Trick or Treating for McDonaldization
McDonaldization impacts so many aspects of our everyday lives, from restaurants to clothing stores, to grocery stores. In the spirit of the holiday I decided how far I could push the envelope at a local Party City while trying to purchase a Halloween costume. At first I asked for a normal costume (Batman) off the wall with hundreds of choices of pre-packaged costumes. Somewhat like I was picking off a menu of a fast food restaurant. This made me think of the steps of McDonaldization that George Ritzer wrote about in The McDonaldization of Society which is that no matter which Party City location I went to I could buy the same costume with all the same parts in it. The store offers predictability so that everyone who buys a costume of Batman will look exactly uniform and the offer the idea that they will look good during the holiday. It also makes people more incentivized to buy it since it is quick and therefore seemingly more efficient for the buyer.
After receiving my first costume I took everything out of the package and only kept the cape that came with it and asked for another off the wall (this time it was Dart Vader) and kept only the mask and pants. After keeping only parts of other costumes I had chosen from the wall, I was told that I had to buy it as a set and that they were only sold in that way. I asked the employee why I had to do that she told me that’s the way it is so I must, not offering any other reasons. At this point I was gathering looks from the other shoppers around me but decided to ask to speak to a manger. When the store manager made his way over to me I told him that I was going to buy the parts I wanted and not full outfits, his reply was that they can’t sell me the parts because they can’t then sell an opened packed with missing parts and if I wanted them I’d have to buy the bundle. I asked him what if I paid full price for the parts I wanted and after some time he agreed to it (mostly to get me out of his hair). Once at the checkout I told the manager checking me out that I didn’t want any of the costumes anymore and I left the items there and walked out. On my way out I was told not to come back again.
Throughout this process I did meet a lot of resistance from the employees even though in the end my demands were mostly met. I felt very awkward the whole time and I could sense that other shoppers were uncomfortable by me making a scene. McDonaldization is a good process since it makes things cheaper and more accessible but it also does ruin people’s ability to decide exactly what they want, instead being given everything already pre-packaged. McDonaldization allows corporations to manipulate people into believing that quantity is better than quality. The whole process made me think about the discussion in class about how the four steps take over many businesses. Efficiency, control, calculability and predictability all allow businesses the upper hand when selling products to customers.
McDonaldization impacts so many aspects of our everyday lives, from restaurants to clothing stores, to grocery stores. In the spirit of the holiday I decided how far I could push the envelope at a local Party City while trying to purchase a Halloween costume. At first I asked for a normal costume (Batman) off the wall with hundreds of choices of pre-packaged costumes. Somewhat like I was picking off a menu of a fast food restaurant. This made me think of the steps of McDonaldization that George Ritzer wrote about in The McDonaldization of Society which is that no matter which Party City location I went to I could buy the same costume with all the same parts in it. The store offers predictability so that everyone who buys a costume of Batman will look exactly uniform and the offer the idea that they will look good during the holiday. It also makes people more incentivized to buy it since it is quick and therefore seemingly more efficient for the buyer.
After receiving my first costume I took everything out of the package and only kept the cape that came with it and asked for another off the wall (this time it was Dart Vader) and kept only the mask and pants. After keeping only parts of other costumes I had chosen from the wall, I was told that I had to buy it as a set and that they were only sold in that way. I asked the employee why I had to do that she told me that’s the way it is so I must, not offering any other reasons. At this point I was gathering looks from the other shoppers around me but decided to ask to speak to a manger. When the store manager made his way over to me I told him that I was going to buy the parts I wanted and not full outfits, his reply was that they can’t sell me the parts because they can’t then sell an opened packed with missing parts and if I wanted them I’d have to buy the bundle. I asked him what if I paid full price for the parts I wanted and after some time he agreed to it (mostly to get me out of his hair). Once at the checkout I told the manager checking me out that I didn’t want any of the costumes anymore and I left the items there and walked out. On my way out I was told not to come back again.
Throughout this process I did meet a lot of resistance from the employees even though in the end my demands were mostly met. I felt very awkward the whole time and I could sense that other shoppers were uncomfortable by me making a scene. McDonaldization is a good process since it makes things cheaper and more accessible but it also does ruin people’s ability to decide exactly what they want, instead being given everything already pre-packaged. McDonaldization allows corporations to manipulate people into believing that quantity is better than quality. The whole process made me think about the discussion in class about how the four steps take over many businesses. Efficiency, control, calculability and predictability all allow businesses the upper hand when selling products to customers.