Not the founders
In most of the cases concerning the biggest fast-food chains, the original founders were not the ones who profited and who became extremely rich from their business. Instead, most of them chose to sell their businesses and retire after they made a decent sum of money. Ironically thus, the names that are famous are not the names of the people who made the businesses successful but the names of the men who started the business but gave up at one point from one reason or another.
Like family
When Kroc realized that they were losing customers, they tried to make their customers believe that the fast-food restaurant was like a friend to them and a place where they could create happy memories. The idea they wanted to transmit was that the restaurant was not really a business and their purpose was not to create revenue but rather to create a lasting relationship between them and the buyers. This attitude is ironic because the reason why the company wanted their customers to make an emotional connection between the food they sold and the positive feelings they got and to come back for more hoping that they would get the same feeling.
Not irreplaceable
In the third chapter, Schlosser tells the reader about a typical McDonald employer, a young girl who works 8 to 9 hours in a day while her pay is barely decent. Despite this, the girl is not unhappy with her job and doesn’t blame the company for her low pay. Ironically, she is also aware of the fact that if she were to be unable to work for them anymore for some reason, the company would not hesitate to fire her and employ someone else. The cheap labor in the area made the workers seem disposable but despite this, the people still continued to put their hopes and dreams in the hands of the companies that don’t care about them at all.
Luck
While many companies tell their customers that their success is the result of hard work, Schlosser proves that this is an understatement and that most of the times the people who made it big would have not been able to do that were it not for luck. To prove his point, Schlosser gives as an example J.R. Simplot who gathered a vast wealth because he began selling potatoes. He started by parenting up with another man and then buying together and expensive potato sorter. When the men decided to go their separate ways, they had to decide who was going to get the sorter and Simplot was lucky enough to win it. This proves that a person’s dreams to make it big based only on hard work are unrealistic as a person needs luck as well to succeed. Thus, the claims made by the big companies that everyone can make it are untrue and they know it. Ironically however, for them to succeed, they need other people to fail.
Not so clearly distinguished
When Schlosser talks about the difference between artificial flavoring and natural flavoring, he explains that there is not much difference between them. Weather the flavors were designed in a laboratory or if they were derived from natural ingredients they still required to be modified in some place or another. Ironically, Schlosser reaches the conclusion that using one type of flavoring or another makes no real difference but the big companies found a way to profit from society’s obsession with everything natural and with the fear of everything deemed artificial.
