Saturday, March 19, 2011
Throughput
The term"THROUGHPUT",quoted by Alfred D,Chandler in the book,Fast Food Nation,was adopted by the America manufacturers in the twentieth century."THROUGHPUT"was the most important aspect of mass production system.This idea also became important for the fast food industry as well, because with the system" THROUGHPUT"which means making increase profit in their sale of product .The fast food coporation need to cut their labor force to maximize their profit margin ,the need for already made frozen burger may save them time and money.Insteat of hiring cateria to make a dough and bake a bun from the scratch.The time and cost involve for a cateria to bake ten dough ,could purchase about fifty frozen already made buns.This way the frozen buns will serve more people ,save time,less labor cost and more profit for the fast food coporation.
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CONSOLIDATION
ReplyDeleteThe word “CONSOLIDATION” is mentioned on page 136 of the book ‘Fast Food Nation’ by Eric Shlosser. It reads “On top of all that the growth of the fast food chain has encourage “CONSOLIDATION” in the meat packing Industry”.
In other words the fast food chain encouraged the meatpackers to come together or unite, so that the prices of the meat would be determined by the newly formed group in order to have a decent profit, instead of the meatpackers rivaling against themselves. The meatpackers aligned themselves against the ranchers in order to force price reduction.
The collaboration of the meat packers provides them with leverage, of which they can almost dictate the prices of the meat. The ranchers would be left with no choice but to accept the new prices. Failure to do so will cause the ranchers to lose on the meat.
A significant observation about the consolidation is that the meatpackers strengthened their bargaining power and hence were able to make lots of profits at the expense of the ranchers.
Mercy, nice blog. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteLimited choice
ReplyDeleteGone are the days when American mothers stayed in the kitchen, to prepare the family’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Mothers could decide what and what not to bring to the family’s table. Decision to make healthy food choices for the family seems to be a priority. Mothers have however, in recent years, lost their ability to make good choices, when it comes to healthy meals for their families.
The collapse of the American economy has not only left majority of its citizens to battle poverty, but also, to battle many diseases through unhealthy eating habits. The Fast food has replaced many American family kitchens where breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served every day. Mothers have limited choices about what should be on the family’s tables, due to their financial situations .The highly saturated meals, at affordable prices at the fast food places seem to be the only choice mothers could substitute for their families. “Maria Gonzales, mentioned in the documentary, “…now that I know that fast food is not good, I feel bad feeding my family with it.” This guilt of Mrs. Gonzales explains how her choices as a mother and a protector are limited in terms of providing healthy food for her family. She has therefore failed in her duties as a provider due to poverty.
"Captive Supplies".
ReplyDelete"Captive Supplies". It's a practice among traders where buyers get to go into negotiation with their supplier. This way, buyers provides financial aspect in advance to their supplies which makes them "share holders" or "join ventures”. This practice normally goes on among meatpackers and ranchers. The meat packers then determine prices and direction of the produce. (p119).
According to the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, the Captive Supply became necessary "in the 1980's among some of the major meat packers and the ranchers, where the meat packers did maintain in company owned feed-lot or purchased in advanced through negotiation". With meatpackers now as share holders, the ranchers were left with no choice to determine the prices of their cattle. The meat packers manipulated the price for their own gain.
This practice of trading also took place between the potato growers and the major French Fries processing companies. Were according to Moulton warns about “sharecroppers” where companies supply potato farmers with potato seeds in order to determine the price of a potato leaving the growers no choice over the price of their produce. This trading is significant because it makes the buyers gain more profit leaving the growers at lost.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteyou keep commenting on your old blogs instead of writing new ones. When you are in the "dashboard" mode, click on "New Post" and place your new writing there.