Jack Morgan

Harper

English 10

28 April 2014

Summary of Section 1 “The American Way”

In, “Fast Food Nation,” Eric Schossen informs America about the fast food industry and gives insight on what is happening in the kitchen at your favorite fast food restaurants.  The idea of ‘fast food’ started in Anaheim, California in the early 1900’s.  From that point on, the fast food industry has taken off like nobody would have expected.  What started off as selling good, cheap hamburgers turned into an industry that dominates the world today.  Through creative advertising techniques and some unique menu items that you can’t find at normal sit down restaurants, fast food has become an American staple.  In populated areas, you don’t have to go far to run into a fast food chain, as the author points out that part of the marketing technique is to place as many restaurants as possible in a certain area. This section also focuses on what fast food employees have to go through when working behind the counter at a fast food chain.  When the fast food industry was first starting, the employees would actually cook the food and serve it to the customers.  Now, this book points out how the chains are developing special food making machines. All the workers have to do is place the pre-made, frozen food item in a machine to cook it to ideal specifications for the customer to consume. Data shows how fast food resturaunts are becoming more and more dangerous to work at.  Due to many fast food restaurants being cash only,  fast food robberies are very abundant in the United States, with an average of 1 robbery per every 20 minutes.  The author concludes that as fast food resturaunts are becoming increasingly popular, working conditions are becoming worse as the average age of a fast food employee continues to drop year after year.

Mcdonald's resturaunt first opened in the early 1940's by Richard and Maurice Mcdonald.  The drive-in was known as, "Mcdonald's Famous Hamburgurs."



Schlosser, Eric. Fast food nation: the dark side of the all-American meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.