What if Fast food never took off

Fast food predate the mega franchises. Without McD etc, there would be a lot more local burger joints. The American lifestyle isn't suitable to slow food.
 
Local burger joints who would also be competing for a health craze in the US instead of the corporate pseudo-monopoly that fast foods have taken off with. Less coronary and obesity related disease deaths. Less obesity in general. Healthier life styles lead to a less over-burdened health system. Better economy, go from there.
 
i doubt any local places would be going for health food. Most local places I'm ever seen pride themselves on bigger portions and more stuff added on not being healthy. If anything it's the national chains jumping on the healthy food bandwagon- just look at KFC Grilled Chicken.
 
i doubt any local places would be going for health food. Most local places I'm ever seen pride themselves on bigger portions and more stuff added on not being healthy. If anything it's the national chains jumping on the healthy food bandwagon- just look at KFC Grilled Chicken.
Keep in mind that they aren't in a vacuum, though. They have to compete with the big chains, and the easier way is to offer the cheap and large -if unhealthy- choices.

If those mega chains never took off, I could see how the small chains and local stops would jump on a health bandwagon since they are the relied upon providers rather than those that fill the cracks between the big boys.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Local burger joints who would also be competing for a health craze in the US instead of the corporate pseudo-monopoly that fast foods have taken off with.

uh...like the truck stop I worked at? Where we cooked healthy deep fried chicken wings, cheeseburgers, and greasy onion rings?


Like the other folks on this thread have pointed out, the chains didn't start deep frying their food. They just did it on conveyor belts. It McDonalds didn't do it in Iowa, then Maid-Rite would've stepped in. We'd all be eating loosemeat sandwiches instead of Double Cheeseburgers.
 
"Fast food" (if you can call it that) before McDonald's was limited to hot dog stands and drive ins and was mostly in the LA area. It wasn't until the McDonald brothers started the "speedy delivery service" in the late 40's that fast food as we know it took off. The McDonald's brothers started opening a couple new locations, and than Ray Kroc bought them off. Now, a POD with the McDonald brothers refusing to sell to Kroc would probably stop the McDonaldwank we have OTL, but it wouldn't stop fast food because competitors were already ripping them off. So that makes the most plausible POD would be McDonald's going out of business before 1948.
 
On the consumer side I think you'd see a lot more diners, lunch counters, etc., and probably more regional and ethnic diversity in restaurants than we have now. For non-mega-corporate "fast food" I'd expect more street food and advanced vending machines (that would heat or even cook meals, for example).

More interesting maybe is what would happen on the production side. Agriculture would be less industrialized - and as result more people would still farm. Rural areas would be vibrant and suburban sprawl mitigated. "Traditional" values and cultural conservatism would be even more prevalent, but at least the food would be healthier.

On a world scale, American cultural hegemony would be lessened, and with it, anti-Americanism. I guess what I'm suggesting is that, at least indirectly, McDonalds caused 9-11. :(
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Since when? When was the last time you took heard of somebody taking a date to a fast-food dive?

Since forever. I couldn't afford to spend 20 or 30 bucks for dinner and still expect to do anything afterwards until a few years ago.

My goto dinner date for years with chicks was Taco Bell, followed up with a trip to the Putnam Museum because it was only 5 bucks for admission. Then they put in an IMAX theatre and the freaking ticket price went up.

Only right before I got married was I able to go just about anywhere I wanted to eat. Of course, before that I was...in college, then in the army, then in college again before I became a machinist.
 
Fast food predate the mega franchises. Without McD etc, there would be a lot more local burger joints. The American lifestyle isn't suitable to slow food.

I wonder if there's be more local chains. I know people who have no problem grabbing a falafel or pizza from the place around the block, but would never step foot in McDonald's.
 

Valdemar II

Banned
I wonder if there's be more local chains. I know people who have no problem grabbing a falafel or pizza from the place around the block, but would never step foot in McDonald's.

That's just as much a matter of taste, I never eat at McDonalds, but if I'm hungry I can take a dürüm or a pita with kebab, ham or chicken. But's that because the latter taste better to me and it fill me more up. Of course there also exist healthy fast food, I often buy two pierces of smørrebrød (rye bread with some kind of cold cut or paté) and maybe eat a few carrots to it.
 

terence

Banned
A Poor citizen of Rome in the first century could avail himself of a midday meal from a variety of sources. A typical street would have several food stalls. He could buy a piece of meat in a bread bun with some vegetables (Lo! A Burger!). In the Eastern Empire it would more likely be a piece of unleaven bread with mutton (Lo! A kebab/shwarma!). The Egyptian workers who laboured on the Pyramids were provided with pack-boxes for lunch of fish, bread and wine so that they could eat-on-the job, rather than down tools.
In the Middle Ages few, apart from the rich, had kitchens. They would call at the local cook-shop to buy a small portion of meat and bread. This evolved into a quintisential piece of British fast food--the pie or the pastie. Throughout history there has been a pieman not far away on any English Street. (Simple Simon met a pieman....)-- every city in the world has street food---the original fast food.
The Fast Food to which you refer is the replacement of 100% food with 25% polystyrene, 75% profit margin, recycled faeces and massive marketing--resulting in the American physique.

fat-shirtless-guy-eating-cheeseburger-2.4.jpg
 
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