Until 1982 Italian laws and unions forbade the hiring of part-time employees or apprentices, who are the mainstays of fast-food chains. When the law changed, Burghy, a fast-food chain specializing in sandwiches, hamburgers and french fries, set up shop in Milan and subsequently opened additional outlets in northern Italy.
Jacques Bahbout, an Egyptian-born Frenchman who owned a coffeehouse a block from the Piazza di Spagna (at the bottom of the Spanish Steps) in Rome, was inspired by the success of Burghy and other fast-food chains elsewhere in Europe. He decided to buy a McDonald’s franchise and open Italy’s first American fast-food outlet. He converted his coffeehouse into the world’s largest McDonald’s, with a seating capacity of 450. When he opened the doors, at noon on 20 March 1986, crowds were waiting outside. By the time he closed that night, 12,350 customers had visited the restaurant, and large crowds continued to flock there for months afterwards.
The outlet’s opening also drew anti-fast-food demonstrators who protested against the litter it produced, health problems associated with the type of food served, traffic congestion, noise pollution, the degradation of Rome, the Americanization of Italy and, in the words of the Italian fashion designer Valentino, ‘an unbearable smell of fried food fouling the air’.1 The demonstrators were so deeply concerned about fast food subverting traditional Italian foodways that they distributed free pasta to passers-by.
Despite the protests, or perhaps because of them, McDonald’s Italy was off to a roaring start and the chain has flourished ever since. By 2010, the company had 400-plus restaurants in Italy. When the clamour subsided, one demonstrator, Carlo Petrini, a Marxist food and wine writer, returned to his home in Bra, Italy, and founded what would become Slow Food, an international movement opposed to fast-food chains and other businesses that encourage globalization. Its mission is to protect local and regional culinary traditions, to educate consumers about the hidden risks of fast food, agribusiness and factory farms, and to promote awareness of good nutrition and wholesome food.
Globalization is the increased mobility of goods, services and capital across national boundaries; it has been under way for hundreds of years. Since the Second World War, globalization’s pace has quickened owing to economic and political agreements such as the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the North American Free Trade Association and the European Union. In recent decades globalization has become more visible because of improved transportation and the advent of new technologies, especially telecommunications and the rise of the Internet.
Beginning in the late 1950s, American fast-food chains began planting their corporate flags in English-speaking countries and countries where American military units were stationed. In the process, they accumulated strengths and competencies on how to globalize their operations. They developed menu items that appealed to new customers, sourced supplies from local farmers and food processors and learned how to franchise and promote their chains. By 1975 American chains had licensed 2,379 foreign franchises, predominantly in Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe, with total sales of $875 million.2 When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, fast-food companies rushed into Eastern Europe.
The industry easily adapted to wealthy countries where social conditions were similar to those in the United States and there was a large potential customer base. Fast food has been particularly successful in the United Kingdom, now called the ‘Fast Food Capital of Europe’, where in 2002 it was reported that nine out of ten parents take their children to burger outlets.3 McDonald’s UK alone serves more than 2 million customers daily,4 and a survey in 2014 reported that the average respondent annually downed 84 fast-food meals (including takeaways5), which absorbed 34 per cent of their total food budgets.6 France, historically known for its fine dining traditions, has seen an even larger jump in fast-food consumption. Gira Cancel, a food marketing company, reported in 2013 that fast-food restaurants annually generated €34 billion and accounted for 54 per cent of the total restaurant sales in France.7 The fast-food industry has developed at a slower but steady pace in other high-income countries.
Jim Hightower, an American small-farm activist, worried about the effect that mega-chains like McDonald’s and KFC would have on agriculture and on restaurants. In 1975 he coined the pejorative term ‘McDonaldization’, believing that fast-food chains threatened independent restaurants and promoted the industrialization of agriculture at the expense of small family farms.8 Hightower’s fears have proven accurate in America: independent full-service restaurants have declined in number while chain fast-food outlets have ballooned upwards. In 2014, 79 per cent of all American restaurant sales occurred in fast-food chains, and only 21 per cent in traditional restaurants.9 Simultaneously production from small family-owned farms has sharply declined, and large factory farms now dominate American agriculture.10
The term ‘McDonaldization’ was picked up and popularized in academic circles by George Ritzer, whose book The McDonaldization of Society (1993) examined the social effects of McDonald’s success. He defined McDonaldization as ‘the principles by which the fast-food restaurant’ are run. These principles included efficiency, predictability and control.11 Simultaneously Benjamin Barber popularized the term ‘McWorld’ (originally the name of a television promotion campaign developed for McDonald’s and targeted at children) to mean the effects of globalization symbolized by the spread of McDonald’s and other multinational companies around the world and the consequent destruction of indigenous cultures.12
To many observers, globalization has come with an American flavour, and multinational fast-food chains are visual symbols of it. Fast-food outlets are often targeted by groups that oppose American governmental or economic policies or globalization in general. In 1979 Marxist guerrillas blew up a McDonald’s in San Salvador and announced that their act was intended as a blow against ‘imperialist America’. In 1996 a KFC in Bangalore, India, was looted by farmers who believed that the company threatened their agricultural practices. Anarchists destroyed a McDonald’s in Copenhagen in 1995. Bombs have destroyed McDonald’s and other multinational fast-food outlets in Hong Kong, Brittany, Taiwan, St Petersburg, Athens, Rio de Janeiro, Xian (China), Oaxaca (Mexico) and Bali (Indonesia) – to name a few. Many other fast-food outlets have been trashed for various political reasons.
