A McDonald’s Ethnography

3 Pages 645 Words

McDonald’s, home of the “Golden Arches”. At first glance, it’s just another one of the many fast food restaurants that clutter our highways. But, a closer look at the legendary fast food chain will yield so much more than a typical eatery.
There aren’t too many places that you can feed a family of four for fewer than fifteen bucks. Granted, the food is a bit unhealthy, cheeseburgers, french-fries, onion rings, triple thick milkshakes (this is just a small part of the menu) will kill the recommended 2000 calories a day. But, for food cooked under 10 minutes, what else is to be expected? Still, as much as American’s strived to eat healthy, McDonald’s still boasts “Over 1 Billion Served”. The colorful booths, play areas, and plants all screams scream dine-in! However, the freezing cold-air in the summer time and the less than comfortable temperature in the winter, all say otherwise. Which, in fact is much like how people in American culture behave. Our warm smiles and “Howya doin’s?” all seem inviting. However, if you ever tried to actually tell someone how you were really doing (other than “fine”), you quickly learn that this is merely a façade. This is mimicked in the decoration at McDonald’s. It looks pleasing to the eye, but that’s were it ends.
“We love to see you smile,” the catchy jingle from the commercial announces. But, if you’ve ever been at McDonald’s around lunchtime, you’ll notice that there is not much smiling going around. Maybe because the teenagers working would rather be at the mall shopping, than asking “Would you like to super size that?” Only in America will you find people who go to work and behave basically how they want and not worry too much about getting fired. In other countries, where unemployment is extremely high, and it is almost impossible to get any help from the government, you may have some smiling cashiers, but not in America. As for the gender make up of...