Ronald McDonald Is Taking Over The World

Review of “McJobs: McDonaldization and the Workplace” by George Ritzer (Link not available)

After reading this article, I now know what to call certain things that I have noticed in my daily life. The fact that the company clearly wants to figure out ways to enable them to gain more money without spending more money is just a given statement. I guess that is us, as the consumer, who are truly the fools in this situation and the employees are just expendable.

I’m sure you have noticed this, in Stop and Shop they now have cash registers that the customer scans and pays for the items themselves. This is a clear example of McDonaldization in the fact that the employee is being replaced with a machine and now the store only requires one employee to watch after 4 machines as opposed to 4 employees per register. This also provides the company with much less room to mess up cash transactions as the machine takes money and calculates change. The only thing that I have seen wrong with it, and this is because I have done it, is the produce buttons. If I’m buying expensive produce such as an eggplant (Because it’s not eggplant season yet) I’ll click on a different and cheaper produce and just weigh the eggplant as such. Not only do they have electronic cash registers, but now they have scanners that the customer scans each item as they put it into their cart and just scans the scanner at the end (or something along those lines) and quick pays for it. This will reduce lines and waiting times and of course those two things are very appealing to Mom’s who own screaming children.

I have also noticed this McDonaldization is when we register for classes. We no longer need to go to the registrar (Unless you have remedial courses) to register for our classes. We do it online which will save the college money in employing people to be behind the registrar’s desks. It’s simple and it’s efficient for the college because everything is online, it already knows the student due to the fact that we must put our N number in the system and in two seconds everything is done. I’m sure all colleges have this feature. No longer needing to go to a person to register, now cuts out how many people the college needs to employ to register students.

There are so many more places that have this McDonaldization such as food buffets, where the customer gets their food from a centralized location. ATM are also another example providing electronic service to individual’s bank accounts 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Bank of America even has a deposit system where you can deposit your checks and/or cash into their ATM.
It’s starting to pop up everywhere and has been an ever-growing trend in the United States especially due to the fact that since the consumer themselves finds it more convenient. There would be an argument that people would want things done for them but I believe that since the expanding “Me” generation has been booming, people will actually want to do things themselves because they simply don’t want the human interaction. That’s a scary thought that people will want to start doing things for themselves because they don’t want others doing it for them or they don’t want to talk to anyone. Just goes to show how although we as a society are being socialized a certain way, the individual can bank on not having to socialize at all.

Thoughts © Maria Campagna

Wal-Mart Island: Low Cost Vacationing!

Review of “Socialization and the Power of Advertising” by Jean Killbourne (Link not available)

I am honestly waiting for the day that the entire globe turns into a bunch of logos that can be seen from outerspace. I can see it now, we already create man-made islands so why not an island in the shape of the Nike “swoosh” or perhaps Wal-Mart Island for low-cost vacationing. This is exactly why advertising “sells much more than products” It sells a lifestyle, values, morals, and it’s beginning to look like there will soon be a religion dubbed “Chevronism”

These advertisers influence our lives by telling us what to wear, where to shop, what to eat and pretty much drill into our heads any possible thing that they can. Especially within the past few years, brands have been mushing ideas into everyone’s heads.

For example, and this is mainly for the little children that are being influenced, while I worked at the daycare there were many children who would only eat a specific type of food. Now, I’m not talking about the fact that they didn’t like vegetables but during breakfast there were many kids who wanted a specific type of cereal. At first I figured the kids were just being bratty (which they were don’t get me wrong) However, I asked a 4 year old girl, who was eating Lucky Charms, “Why do you only want to eat this cereal? How come you don’t want Trix or Rice Krispies?” to which her response was “I like the funny green guy on the front and I’ll get lucky if I eat the cereal” This response in turn made the parents also loyal to the company due to the fact that this little girl only wanted this cereal. (Which will also bring me to the topic of how parents spoil the daylights out of their children but that’s probably for another time)

I’ve seen families who only buy brand-name things and scowl at having to buy store-brand things and vice-avers. Either way, they’re being loyal to the brand and their lifestyle and food choices depend upon whether or not the bottle says “Clorox” or “Stop and Shop” Clearly, the name-brand things will cost them more but what do they care? The consumer believes that they are getting a “better” product which in turn makes them look “better” to society. It’s all a vicious cycle.

Obviously the tobacco companies are not just targeting adults but setting the stage in a child’s mind when they’re very young that smoking is cool. Despite the efforts of anti-smoking campaigns, anti-drug campaigns and the like, children are smoking, drinking and doing drugs at younger and younger ages. The ad’s are brightly colored or really stand out at you or have cartoons and of course as adults we are past the stage of brain stimulation from brightly colored objects or cartoons. So who else would these ad’s be for?

Television is becoming more and more lax with what they air on T.V. So ads of nearly naked women, drugs and alcohol are on shows that are accessible to children. MTV is the worst with their stupid shows like “Tool Academy” and “Jersey Shore” MTV is basically teaching our children to be spoiled, nasty, slutty and above all stupid then hey! You might have a chance on TV.

These shows set the stage for little girls and boys alike on what’s “cool” and how to act towards others when clearly these people don’t have any respect for anyone, not even themselves. It can make little girls grow up to think that they have to be half naked in order to be appreciated by a guy which can turn out to be terribly harmful especially with their self-esteem and serious situations such as rape. It’s creating values for these children and young adults alike on how to act in society.

It’s all about the money. As the consumer you must ask yourself, do they really give a crap about how our lives turn out? Do they care about how our children grow up if they grow up to be pregnant at the age of 12? Or if your loved one becomes addicted to cigarettes or drugs? They just see us as dollar signs. Nothing more, nothing less.

Thoughts © Maria Campagna