Friday, June 30, 2006

Biology is responsible for the rise of McDonalds

If Dr. Roberts is correct about familiar flavors making us hungrier - and I think he is - then yes, we're victims of quality control. But our biology made King Fast Food possible.

Let me explain.

For years, there were no chain restaurants, no franchises, only local restaurants and small diners. At most, there might be a few locations geographically close to each other. One reason is because a chef, manager, or cook would make food. If they did it well, they attracted customers. If they didn't, the restaurant would languish in obscurity, if it stayed in business at all. What business person would put their name, and hard-earned reputation, on a restaurant that they couldn't control how well the food would be prepared? So restaurant locations stayed independent, or at least close, so that they could be managed closely.

Then came the franchise revolution, and with it, McDonald's. It wasn't the first burger franchise, but the owners did something others hadn't to this point. Dick and Mac McDonald ingeniously applied modern industrial line techniques to food preparation. Ray Kroc, who bought out the McDonalds, knew the only way to make a nationwide chain work was strict quality control. A few bad locations could ruin the brand. So Mr. Kroc developed ways to control the quality and presentation of the food. When you walked into a McDonald's, you knew exactly what you were getting.

So here we have hundreds of locations, soon to be thousands of locations, selling food that always tastes the same! Genetically, we love that. Our bodies desire eating the same tastes over and over. Our bodies crave these tastes. And giving into the cravings makes us want even more of it!

And just as increased car travel made sure that people would have opportunity to try new foods, franchising was invented. So we never had to eat someplace unfamiliar again.

Of course it was successful, and with imitation being the sincerest form of flattery (not to mention imitation of success breeding success), soon our choices for cloned taste were unlimited.

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