Who's Behind This, Anyway?
One thing I learned from Gina talking about her Hospitality & Tourism classes this past spring was that, quite often, the same large corporation is behind a multitude of restaurant chains. I find this pretty interesting. I mean, you know, sometimes it's surprising to find out that some of your favorite restaurants are cousins. I guess the most popular one for me is that Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver's, A&W, and Pizza Hut are all managed by Tricon, aka "Yum" brands. That's why the Kentaco Hut combo restaurants are becoming more popular and numerous in smaller towns and airports and such, I guess, though I haven't yet seen a Long Kentaco Fried Hut & W. Maybe that would be too confusing.
What are some other odd corporate restaurant team-ups? How about Wendy's, Baja Fresh, and Tim Horton's? Olive Garden and Red Lobster?
Can you imagine some kind of odd future where all these similarly-owned places were combined into one store to save space? A store where you could get a donut, a gigantic burrito, and a Frosty all at the same time, and wash it all down with some coffee? Would this be a heavenly type of place, or would it make us all weep for the end of our sanity?
It's too early, I believe, to tell.
Well, first of all I think having more of these kinds of roadside-smorgasbords would make Americans even fatter!!! When Katie was over in Germany, she said that she really didn't see many over-weight people. That's because Europeans think of food differently than we do. To the majority of them, although a lot of care goes into creating meals and it is thoroughly enjoyed, food isn't used as an emotional-coping tool, like it is quite often over here in the US. The quantities consumed in the Western Hemisphere are significantly more than other places in the world. Europeans eat to satisfy the biological necessity, and don't usually overindulge. Another thing – many Europeans still see meal-time as family time, and many gather for dinner with spending time with the family as the primary purpose. The fast-paced American lifestyle leaves little time to fix up a good meal for the family, and companies like Tricon and Darden (pardon the pun) eat it up. They gladly meet the demand for fast food that the American lifestyle creates. Don’t get me wrong, I love my McD’s fries dipped in a vanilla shake once in a while, but there are long-lasting consequences to living this way all the time… According to the most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 58 MILLION Americans are overweight – that’s 1 in every 3 people! This statistic is way too high, and these places with their high calorie/fat/cholesterol and low nutrition ingredients, we're in serious trouble. Obesity can lead to all kinds of problems like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, gallbladder disease, arthritis, breathing problems, and some forms of cancer. I think there's a big market out there for fast, healthy, and tasty food! Now who can we get to start one of these places up??? Hmm...perhaps a future career possibility of mine! But for now, I think I’ll just go to the gym and burn some of this fat off!
Wow! Thanks for that insightful and informative article, Gina. I'm impressed and delighted that you took the time to do a little research and post all that... I had no idea you felt so strongly about it! ;)
I think you're in the running for longest comment ever, too. :)