causing the corporation to be suspect of malignant practices. McDonald's uses a division of labor between the management and the worker. Management attends training at corporate sponsored locations such as Hamburger University and learns the intricacies of dealing with and managing the basic worker, as