Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Global Fast-Food Industry Essay

Fast food is very popular amongst today’s society. Fast Food Nation has reasons for the explosion in popularity of fast food restaurants in the mid-1900’s. It also explains negative effects on American Culture in today’s society. The fast-food industry has multiplied across America and changed the food industry. Eric Schlosser describes in Fast Food Nation the way people think about what they eat and what people think of the fast food industry, and also its impact on society.

The All-American meal takes more out of Americans to make then at first glance. Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation delves deep into the intricate workings of the fast food industry to expose mistreatment and cruelty towards workers in the business, just as Upton Sinclair had done in the early 1900’s regarding the meat packing industry. Schlosser is able to bring light to the darkness behind the All-American meal through extensive research and personal confrontations of which he has high regards for.

Chick-Fil-A is an American food restaurant franchise having its head office in Georgia, USA. The company was established in 1946 and has gradually entrenched itself in the American food industry as a cultural icon in the Southern United States for its specialty in preparation of chicken sandwiches. Chick-Fil-A prides itself for the establishment of over1690 branches located within the United States alone as well as its economic contribution to the larger part of Western America and California. It realized sales of around $4.6 billion in 2012, which reflected a 14 percent increase over the overall performance experienced in the previous year by the chain while the same-store sales performance increased by 8 percent. In Houston, Texas, the greatest performer realized a 7.2 million total gross sales in 2012. Chick-Fil-A uses a significantly distinct model, notable in the retention of the ownership of each restaurant since its acquisition. Chick-Fil-A selects the most suitable restaurant location, undertakes its construction, then takes over its ownership. Chick-Fil-A requires a payment of only a $5,000 as capital to become an owner of their branch while its rival franchises pay almost $2 million. The company receives over 15, 000 submissions annually from interested franchise operators for the available 70 slots. Chick-Fil-A receives a bigger allocation of income in comparison to other chains amounting to $190,000 per year. Chick-Fil-A’s solid mission statement and its

Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The bargaining power of suppliers in the industry is low. There are numerous suppliers in this industry, and the large department stores have the ability to negotiate for the lowest prices. In addition, the switching costs are low, as the products are not highly differentiated. There are a large volume of purchases in the industry, allowing the department stores to exert even more power over the suppliers.

In this case study, we will analyze a franchising restaurant company, Chick-Fil-A who was accused to discriminate LGBTs. Although there is no documentary record for their discrimination of homosexual people, there are still some things they done had been seen as discrimination. In this case study, we will identify what their problem is. Then we will base on the knowledge which we learnt in class to find out a solution for their problem.

Working in a slaughter house is one of the most dangerous jobs on earth. Workers in these factories risk their lives and limbs on a daily basis, all the while making the factory owner's rich. These blue collar jobs are becoming increasingly dangerous as can be seen in both “The Jungle” to the “Fast Food Nation”. Through both the works of Upton Sinclair's “The Jungle”, written in 1906, and Eric Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation”,, published in 2001 it is clear that the behind-the-scenes picture of the meat-packing industry, not much has changed in the past hundred years.

The majority of Americans enjoy fast food like bees enjoy their honey. Fast food is hard not to love due to families experiencing fast paced days, parents who work more than 20 hours a week, and having children with picky appetites can be rough. For most American families, it can be a challenge to not consider eating fast food more than once a week. The fast food industry has grown tremendously through the years. The one restaurant that is known all over the world for their golden arches and their big macs is McDonalds. With knowledge and personal experiences, I can say that McDonalds is by far the worst fast food restaurant in America. I believe this due to how unhealthy the food is for our bodies, the disturbing facts about the happy meals, the poor service, and the non-cleanliness of the restaurant.

Bargaining power of supplier: High levels of competition among suppliers act to reduce prices to producers. This is a positive for Ford Motor Company. Standardization of parts allowed Ford to reduce dependency on fixed supplier/vendor which goes into producer’s favor.

Knowing what is in your fast food might make you think twice the next time you devour it. As the rise of the fast food nation in America has increased to an all-time high, so has the weight and waists of Americans all around the country. Not only has the United States grown to love the acquired taste of greasy golden fries and juicy burgers, it has also grown ignorant to the way their food is prepared. In the novel, “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal”(2002), by Eric Schlosser, he makes compelling points in his position against the fast food industry.

One of the most shocking books of the generation is Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. The novel includes two sections, "The American Way" and "Meat and Potatoes,” that aid him in describing the history and people who have helped shape up the basics of the “McWorld.” Fast Food Nation jumps into action at the beginning of the novel with a discussion of Carl N. Karcher and the McDonald’s brothers. He explores their roles as “Gods” of the fast-food industry. Schlosser then visits Colorado Springs and investigates the life and working conditions of the typical fast-food industry employee. Starting out the second section, Schlosser travels to the western side of Colorado to examine the effects presented to the agriculture world in the new

From a study completed by Chicago-based Research International USA completed a study called “Fast Food Nation 2008. The panel consisted of 1,000 respondents of ages 16-65 who provided their inputs with an online survey which was conducted between March 13 through 2008. Which was based on results on fast food restaurants like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s are gaining popularity even through the economic hardship and recession. Marketing strategy has become more of influence on kids and young American’s. As population grows and the demand increases of fast food restaurants are expanding their stores to capturing more consumers. Fast food chains are also willing to change their menus to continue to gain and retain repeating customers.

In introduction stage KFC-J entered the market using market-skimming strategy as indicated in the U.S standard manual. Their products were high price and targeted only upper class. Gradually in 1972 after heavy losses in Osaka and start-up challenges, as a market strategy, Weston and his team adjusted prices to compete with typical Japanese take-out products. They also adjusted their prices to suit the middle class in order to penetrate the market.

This help employees assess whether their package is competitive and provide KFC with an opportunity to promote the Yumbucks equity incentive program.

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a popular fast food chicken restaurant chain around the world. (Bell, Shelman, 2011) It is one of the subsidiary of Yum Brand. This company also operates the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. (Yum! Brands, Inc, 2016) KFC was founded by Harland Sanders in 1952. (Bell, Shelman, 2011) Sanders was successful in creating the brand, even the logo of KFC brand is the portrait of him. He became a notable figure in American history thanks to his great contribution on creating KFC brand. Nowadays, KFC becomes more and more popular, the sales ranking of KFC was the 11th among the worldwide restaurant brands. (The QSR 50, 2015) The sales of KFC in 2014 was 4200 million dollars. (Details in Appendix 1) It means KFC has a large quantities of consumption needs. Actually, KFC has 14,577 restaurants around the world and 70% of them are located outside America (Yum Brand Annual Report, 2015). The restaurant profit was increased year by year from 2013 to 2015. (Details in Appendix 2) Therefore, it is potential to enlarge the customer base by analyzing consumer behaviors.

Providing customers with the best of both worlds: west meets east. In addition to its radical strategic approach of localization with regard to its food, they extended that viewpoint when selecting their management team. By hiring Chinese executives, Yum! Brands is able to build relationships with the local suppliers more easily and quickly. It definitely helps with their competitive advantage that chicken is a staple meat in China. Given these factors, it is clear that KFC has a competitive advantage in this market. However, taking a closer look at the industry and thinking longer-term, the competitiveness is undesirable but there is still potential to improve profitability. See the analysis