A powerful yet peaceful gesture in defiance of fast-food culture was made in 1999 by a Frenchman named José Bové, one of a group of protesters who arrived on tractors at the construction site of a McDonald’s restaurant nearing completion in Millau. They methodically dismantled the prefab building, loaded up its components and deposited them in front of the local police station. Bové said that he was protesting against the ‘McDomination of the world’, by which he meant the standardization of taste.13 When he went on trial, 40,000 people demonstrated on his behalf, carrying signs reading ‘Non à McMerde’ (‘No to McShit’). Bové was convicted and served three months in a French prison. In 2000 Fausto Bertinotti, the Italian leader of the Communist Refoundation Party (Partito della Rifondazione Comunista), led an estimated 100,000 protesters to a McDonald’s outlet in Rome. Bertinotti believed that McDonald’s was a symbol of Americanization and globalization.14
U.S.-based fast-food operations have been targeted during various domestic and international crises. When American aircraft accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the war in Yugoslavia in 1999, Chinese students ransacked the McDonald’s in Beijing. In the same year a petrol bomb destroyed a McDonald’s in Rome because it was seen as a symbol of American imperialism.15 During the American bombing campaign in Afghanistan in 2001, Pakistan’s KFC outlets were trashed. When American and coalition forces invaded Iraq in 2003, protests were held in many cities, and multinational fast-food chains were again targeted. In 2011 the government-controlled Egyptian television station attempted to discredit the massive crowds demonstrating against the Egyptian president in Cairo: the demonstrators were unpatriotic, as evinced by their sitting in Tahrir Square dining on KFC chicken, an American food.16 During the Ukrainian crisis in 2014, the Russian government closed several outlets of multinational fast-food chains to punish Western nations for imposing economic sanctions on Russia. The chains were reopened when their Russian workers, managers and suppliers complained. In early 2015 President Vladimir Putin announced his support for creating a ‘patriotic’ Russian fast-food chain to rival McDonald’s and other Western chains.17
What is surprising is the industry’s exponential surge in poorer countries, where varied and tasty cheap street food is widely available and the potential customer base for fast food is small. Hamburgers and french fries are nothing like the local fare, and fast food is a new cultural construct that includes non-food elements – new eating patterns, culinary environments and social interactions.18 In addition, local and regional agricultural systems are often unable to supply many of the ingredients needed by fast-food chains.
Yet fast food has exploded in emerging markets in Latin America, Africa and Asia, where many potential customers associate it with status and prestige. The big push began in the 1990s. In 1991 McDonald’s had a total of 1,671 restaurants in all of Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. By 2001 the company had more than 8,800 outlets in these geographical regions, and today its outlets are found in 128 countries outside Europe.19 In many developing countries fast-food chains are viewed as a ‘modern’, exotic American import.
India opened up to multinational fast-food brands in the 1990s; the chains operating there cater to the growing urban middle class. McDonald’s and KFC were greeted with protests from anti-American communists and ultra-nationalists, but despite these protests, multinational chains have thrived, and Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Subway, Starbucks, Taco Bell, Dunkin’ Brands and Burger King, along with South African chains Nando’s and Debonairs Pizza, have subsequently opened outlets. By 2013 India’s more than 2,300 fast-food outlets generated an estimated $1 billion a year. Sixty-three per cent of them are global brands; indigenous chains, such as Jumboking and Goli Vadapav, are also expanding in India. In 2015 Euromonitor reported that the number of Indians consuming fast food has increased 1.7 times in the last five years.
