Fresh Food the the good ole USA... (McDonald's)

Member Name: angry chris

Product:	McDonald's
Date:	18/11/02 (453 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The toilets are clean., It is cheap enough.

Disadvantages: The food is awful., The resteraunts are awful., It is cynical and nasty to the core.

In 1950's America, two brothers Mcdonald decided it would be a good idea to teach their staff how to serve a burger, fries and a shake in 45 seconds. Not only did this start the whole idea of "Fast Food", but it created that institution that is McDonalds.

We Britains had to wait until 1974 for the dubious pleasures of a Big Mac and fries. The small American chain of resteraunts had grown into a multi-national corporation the size of which has barely been seen before, nor likely to be seen again. Remember the fall of Communist Russia? Before the Berlin Wall had come down, the Golden Arches were being erected in the Red Square. This symbol of capitalist might has since spread all over the globe in the last 50 years, and is likely to continue to do so again.

For the uninitiated, I am not exaggerating. It is estimated that most Americans live within 5 miles of Ronald's finest. The trend has spread like wildfire- here in Gateshead (a large town but not even a city), there are 9 McDonalds "Resteraunts", with plans for a tenth next year in the middle of an estate occupied mainly by those folk who have far surpassed retirement age. Despite their protests, would you bet against the go-ahead?

McDonalds is without question the largest conglomerate ever. The nearest to it, Coca-Cola, is dispensed in McDonald's outlets. That's right: the second largest company in the world is a mere piston in the McDonalds machine. It is this which should give a rough idea of what this company has become.

In my opinions, I normally give a run down of what it is, where is it, what it does etc. This will probably be the only time when I will not have to do this. All those who have not been dwelling in caves for the last 30 years will know exactly what a McDonalds is all about. It's Golden Arc, Ronald McDonald and Big Mac are better known the the name of the Prime Minister himself.

McDonalds is a dise
ase, a plague which has spread through the planet like a particularly virluent disease. It's moral code in non-existant, it is simply a mass, profit making machine, typical of the Americanisation of the planet which has occured since the second world war ended. It is a symbol of American might, the superiority of American culture over all of those whose culture it quickly swallows and dominates.

Sociological rant over, for now. What of the product itself. If the product is superior to those it is slowly strangling to death, then all can be forgiven. Well, let's be frank. It's as cynical as it gets. Copious amounts of salt on the chips?- make the saps buy a drink to quench the thirst. Delicious, tasty fresh meat? You would probably be safer scooping a dead cows brains out with a spoon, and guzzling it down. In one go. The amount of horror tales in the news involving the food at Mcdonalds are as long as your are. E-Coli is commonplace, and rather nasty to fall victim to. And who can forget the picture of the deep fried chicken's head served in someones chicken nuggets? Delicious...

The resteraunts should be ashamed to call themselves resteraunts. The chairs tend to be nailed to the floor, tables plastic and perminently fixed with the only waiting you are likely to do being a wait for your food, as served by a spotty, greasy high school reject with an O-Level in woodwork and an IQ slightly less than most people's shoe size. The staff turnover is immense- it must be hard to keep interested people who could not spell interested. With a dictionary in their hand.

They say that 40% of Americans are now overweight, a trend that is now spreading to the UK. A correlation between the two, I wonder?

Ronald McDonald must be the most frightening mascot I have ever seen. He is like an extremely ugly clown, dressed in the same colour as the resteraunt, with a manic looking face. He also appears t
o have taken copious amounts of LSD. He appears from nowhere in the outlet, and starts jumping around in the faces of children who then immediately burst into tears. With good reason.

The best thing about the whole thing is the toilets. They are, in fairness, usually spotless. Mind you, it would be something else if you had to rush to the bog after eating one of their scrumptious burger meals, only to the toilets swarming with flies and smelling like an athlete's sock.

I guess by now you know how much of a fan I am. Perhaps it my hatred of Americans, and the way they seem intent on making the entire world an extension of their financial might. It might have something to so with the way they use films to change history (Americans and the enigma machine???) or it may just be jealousy: they are the superpower of the wolrd, after all. But that is not the point. If the new idea or product is better, then so be it. When my healthy fish and chips become 2oz of cows intestine, my anger grows.

But what makes it worse, and makes me so ashamed, is that I still go there, I still eat there. When I go shopping in town for my Christmas shopping, I will finish off with a Big Mac Meal. I will buy a drink to quench my thirst from the salty fries, and I will wait in the huge queues for my "fast food". I have fallen into the whole idea, hook, line and sinker. And for that I have no excuse, I can make no apologies. I will pretend that I go hoping to find a Chicken's head in my McNuggets, so I can sue them for a ton of cash. But that is simply not true. And I know it. And I will still go back. Just as long as it is clear that I do so knowing that what I am doing is wrong.

Summary: