The Man Who Destroyed Mealtimes

Richard McDonald, who founded the McDonald’s restaurant chain, died in1998, but he will never be forgotten. The golden arches he invented seem to be everywhere on the planet. On American highways, landscape is now dominated by enormous fluorescent letters Ms.

McDonald’s restaurants are impossible to ignore. They are found in over 96 countries, including a vegetarian version in India. It is widely thought that the first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Moscow in the 1980s was largely responsible for introducing capitalism to the old Soviet Union. The company is aiming for world domination, and is destroying traditional eating habits.

Richard McDonald has taken his place among the people who have shaped the modern world and lifestyle – every day 32 million people worldwide eat a ‘Big Mac’. But he has altered more than eating habits and the landscape. His fast-food chain has absolutely changed human behavior, and it is argued that it is responsible for obesity among millions of its customers due to the easy availability of a cheap 500-calorie meal with high fat content.

It all began in 1948 in California. In the post-war ‘baby boom’, Americans became concerned about value for money, Richard and his brother, who already were experts in marketing, had the idea of feeding people quickly and cheaply from a simple, fixed menu without making them get out of their cars. And so the concept of ‘fast food’ was born. The company expanded quickly, and in 1955 the brothers sold their 25 restaurants, although Richard continued working in the chain as a consultant.

Before McDonald’s restaurants took over mealtimes, American families used to go to their local ‘diner’, the traditional restaurant, to eat freshly made food in a relaxed atmosphere and to chat to their friends and neighbours. The new concept helped to create today’s society where people don’t even know their neighbours and are suspicious of strangers.

The staff at McDonald’s are taught at the McDonald’s University. This helps to maintain high standards in the restaurants. The company is supposed to be ‘one big family’ with strict rules, and that helped to have spread American values worldwide very effectively.

With his system Richard has given us faster food but this created a demand for everything else to become faster too. Modern society has become impatient and easily frustrated. The unstoppable monster gave birth to the phrase ‘junk food’. The world will never recover the innocence it lost when it first tasted a Big Mac.