The growth of the fast-food industry has been even more phenomenal in China. KFC opened its first outlet there in 1987; by 2013 there were more KFC outlets in China than in the U.S. During the period from 2009 to 2014 the industry expanded at an annualized rate of 12.4 per cent, reaching more than $100 billion in total sales by 2014.20 Fast-food sales are projected to grow even faster in the future.
Fast food caught on in other affluent countries for many of the same reasons that the industry succeeded in the U.S. More people were commuting, more women were working and more families were eating out. Fast food was quick, cheap and convenient, and the chains were expert at advertising, particularly to children.
Fast-food multinationals learned, however, that they could not thrive in other countries by operating in the same way that they did in the U.S. Thus began the process of glocalization – working out how a global company could thrive in countries with very different political, economic, social and culinary systems. Chains generally selected in-country franchisers, who contracted with local suppliers. In France, for instance, 80 per cent of McDonald’s outlets are franchised to French entrepreneurs. All employ French managers and workers, and acquire the majority of their food and other supplies from French farmers and food processors; they import only what is necessary.
Chains also learned early on that they could not survive by selling only the menu items they offered at home. They retained some flagship items but greatly modified their menus to conform to local customs and religions, excluding items that might offend local sensibilities. In India fast-food chains do not serve beef or pork in deference to Hindus and Muslims, and they offer extensive vegetarian options. Some chains, such as KFC, maintain separate areas for preparing vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes in India. Burger King introduced six vegetarian options, which have also been introduced into other countries. Likewise many fast-food outlets in Israel, and other countries with large Jewish populations, are kosher. Fast-food operations in Muslim countries or other places with significant Muslim populations do not serve pork and frequently use only halal meat. McDonald’s restaurants in Muslim countries do not display statues of Ronald McDonald because such figures would be considered prohibited idols.
Multinational chains have also modified their practices to appeal to local culinary traditions, flavour preferences and social customs. In Rio de Janeiro McDonald’s waiters serve food (with champagne) in candlelit restaurants. In Caracas, Venezuela, McDonald’s hostesses seat customers, take orders and deliver meals to the tables. In South Korea McDonald’s employees seat customers at tables occupied by others during crowded times.
KFC Japan, a joint venture with Mitsubishi Trading Company, has developed special menu items such as yaki-musubi (grilled rice balls) to appeal to the Japanese. McDonald’s China have localized their menu with offerings such as the Shrimp & Chicken Sandwich and Egg Tarts (pastry cups filled with egg custard). KFC Sri Lanka offers Chicken Buriyani (fried chicken, basmati rice and curry gravy) and Chicken Fried Rice. McDonald’s Italy menu includes hamburgers (one with artichoke spread, Asiago cheese and lettuce; the other with Italian olive oil, onion and smoked pancetta); a salad (lettuce, bresaola and Parmesan cheese); and espresso. These items were tested throughout Italy before being offered in select markets in France and Switzerland as well. Chilled yoghurt drinks are on the menu at McDonald’s Turkey. McHuevos (hamburgers topped with a poached egg and mayonnaise) are featured in Uruguay.
McDonald’s India has offered many non-beef options including the McVeggie burger, Chicken Maharaja, McAloo Tikki (a potato-and-pea patty) and McSpicy Paneer (fresh white cheese with ‘tandoori-flavored’ mayonnaise). Another speciality is Shake Shake fries: the fries are served in a bag, to which the customer adds a packet of powdered hot pepper and shakes the fries to coat them. The Dunkin’ Donuts menu needed major retooling in India, where American-style doughnuts did not go down well. So the franchise introduced local flavours, such as saffron, pistachios and almonds, into their doughnuts. One of the top sellers is a white chocolate doughnut topped with guava and chilli. They also added a line of non-beef ‘Tough Guy’ burgers with ‘fiery’ sauce to their menu. KFC India introduced a ‘fiery’ grilled chicken to attract customers who want spicier food; Domino’s offered spicy banana pizzas; Burger King created a mutton Whopper for its outlets in India.
McDonald’s Japan serve a green-tea flavoured milkshake and Teriyaki McBurgers, which are also on the menu in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Samurai Pork Burgers were once featured in Thailand. The McRice, a burger with rice, is offered in Indonesia. A burger with a fried egg and sliced beetroot, called the Kiwiburger, is a big seller in New Zealand, and grilled salmon sandwiches – McLaks – are served in Norway. The McPepper offered in Singapore has a black pepper sauce. Customers in Athens can order a Greek Mac served in pitta bread with yoghurt sauce. Beer is served at fast-food chains in Germany, and wine in France.
