Fast Food Nation Summary

Chapter one of Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, a novel on the dark side of the “All-American Meal”, is about the rising of a fast food chain and how it revolutionized the food industry. The story opens with discussion of Carl N. Karcher, one of fast food’s pioneers. He quit school after eighth grade and moved out to California, where he began his own family. Carl bought a hotdog cart; and his wife Margaret sold hot dogs across the street from where Carl worked at a bakery. Carl eventually opened a Drive-In Barbeque restaurant. The McDonald brothers were also running their own restaurant, “McDonald’s Famous Hamburgers.” It was the McDonald brothers who began the Speedee Service System, “After visiting San Bernardino and seeing the long lines at McDonald’s, Carl Karcher went home to Anaheim and decided to open his own self-service restaurant.” ( 21). During this period many other fast-food places were started, such as: Dunkin’ Donuts, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s. According to Eric Schlosser, when asked about the changes in time Carl, who had grown up on a farm without running water or electricity, responded that he did not miss the old days. “I believe in progress” (28).

Which in my opinion, is not a good place. The founders of these fast food chains, the ones we still eat at today, we so in a hurry to make money and expand they didn’t stop to think while cutting corners. They grew so quickly that it is easy to see why we have five Subway’s in a town as small as