Attending Services at McDonald's
Not to get all "inside and egocentric" again, but I could really relate to Matt Welch's Tim Blair-spurred comments on going to McDonald's in Europe. I spend a fair amount of time in England, and I go over to Europe relatively frequently as well. Like Matt, I almost never go to McD when I'm home, but I find myself going there all the time when I'm abroad. Besides the reasons he mentions (thrift, hygiene, amusement) it's also often your only option. If you've ever tried to eat a late lunch in a medium-sized European city you know what I'm talking about: even with the best of fast-food-avoiding intentions, you'll search in vain for a restaurant that doesn't stop serving food from around 2 till 6. During these "lean hours," the gastronomic road always leads, eventually, to McD., which is fortunate in a way since the average Euro-city has far more McDs than functional telephones or toilets.
I experienced this phenomenon just last week, when my lovely health-conscious girlfriend and I found ourselves roaming the streets of Norwich looking for grub at 4pm. We must have tried around twelve establishments-- "sorry love, food is finished"-- before giving up. In some places, like Germany, it's not at all uncommon for a cranky restaurateur to tell you "we're closed for lunch," i.e., they close the restaurant to the public at lunchtime so the staff can eat in peace.
The result is that McDs in Europe are always jammed to over-flowing with burger-crazed convenience-starved Europeans. They say they don't like it, but you always have to fight your way in. So why doesn't one of the home-grown Norwich eateries wise up and try to tap in to the lucrative "after 2" market? That's just not the way things are done over there; they leave bold innovations like that to the Americans.
McD's unparalleled overseas convenience is not limited to its primary role as a happy meal distribution center; it also serves as a valuable one-stop symbol of America's over-arching vulgarity and tastelessness. (The Jerry Springer Show runs a close second in this dubious contest.) A vocal minority employ the symbol as a focus for fervent anti-Americanism and pointless mischief. For most people, however, this distaste (ironic because of how often it is expressed by people in between bites of Big Mac) is just a device for claiming a shred of cultural superiority, in the same way that a Canadian reverently opens his wallet to display his national health card as though it were the Ark of the Covenant. For the expatriate American, then, McDonald's can be a valuable resource: for food, for shelter, for comfort, for convenience, and for irritating the hell out your European hosts should such a thing become necessary.
Posted by Dr. Frank at January 13, 2002 01:49 AM | TrackBack