Other fast-food chains have made similar adaptations and concessions to their surroundings. In Singapore, Japan and Thailand, Starbucks offered a Caramel Coffee Jelly Frappuccino to appeal to the local taste for jellied desserts. Nacho Whoppers (burgers with nacho chips, jalapeños and a Mexican sauce) are available at Burger King outlets in the Netherlands. In 2010 Burger King Dubai introduced a six-serving Pizza Burger (cut into wedges for sharing) made with tomato sauce, pepperoni and cheese. In Japan Burger King has introduced a technology called the ‘Musical Shower’, which permits diners to listen without earphones to their own music (without bothering those seated nearby) through the use of a domed speaker over each table. Baskin-Robbins adapted its menu to Japanese tastes with ice-cream flavours such as Popping Shower (white chocolate and crème de menthe flavour, studded with popping candy), matcha (green tea) and muskmelon.
Simultaneous with the expansion of multinational fast-food chains has been the rise of indigenous chains that modelled themselves on American fast-food operations. Chains took off in Canada for the same reasons as in the United States. Tim Hortons, a Canadian doughnut and coffee chain, opened its first store in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1964. Its eponymous founder was a professional hockey player. In addition to its original offerings, the chain now serves soups, sandwiches and breakfast items. In 2014 Tim Hortons had 5,000 locations in Canada, the U.S. and the Middle East; it is now a division of Restaurant Brands International, which is owned by 3G Capital Partners, a financial investment firm based in Brazil. Restaurant Brands also owns Burger King and is in the process of relocating its international headquarters from Miami to Canada.21
By 2006 more than 2,600 other fast-food brands were operating in Canada.22 Manchu Wok, which serves familiar Chinese-restaurant fare, now has outlets in the United States. It is the largest chain of Chinese fast-food restaurants in North America. Extreme Pita, a Canadian chain launched in 1997 by Alex and Mark Rechichi, who wanted to offer more healthful fast food, serves Middle Eastern-style pocket breads filled with steak, chicken, deli meats, salads, falafel or vegetables. It now has outlets in several U.S. states. Teriyaki Experience, a Japanese-style chain, first opened in Canada in 1986. Offering teriyaki meats, seafood, tofu and vegetables, this chain also serves Japanese noodle dishes and dumplings. Teriyaki Experience has more than 100 outlets in Canada and the United States.
Headquartered in London, the sandwich and salad chain Pret A Manger (prêt à manger is French for ‘ready to eat’) was launched in 1984; as of 2015 it operates more than 300 outlets in the United Kingdom, and an additional 100 in Hong Kong, Singapore and the U.S. London-based PizzaExpress, founded in 1965, has more than 400 outlets in the UK and additional locations in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia. yo! Sushi opened its first restaurant in London in 1997, and now also operates in the Middle East, Russia, Ireland and the United States.
Maoz, a small vegetarian falafel chain that originated in the Netherlands in 1996, has locations in Europe, North America and Australia. The Belgian hamburger chain Quick, which set up shop in Antwerp in 1970, is now the largest fast-food chain in Belgium and Luxembourg, and the second largest in France. (McDonald’s is the largest fast-food chain in France, with more than 1,000 outlets.)
In South Korea the Paris Croissant Company operates a chain of bakeries and limited-service cafés called Paris Baguette. Today it is the largest fast-food chain in Korea and has outlets in China, Vietnam, Singapore and the United States. Jollibee Foods started as an ice-cream parlour in Quezon City, Philippines, in 1975. Three years later, owner Tony Tan Caktiong and his Chinese-Filipino family expanded their offerings to include baked goods, sandwiches, the Yumburger (a hamburger) and later Chickenjoy and Jollibee Spaghetti. They opened additional shops in the Manila area and incorporated Jollibee Foods. Today the conglomerate is the largest fast-food chain in the Philippines, with about 1,600 outlets offering hamburgers, fried chicken, spaghetti, noodles, rice-based meals and dishes made with Spam. The company has opened hundreds of outlets under various names in China, Guam, Saipan, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. In 1988 Jollibee opened its first franchise in the U.S. and has opened many subsequently.
