The history of McD's Basic rules for operating a fast food restaurant Fast Food Facts Reasons McDonald's became so successful McDonaldization explained McDonaldization's Other Precursors Advantages of McDonaldization Ways to Cope with McDonaldization McDonaldization In My Life - Today Conclusions Bibliography

Ways to Cope with McDonaldization For those of you who can afford it, avoid living in apartments or tract houses. Try to live in an atypical environment, preferably one you have built yourself or have had built for you. If you must live in an apartment or a tract house, humanize and individualize it. Avoid daily routine as much as possible. Try to do as many things as possible in a different way from one day to the next. More generally, do as many things as you can for yourself. If you must use services, frequent nonrationlized, nonfranchised establishments. For example, lubricate your own car. If you are unwilling or unable to do so, have it done at your local, independent gasoline station. Do not, at all costs, frequent one of the franchised lube businesses. Instead of popping into H&R Block at income tax time, hire a local accountant, preferably one who works out of an office in his or her home. Similarly, the next time a minor medical or dental emergency leads you to think of a "McDoctor" or a "McDentist," resist the temptation and go instead to your neighborhood doctor or dentist, preferably on in solo practice. The next time you need a pair of glasses, use the local storefront optometrist rather than the Pearle Vision Center, for example. Avoid Hair Cuttery, SuperCuts, and other hair-cutting chains; go instead to a local barber or hairdresser. At least once a week, pass up lunch at McDonald's and frequent a local café or deli. For dinner, against at least once a week, stay home, unplug the microwave, avoid the freezer, and cook a meal from scratch. To really shake up the clerk at the department store, use cash rather than your credit card. Send back to the post office all junk mail, especially that addressed to "occupant" or "resident". The next time a computer phones you, gently place the phone on the floor, thereby allowing the disembodied voice to drone on, occupying the line so that others will not be bothered by such calls for a while. When dialing a business, always choose the "voice mail" option that permits you to speak to a real person. Never buy artificial products such as Milly McButter and Butter Buds. Seek out restaurants that use real chine and metal utensils; avoid those that use materials such as Styrofoam that adversely affect the environment. Organize groups to protest abuses by McDonaldized systems. As you have seen, these systems do adapt to such protests. If you work in such as system, organize your coworkers to create more humanized working conditions. If you must frequent a fast-food restaurant, dine at one, such as Macheezmo Mouse Mexican Café, that has demonstrated sensitivity to the dangers of McDonaldization. If you are a regular at McDonald's, try to get to know that counter people. Also, do what else you to humanize it. In fact, during the breakfast hours, customers have done just that, "subverting the process." Instead of hastening through their meal, many breakfast customers, especially among the elderly, form informal "breakfast clubs" and "come every day of the week to read their papers, chat, drink coffee, and gobble down an Egg McMuffin." If breakfast can be de-McDonaldized, why not other meals? Other aspects of the fast-food experience. Read The New York Times rather than USA TODAY once a week. Similarly, watch PBS news once a week with its three long stories rather than the network news shows with their numerous snippets. More generally, watch as little television as possible. If you must watch TV, choose PBS. If you must watch one of the networks, turn off the sounds and avert your eyes during commercials. After all, most commercials are sponsored by enterprises that tout the virtues of rationalization. Avoid most finger foods. If you must eat finger foods, make them homemade sandwiches and fresh fruits and vegetables. On your next vacation, go to only one locale and get to know it and its inhabitants well. Never enter a domed stadium or one with artificial grass; make periodic pilgrimages to Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago. Avoid classes with short-answer tests graded by computer. If a computer-graded exam is unavoidable, make extraneous makes and curl the edges of the exam so that the computer cannot deal with it. Seek out small classes; get to know your professors. Go to no movies that have roman numerals after their names. taken from The McDonaldization of Society, George Ritzer