Comparitive Fast Food

On my return from the US, the question I was asked most often was, "is fast food very different in the States than it is in the UK?" (No, really.)

The answer I gave was that, yes, it was in fact really quite different. But I could never quite think of a good example to illustrate this difference, until now.

On returning from England, Graeme and I stopped at one of the service stations for dinner, where we ate at Burger King. There was one group in front of us at the queue, while at the tills there were two girls. However, rather than us getting served immediately, one of the two girls steadfastly ignored us while tallying receipts or something, while the other girl busily took orders, then ran around assembling orders, and generally running the front end of the restaurant.

That simply would not have been tolerated in the States. There, if it is at all possible for a customer to be served quickly, then they must be.

The reason for this is really quite simple: competition. Usually, US restaurants will not sit in isolation, but will be close to one another. And, the psychology of the American fast food customer is such that they don't go out to McDonalds (or Burger King, Arby's or wherever), but rather they go out for fast food, and will therefore join whichever queue is the shortest.

In the US the emphasis is very much on the 'fast' part of 'fast food'. Which is probably as it should be - people generally don't go to these places for the quality of the dining experience or the taste of the food.