Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser [159]
Taco Bell’s problems, however, extend far beyond passing fears of tainted tacos. “We are not doing a great job in terms of quality, in terms of speed, in terms of cleanliness in the store,” Emil Brolick, the chain’s new president, confessed. The speed at which Taco Bell’s financial health deteriorated, with relatively minor sales declines threatening widespread restaurant closures, shows how vulnerable the world’s largest fast food chains have become. A 2 percent decline in sales is enough to send their stock prices spiralling downward.
The glory days of the major chains seem to be over. Smaller, regional restaurant companies are the ones now enjoying rapid growth in the United States, as many larger ones lose customers. Although the McDonald’s Corporation continues to hunt for promising new American locations (a McDonald’s recently opened at the Brentwood Baptist Church in Houston), the chain’s problems increasingly resemble those of the British Empire a century ago. For imperial Britain, rapid expansion overseas was a sign not of economic strength, but of underlying weaknesses at home. An empire that looked impressive and invincible on the map later proved to be remarkably fragile, shrinking much faster than it had grown. During the 1990s McDonald’s opened restaurants overseas at a furious pace, distracting attention from the fact that it was gaining few new customers in the United States. The mad cow epidemic in Europe, combined with economic downturns in Asia and Latin America, have created doubts on Wall Street about McDonald’s imperial strategy. It costs a great deal of money to open new restaurants on distant continents. The McDonald’s Corporation remains profitable, but now intends to grow by doubling its sales within the United States over the next decade. That goal may be unrealistic. A recent survey of American consumers found enormous dissatisfaction with McDonald’s. Among the two hundred national organizations examined in the study, McDonald’s ranked just a couple of places from the bottom.
Ever since the débâcle of the McLibel trial, the McDonald’s Corporation has tried to improve its public image and at times behave in a more socially responsible manner. During the spring of 2001 it began to offer discounts on health insurance and other benefits to employees at company-owned restaurants in the United States, which comprise about one-seventh of the chain. During the summer of 2001 it disclosed the basic ingredients of its natural flavors (and, perhaps in deference to Hindus, has taken the beef extract out of its McNuggets). In addition to forcing compliance with the FDA’s feed regulations, McDonald’s has required that its meatpacking suppliers handle and slaughter animals more humanely. For years, excessive line speeds and improper stunning have led to cattle and hogs being dismembered while fully conscious. McDonald’s new policy on humane slaughter did not arise in a vacuum. Animal rights groups, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, were staging protests at McDonald’s, asking the company to seek changes from its suppliers. Whatever the true motive, McDonald’s acted decisively and hired Temple Grandin — one of the nation’s foremost experts on animal welfare and proper livestock handling — to devise an auditing system for the slaughterhouses that provide the chain’s beef and pork. According to Grandin, McDonald’s threat to stop purchasing meat from companies that mistreat animals changed many of the industry’s practices within a year. Although McDonald’s auditors are employed by the same companies that manufacture its hamburger patties, Grandin says they seem genuinely committed to the new policy, making unannounced visits to slaughterhouses and observing whether animals are properly handled and stunned. When advocated by