Eric Schlosser announces early on that his book Fast Food Nation is about "fast food, the values it embodies, and the world it has made" (2002, p. 3). He believes that what a nation eats tells you more about its social, economic and technological values than does its art or literature. But what he really succeeds in demonstrating in his book is that while fast food companies have marketed themselves into international popularity by using an image of American community and wholesomeness, the business practices that drive their success is far from communal or wholesome.
Schlosser begins by noting the extent of the service economy in America by pointing out that 90 percent of all new jobs created in America today are in that economy (2002, p. 4). But beyond that market share of employees, Schlosser also notes the extensive power over the nation's food supply now exercised by the centralized fast food conglomerates, whose operating methods have become standard for other retail industries (2002, p. 5). As Schlosser notes and demonstrates successfully throughout the book, these methods essentially seek to increase the conglomerates' power at the expense of small businesses and the regional differences that they represent.
For example, Schlosser sees the insidiousness of conglomerates' business tactics in a statement made by McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, who said about the centralized nature of retail franchises: "The organization cannot trust the individual; the individual must trust the organization" (Schlosser, 2002, p. 5). This emphasis on the organization often leads to workers who receive no benefits, learn few skills, exercise little control over their workplace and float from job to job after only a few months (Schlosser, 2002, p. 6). Moreover, in rural and agricultural communities, these business practices have in some cases eliminated entire ways of life.
For instance, Schlosser suggests that the effect of
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