Mcdonaldization
The way that Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers does business and markets it's
product to consumers is due to the change in our society to where the consumer
wants the biggest, fastest, and best product they can get for their money. This
change in society can be attributed to a process known as McDonaldization.
Although McDonaldization can be applied to many other parts of our society, this
paper will focus on its impact on Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers. My belief is
that the process of McDonaldization, where the ideology of McDonald's has come
to dominate the world, has caused Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers to emulate
McDonald's style of running a franchised restaurant chain in terms of
efficiency, calculability, and control. However, since McDonald's has become the
epitome of fast-food in our society, Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers has had to
change their focus to giving the consumer a higher quality product in a
relatively fast amount of time. So, Wendy's still caters to a McDonaldized
society in terms of giving them a meal as fast as possible but making quality
their number one priority to give people a viable option from McDonald's. In
addition, I have used my girlfriend who manages at Wendy's and observations I
gathered while at McDonald's as further information for this
paper.
First, before I discuss the impact of McDonaldization on Wendy's
Old Fashioned Hamburgers, I will define what McDonaldization is. McDonaldization
is the process by which the principles of fast-food restaurants are coming to
dominate more and more sectors of American society, as well as, of the rest of
the world. (Ritzer 1998,Page 1) George Ritzer created this concept of
McDonaldization as a continuation of Max Weber's theories on
bureaucracies.
Max Weber defines a bureaucracy as a large hierarchical
organization that is governed by formal rules and regulations and has a clear
specification of work tasks. Its three main characteristics are that it has a
division of labour, hierarchy of authority, and an impartial and impersonal
application of rules and policies. (Newman 1997, Page 271) Thus, from that
definition of a bureaucracy, one would conclude that both McDonald's and Wendy's
Old Fashioned Hamburgers are bureaucracies. The fact that both restaurants are
bureaucracies is supported by the fact that each assigns workers to a specific
job where each worker individually contributes to the overall success of the
restaurant by doing his or her job. For example, workers at each restaurant
could be assigned to working the grill, making fries, working the front
register, or taking orders at the drive-thru window. Both restaurants have a
hierarchy of authority from worker, crew chief, shift manager, salary manager to
owner of the store. Also, each restaurant enforces an impartial and impersonal
application of rules and policies. Both McDonald's and Wendy's have standard,
impersonal greetings at the register and at the drive-thru window. The exception
when this impersonal attitude towards the customer is changed is when a worker
knows the customer outside the restaurant. In this case, the worker will
probably ask their acquaintance how they are doing or what they are up to. The
worker might even throw in an extra cheeseburger that a regular customer might
not get. Despite this exception where standardization is broken, both these
restaurants have become bureaucracies because they are the most efficient means
of managing large groups of people.
That leaves one to wonder why the
process of McDonaldization has been so successful for both companies. The first
reason is that it offers efficiency where consumers know that it means the
quickest way to get from one point to another. In the case of McDonald's, it
offers the best available way to get from being hungry to being full. This is so
important in today's society because so many people are in a rush to get from
one place to another. Therefore, the quick, efficient setup of McDonald's allows
consumers to eat a fast-food meal without having to leave their car. On the
other hand, Wendy's strives for as efficient service as possible without
effecting the quality of their product. This is because McDonald's already has
imprinted on people's minds throughout the many years of its existence that they
will get the same burger each visit in the quickest amount of time. They
reinforce this idea on the minds of consumers through advertising and other
clever tools. For example, on every McDonald's sign is a tally of how many
people in the world have eaten there, which is currently at 99 billion served.
The use of this sign reinforces to people that McDonald's is an icon in our
society and many people will equate that large number with McDonald's being the
best restaurant. As a result, Wendy's has tried to make quality their number one
priority but with no serious deficiencies in the speed of their product. This
can be attributed to the fact that they do not pre-make their burgers and leave
them under heat lamps to sit like McDonald's does. Instead, they have their
staff assembled to make the burger as the customer orders it. This is an
especially important benefit because many people like to customize their burger
and the process that Wendy's uses allows them to do that. This allows them to
target another group of society which McDonald's product doesn't appeal to. For
example, older people who would rather sit down and have a quality meal would
most likely rather go to Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers. Even, the name of
Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers suggests that their style is more like how
things used to be done many decades ago in terms of making quality the number
one priority for a restaurant. Therefore, they would provide an alternative for
people who were not interested in getting a burger that has been slopped
together and sitting under a heat lamp for an hour. This would be reflected in
which demographic of people each restaurant targeted. McDonald's traditionally
has targeted families as their key demographic but recently they have shifted to
make their product more appealing to teenagers as well. This can best be
demonstrated in their new style commercials that use many young adults and
refers to McDonald's as Mickey D's as a hip place to hang out. So, for young
people who are in a rush to get from place to place, McDonald's provides a fast,
cheap meal that they can eat on the run. On the other hand, Wendy's Old
Fashioned Hamburgers targets people who aren't in such a rush and would rather
sit down and eat a slow, relaxing meal. They still cater to those who are in a
rush by offering a drive-thru. However, they know that most of their business
will come from people looking for a quality alternative to
McDonald's.
