Mike Mozart (CC BY 2.0)
Francie Diep explores the ever-evolving public perception of McDonald’s at The Pacific Standard.
via The Pacific Standard:
One morning, you wake up, turn to your partner, and it’s like you don’t even know how they feel about you anymore.
After decades of enormous growth, McDonald’s has been on the decline recently, with same-store sales falling over the past five years, as the New York Times reported recently. America’s tastes have changed, a fact pointed out by many retail journalists. People are more concerned about wholesome, quality ingredients, and are therefore more likely to visit healthier-seeming chains, such as Chipotle.
As a look at the academic literature shows, this change has been a long time coming. Researchers have been bringing up worries about the influence of McDonald’s on business, culture, and health for at least 20 years. But it wasn’t until the last decade or so that the critiques really began to hit home, paving the way for Americans’ rejection of the Golden Arches.
Below, an overview of the research over the years:
1960s
At this time, McDonald’s is still fairly new, so the scholarship is simple, focusing on the company’s novel business structure—franchising. One paper, published in 1963, simply clarifies what franchising is.
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