In Japan MOS Burger (its name is an acronym of ‘Mountain Ocean Sun’) opened its doors in 1972, the year after McDonald’s arrived in the country. Its founders conducted a careful study of how McDonald’s was run – and then did exactly the opposite. Instead of cranking out quick, cheap hamburgers, MOS Burger emphasized the quality and safety of its ingredients. By 2014 there were more than 1,700 MOS Burger outlets in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
El Pollo Loco (‘the crazy chicken’) first opened in Guasave, in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, in 1975; the chain expanded to northern Mexico and, in 1980, opened its first outlet in Los Angeles. The menu featured flame-grilled marinated chicken, as served across much of Latin America and also popular with Latinos in the United States. El Pollo Loco has expanded its menu to include burritos, tacos, salads and other Mexican-style dishes. It now has almost 400 outlets in the United States.
Pollo Campero, launched in Guatemala in 1971, is now the largest fast-food chicken chain in Central America. In 2002 Pollo Campero franchised a restaurant in Los Angeles, its first in the United States. The chain has now expanded to several states and also has outlets in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
In South Africa Nando’s, launched in 1987, features the flavours of Mozambique, the small neighbouring country that was colonized by the Portuguese. Their signature offering is flame-grilled chicken marinated with local peri-peri chillies, but they also serve burgers, pitta sandwiches, salads, chicken wings and wraps. Nando’s has more than 1,000 outlets in 28 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Oceania and North America. Another South African fast-food company, Steers (now Famous Brands), got its start in 1970 and today is the largest hamburger chain in South Africa. It has more than 500 outlets, with franchises in Botswana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mauritius, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as in the UK. Famous Brands also owns Debonairs Pizza, with 500 outlets in 2014. Debonairs is the largest pizza chain in Africa and also has locations in India and Dubai.
Mr Bigg’s, a Nigerian fast-food brand specializing in meat pies, jollof rice and moin moin (a steamed bean pudding), originated as a department-store coffee-shop chain; it was re-created as ‘Mr Bigg’s’ in 1987, and today has almost 200 outlets in major cities in Nigeria and Ghana. Following in Mr Bigg’s footsteps are Tantalizers and Tastee Fried Chicken, smaller chains that specialize in hamburgers, chicken and meat pies. In all there were 70 fast-food brands operating in Nigeria in 2008.23
In Zimbabwe, Innscor International Franchising was launched in 1987; it owns several different chains with more than 300 outlets that variously sell hamburgers, pizza, chicken and bakery goods in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
These are just a few of the non-American fast-food chains that have expanded beyond their countries of origin. Today, the total number of fast-food chain outlets in the world is conservatively estimated at 1 million, and chains are rapidly continuing their global expansion. All projections point to an even greater global surge in the fast-food business in the future.
In communities where fast-food chains are common, small cafés and restaurants are often unable to compete. The chains are perceived as a cultural threat to traditional cuisines, and have become a symbol of American cultural imperialism. McDonald’s, Subway, Domino’s and KFC offer ‘foreign’ delicacies, such as ‘American’ hamburgers, pizza, fried chicken and french fries, that take market share from indigenous food producers. To forestall potential criticism, fast-food chains have done their best to localize their operations. Most in-country multinational chains are owned wholly or in part by nationals. Most outlets are operated by nationals, and the chains generally purchase a large percentage of their basic ingredients from local farmers, importing only necessities that are not available locally.
Several factors account for the success of multinational fast-food operations. They possess cutting-edge technology and employ innovative strategies to attract customers, prepare and serve food, and keep their operations profitable. Local entrepreneurs have benefited by partnering with multinational fast-food chains as franchisees or suppliers. Working closely with multinational chains, these entrepreneurs learn state-of-the-art technology, professional techniques and sophisticated business practices.
In poorer countries fast food is seen as a luxury, to the point where wedding receptions, birthday parties and other celebrations are sometimes held at fast-food restaurants. Fast food is considered an exotic import symbolizing fun, modernity and connectedness; the familiarity of chain outlets offers a sense of safety and sanctuary. In more affluent countries chains appeal to busy, upwardly mobile, middle-class urbanites with limited time to dine. Customers are attracted to fast food’s convenience, efficiency, reliability, predictability and cleanliness (including their all-important toilets). Around the world, the industry has created jobs for unskilled workers at salaries higher than those at comparable stand-alone restaurants.
This incredible global success has come at a very high price for many of the industry’s best customers and for the public health services where fast-food chains thrive. If fast-food chains continue to grow at their current pace, within a few decades people in low- and middle-income countries will be consuming as much fast food as those in richer countries, and will face the same weight and health problems that confront frequent customers in more affluent areas. The fare served at fast-food chains is typically high in calories, fat, sugar and sodium, so it comes as no surprise that frequent fast-food consumption is associated with overweight, obesity and many other chronic diseases – topics to which we now turn.