Another aspect of McDonaldization that has made both
companies successful is calculability. This is where each restaurant puts an
emphasis on quantitative aspects of products sold like portion size and cost.
For example, McDonald's has burgers like the quarter pounder and big mac while
Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburger has burgers like the double bacon cheeseburger.
This use of descriptive adjectives suggests to the consumer that they are
getting the most amount of food for their money. Both McDonald's and Wendy's
have the option to supersize or biggiesize an order. This makes the companies
successful in our society because of our belief that bigger is
better.
Finally, both companies use control, especially through the
substitution of non-human for human technology. For both companies that means
using soft drink machines that automatically shuts off when the glass is full,
french-fry machines that rings and lifts itself out of the oil when the fries
are done, and the preprogrammed cash registers that eliminate the need for the
cashier to calculate any prices. The main reason that this is done is because,
[people are] The great source of uncertainty, unpredictability and inefficiency
in any rationalizing system.(Ritzer 1998, page 101) Thus, by increasing control,
through increased mechanization, both companies maintain a better control over
the entire organization. Also, this leads to employees not having to think about
their job because the tasks they are asked to do are very repetitive.
In
conclusion, it is obvious that both restaurants have adopted a style of running
their restaurants that makes them successful. McDonald's style is to give the
public the same burger that they have always had so that they can come to depend
that they will get the same meal as they did last time. They have been a pioneer
in the fast-food industry and the model that other restaurants try to imitate.
On the other hand, Wendy's style is to make a quality product that reminds
people of the good old days. They have been directly influenced by McDonald's in
terms of how to run their fast-food restaurant to maximize speed and efficiency.
However, since Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers would not have a chance of
competing with McDonald's at their own game, they have developed their own niche
in the market of making a quality product efficiently. What concerns me is the
way these companies are phasing out the roles of their employees to the point
where they are doing nothing but mindless, repetitive tasks. To me, the
consequence of this will be that someday all human workers will be replaced
because it is more efficient for machines to do the work. So, although
McDonaldization has made both these companies very successful, there is a very
serious potential downside that could have an effect on
everyone.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Alfino, Mark, Caputo,
S. John and Wynyard, Robin. ( 1998). McDonalization Revisited: Critical Essays
on Consumer Culture. HF 5415.32.M395. Praeger Publishers.
Bacharach, B.
Samuel and Lawler, J. Edward. (1984) The Sociology of Organizations. HM 131.R46.
Jai Press Inc.
Kellner, Douglas. (1998). Theorizing/Resisting
McDonaldization: A Multiperspectivist Approach.
http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell30.htm
McIndoctrination:
Selling the Big Mac Lifestyle.
http://www.interlog.com/~mattei/mcessay.html
Newman, M., David (1997).
Exploring The Architecture of Everyday Life. Pine Forge Press.
Ritzer,
George. (1998). The McDonaldization of Society. Sage
Publications.
Ritzer, George. (1998). The McDonaldization Thesis. HM
131.R589. SAGE Publications.
Bibliography
Alfino, Mark, Caputo, S.
John and Wynyard, Robin. ( 1998). McDonalization Revisited: Critical Essays on
Consumer Culture. HF 5415.32.M395. Praeger Publishers.
Bacharach, B.
Samuel and Lawler, J. Edward. (1984) The Sociology of Organizations. HM 131.R46.
Jai Press Inc.
Kellner, Douglas. (1998). Theorizing/Resisting
McDonaldization: A Multiperspectivist Approach.
http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell30.htm
McIndoctrination:
Selling the Big Mac Lifestyle.
http://www.interlog.com/~mattei/mcessay.html
Newman, M., David (1997).
Exploring The Architecture of Everyday Life. Pine Forge Press.
Ritzer,
George. (1998). The McDonaldization of Society. Sage
Publications.
Ritzer, George. (1998). The McDonaldization Thesis. HM
131.R589. SAGE Publications.