Chew On This: Everything You Don’t Want To Know About Fast Food

The far-reaching effect of fast-food corporations can be seen in American town-planning. As a result, the identikit American town is as much a symbol of fast food as the factory fry. Once American towns were idiosyncratic, having locally-owned restaurants, clothing and markets, as well as more green space. However, since the advent of fast food chains, “the kind of suburban development that was once found only in Los Angeles […] has spread across the country. And with it has come a feeling of sameness—and a loss of what was once special, unique and memorable about these places” (49). A bird’s-eye view photograph of Martinsburg West Virginia, shows just how much space is devoted to fast food joints, both as individual units and as part of vast, mall food courts. Their flashy signs also predominate in towns and along motorways. Far from being accidental, fast food corporations’ takeover of American towns is a premeditated act, performed from helicopters thousands of feet in the air; from here, fast food giants became aware of the changing faces of towns and the potential for new markets. The identikit American town is not necessarily the first symbol readers would think of in relation to the fast-food corporations’ power, but it is one of the most insidious.