If one were to go to dictionary.com and look up the word value, the very first definition seems to be most fitting for the idea that most fast food places try to push into your head. The definition is: Relative worth, merit, or importance.
Now, let's take McDonald's for example. Before I start, I want to be clear, I am not picking on them in particular just using them as an example. Many fast food places have practices that are just as bad as theirs are, if not worse.
They have an Extra Value Menu. Now what this implies is that the food on their normal menu is already a great value, and the items on this menu give you even more bang for your buck. Now, relative worth kind of says that you have to be comparing this thing to something else. So how should we go about doing that?
Oh I know, there's a chicken sandwich on the extra value menu called a McChicken sandwich. Let's compare that to the premium chicken sandwich. About a decade ago McDonald's decided that they wanted to attempt to attract the demographic that included people that actually like a bit of quality in their food. Prices vary around the country but the Premium chicken sandwich comes in at around $4.50. It consists of the chicken itself grilled, or crispy, as well as lettuce, tomato and mayo served on a honey wheat bun.
As far as quality goes, the Premium chicken sandwich is not bad. In fact, after further research and thought, I'd have to say I think the premium food line at McDonald's should be mostly excluded from the negative point of view that I have about the overall value of their food. The grilled chicken for example is about what one might expect to get at any sports bar that serves grilled chicken. The tomato is thick and juicy. The lettuce on these sandwiches are fresh whole leaves and are a nice shade of green. Compared to other non-fast food restaurants that serve similar food, the price is reasonable. And it might actually be kind of healthy for you.
Now let's come back to that McChicken sandwich on the "Extra" value menu. This sandwich is $1.00. If it is just as good as the Premium chicken sandwich then it certainly would be a fantastic value for the cost. But is it? For starters there's no tomato. While I do agree, tomato is one of the most costly vegetables that goes into fast food preparation. It really only adds a couple of cents to the per sandwich cost for the restaurant. Then there is the lettuce which is shredded into little pieces and often not very fresh. The chicken, breaded only no grilled option, is much smaller and lower quality and I am not entirely sure how much of it is actually chicken. The bun is their cheapest standard bun. The only thing that is actually the same, I think, is the mayonnaise.
Getting something that is worth more or the same, for less money would be getting some value. But that isn't happening here. I don't see any "extra" value here at all. In fact what I see is far less quality, and less food for a lower cost. A policy for honesty would probably force them to change the name extra value to cheaper food that is even worse for you then the rest of our menu.
Or perhaps what they mean by value is they get more value out of the dollars that they spend to purchase the cheaper ingredients to make the cheaper food. And this is just one of the examples at one restaurant. Another common practice is to lump an entree a side item and a drink together and call it a value meal. Due to being able to do basic math, I have found that at some places, the "extra" value meal actually costs more than the items being rung up separately. At my local Taco Bell the cost of the value meal is actually the same as the individual items. In either case where is the value?
There was recently a big deal that McDonald's is now calling a hoax about their chicken nuggets being made with what is called pink slime. Basically pink slime is all the parts of the animal that didn't make it off the bone the first time through the processing plant, that are then chemically treated with ammonia to kill bacteria. The resulting paste looks kind of like strawberry ice cream. It's gross. Feel free to Google it.
Anyways. McDonald's says that using pink slime is not at all part of their process for making the chicken nuggets and that may be true. But as recently as 2011(it is currently illegal) Taco Bell, McDonald's and Burger King were all using pink slime as part of the process for making the beef products that their customers ate. They want us to believe it has to do with the fact that they want to provide higher quality products, but the change only really happened after public outcry.
It is also generally cheaper per item, to cook your own food at home than it is to go out and pick up fast food. Think about it, what does it cost you for a tomato, a head of lettuce, a pack of 8 hamburger buns, a jar of mayo and eight chicken breasts? Certainly less than the 35 bucks you'd pay for eight premium chicken sandwiches at McDonald's right?
The extra value can't really be in the speed at which they serve the food, because I have waited just as long at places like Burger King, Taco Bell and KFC as I have at other places like Chipotle, Burger-Fi or Char Hut, places that serve higher quality food for more money.
So again, where is the value? Instead of having fast-food, most of the time I'd rather either make it myself or go somewhere else, somewhere where all of the food is higher quality, even if I have to pay a little more for the privilege and wait a little longer for it to be ready.
Conclusion, fast food value is a lie. But calling it cheap low quality food doesn't sell very well.
No comments:
Post a Comment