Golden Arches

[steven]

The problem I find with a lot of books is that some authors take forever to get to the point... it's like if I were to try to write a book haha. Sometimes I like to read what the author's point is before I read how they concluded what they did... it just makes it easier to follow for me.

komitsuki, check out the article... it pretty much says it all there.

"Business Strategies
To attract more customers, Lotteria partnered with KT Corporation and Intel in 2003 to provide Wifi access in its restaurants[7].

Lotteria has followed the global fast food trend of shifting towards health-conscious foods and remaking its image. In the face of the well being trend, it eliminated trans fats from its french fries [8]. It also introduced healthier menu items, such as the rye bread burger that had only 350 calories[9]. From 2008, perhaps a response to McDonald's strategy to move upmarket, Lotteria began a campaign to change "the image of our stores to create a mood similar to a cafe, geared toward the health-conscious as well as women customers" [10]

In March 2009, Lotteria took full control of the South Korean branch of TGI Fridays[6]. It had previously invested 10 billion won in the chain in 2002[11]."

I'm sure there are more examples in the article. Whether you agree with wikipedia or not is up to you.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by komitsuki

Stop complaining. We have more piracy than never before and there is no way to bring the piracy rate down. You can complain this for the rest of your life.

It's the rules, Komitsuki. If you don't like it you are welcome to find another forum to complain on.

[komitsuki]

Originally Posted by MMM

It's the rules, Komitsuki. If you don't like it you are welcome to find another forum to complain on.

Nah, I find you amusing. For an American, of course.

[x2cool]

Originally Posted by steven

I have to be honest with you, I don't think there are any conclusions to come to at this point. I haven't heard of any statistics that have to do with the "McDonalds model" and how it affects different societies.

If you talk about "Fast Food Culture", the best you could do is just provide examples of things like the KFC Christmas Chicken deal. There might be some other things like that in Japan... but none that I really know of. I can only imagine how many things like that exist around the world though. That sounds like an awful lot of research for an English paper.

"My professor said that there was a study where some sociologists sat in some McDonald's in China and observed how people acted near a McDonald's compared to as away from it, and also how they acted when they were in it."

This sounds cool in practice, and will probably give somewhat accurate resutls, but I think it's far from being a completely sound expiriment. I guess sociology is just one of those things, but obersvations alone might not capture the depth to which McDonalds affects societies. Obviously I don't know anything about the study, but like if they're gonna go to a restaraunt and compare how people act to how they would normally act, I'd hope they went to other restaraunts to provide a "control". Speaking personally, I get pretty anxious when I'm hungry, so I'll probably be a little more rude than usual. That will probably make me give off more non-verbal signals than just being in a place that is different from my home-culture would.

At any rate, is there a website that has the study that you are talking about on it?

There isn't a website on it. Rather the study is part of a book called "Golden Arches East" by James L. Watson.

Amazon.com: Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia (9780804732079): James L. Watson: Books

[Qayin]

Foreign business affects tradition for sure. When you see something new, you may become craze about it. I remember 2-3 years ago MOS opened their first branch and everyone waited for the queue for umm... may be 2-3 hours to try their rice burger.

I don't think that Mc = American culture but Mc, Coke, Michael Jackson or KFC represent at least part of American culture. People may think about American the way they see Mc because they know only Mc. Mc = Hamburger, Hamburger = Mc, Mc = Fast Food so American must love fast food. It's all about imagination

Before I went to Japan 4 years ago I thought that "There must be Manga shop on every corner, because I believe EVERY JAPANESE love manga", but when I went there, "hey why it's so difficult to buy manga!?"

Foreign goods/services/TV represent at least a bit of their culture in local people perspective because that's all they could see.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Qayin

Before I went to Japan 4 years ago I thought that "There must be Manga shop on every corner, because I believe EVERY JAPANESE love manga", but when I went there, "hey why it's so difficult to buy manga!?"

But there were NEVER manga shops on every corner. Don't make the mistake of thinking the McDonald's replaced the manga shops.

And MOS Burger is a Japanese company.

Japan has always been very good at adopting the ideas from other countries and making them their own. I don't think most Japanse feel threatened by KFC or Mr. Donuts, so I don't think we need to worry about it.

[Mazikeen]

Originally Posted by MMM

But there were NEVER manga shops on every corner. Don't make the mistake of thinking the McDonald's replaced the manga shops.

I think he was stating the misconception he had, MMM. Y'know, like the misconception that McDonalds = American Culture.

[dogsbody70]

sI haven't travelled abroad, but when we see glimpses of big towns in other countries very often there are many macdonalds and other Western type takeaways.

They definitely seem to have spread. In fact here in the UK when towns used to have a variety of individual shops Nowadays most towns have the same type of shops-- so its almost a waste of times travelling to different towns. it is so boring. Big business overtakes so many of us-- so much from overseas as well.

[Mazikeen]

Originally Posted by dogsbody70

Big business overtakes so many of us-- so much from overseas as well.

Tell me about it. My town wants to demolish a plaza to redevelop the land into an area more suitable and friendly to those just passing through for the morning and afternoon commute. In that plaza is a bakery that's been active since before 1974, when my mother started going there. I imagine some shitty Dunkin Donuts will take it's place.

[x2cool]

Originally Posted by Mazikeen

Tell me about it. My town wants to demolish a plaza to redevelop the land into an area more suitable and friendly to those just passing through for the morning and afternoon commute. In that plaza is a bakery that's been active since before 1974, when my mother started going there. I imagine some shitty Dunkin Donuts will take it's place.

Yeah, and I think that's one of th problems with huge corporate business. I mean what's the point of traveling if there's going to be the same stores everywhere. I'd rather Congo a small family owned shop rather than something I see at every street corner.