eng101 #3

In chapter 1 of “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser, the author talks about the rise of fast food restaurants in the country. The way he describes them almost compared to a small virus that replicates and spreads throughout the host. Carl’s Jr. is one of those fast food restaurants. It started when Carl Karcher brought a hot dog cart in southern California. It went on to multiply into many restaurants across the country. Another example the author uses is the rise of McDonald’s. They used business strategies like selling burgers for 15 cents which was very cheap for the time. They also reinvented the way they ran the restaurants. The author wrote,” For the first time, the guiding principles of a factory assembly line were applied to a commercial kitchen. The new division of labor meant that a worker only had to be taught how to perform one task.”  A factory styled assembly line allowed for a faster and cheaper way to serve customers. The benefits provided from this allowed much more McDonald’s restaurants to open up. Other fast food restaurants also adopted this style of serving which also helped them open up more locations. Sometimes the companies became so big that they went beyond the creator’s control. As described in the book, Carl Karcher was voted out of Carl’s Jr by the company’s board. The main argument the author tried to make is that the fast food industry was not as big and powerful as it is today. It started with humble beginnings and spread with new innovations and great marketing.