eng101 #5 (draft)

In the book, “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser, the author brings up the issue of how quickly fast food companies have risen over the years. He talks about the exponential growth from small humble beginnings to huge empires that are beyond the control of many including the U.S. government. The way he describes them is like a small virus that replicates itself quickly throughout the host. He also talks about how this out of control growth has had negative effect on our society.

Eric begins with the story of how Carl Karcher began his business, Carl’s Jr, with just one hot dog cart. It followed with another cart and soon a restaurant which multiplied into many restaurants across the country. The company became a huge corporation that went out of the control of even the founder. During a vote on a future path of the company, many of the board members were against Carl’s plans on forming a joint venture with a chained called Green Burrito. After the deal fell through, the broad members voted him out of the company as stated by the author. He wrote, “When the board rejected the plan, Carl tried to oust its members. Instead, they ousted him. On March 1, 1993, CKE’s board voted five to two to fire Carl N. Karcher.” The entity that was CKE became much bigger than its founder. Another fast food company talked about in the book was McDonald’s. Started by two brothers in southern California McDonald’s restaurants quickly spread across the country after after the brothers were approached by Ray Kroc. Kroc expanded it from a local business to a worldwide company as stated by the author. He wrote,” Ray Kroc took the McDonald’s Speedee Service System and spread it nationwide, creating a fast food empire.” The company was spreading into all parts of the country and taking over as the lead fast food company. It had also spread into the entertaining and advertisement business. Soon many other brands were being promoted with McDonald’s as stated by the author. He wrote,” The competition for young consumers has led the fast food chains to form marketing alliances not just with toy companies, but with sport leagues and Hollywood studios. McDonald’s has staged promotions with the National Basketball Association and the Olympics.” From my own experience, every where that I go I always can count on finding a McDonald’s if I’m hungry. It does not take too long to find one. I have seen many local businesses that have shut down, but i have never seen a McDonald’s close down. If there is fire of flood it closes down for repairs and reopens as soon as possible. They don’t seem to ever be in the negative when it comes to finance and don’t seem to be going anywhere. One could say everywhere you see a McDonald’s, that land is lost forever like a limb that has been infected and must be amputated.