Читать книгу Essentials of Sociology - George Ritzer - Страница 21

As its main title suggests, this book focused, at least originally, on McDonald’s, other fast-food restaurants, and other “brick-and-mortar” consumption sites such as IKEA, Walmart, other chain stores, shopping malls, and amusement parks. However, as is clear in the new subtitle, the focus of the last edition has moved in the direction of consumption sites on the internet, as well as to mixed “bricks-and-clicks” consumption sites (Belk 2013). The prime example of both, and the giant in the world of contemporary consumption, is Amazon.com. Amazon.com is a dominant force on the internet, especially in consumption (with 43 percent of all e-commerce [Wingfield 2017]), but it is also increasingly a force in bricks-and-clicks with the opening in recent years of conventional bookstores and convenience stores and with its purchase in 2017 of the Whole Foods chain of supermarkets. These “brick” sites complement in various ways the “clicks” on Amazon.com, and they are increasingly likely to do so in the future as Amazon creates a more seamless system.

Comparisons between McDonald’s and Amazon.com from the point of view of the McDonaldization thesis demonstrate that Amazon.com is far more McDonaldized than McDonald’s.

 Amazon.com makes obtaining a wide array of products highly efficient by eliminating lengthy and perhaps fruitless trips to department stores, big-box stores (such as Walmart), and the mall. What could be more efficient than sitting at home, ordering products online, and having your order delivered in a day or two? While McDonald’s made obtaining a meal in a restaurant more efficient through the drive-through window, it still has the inefficiency of requiring consumers to drive (or walk) to the restaurant to get their food.

 Shopping on Amazon.com involves a highly predictable series of online steps that lead to the completion of an order. McDonald’s brought great predictability to eating in a restaurant. There are well-defined steps in obtaining a meal there: join the line, scan the marquee to know what to order when you (finally) get to the counter, order, pay, take the tray of food to a table, eat it, and dispose of the debris on completion of the “meal.” However, there are a series of unpredictabilities at McDonald’s, absent at Amazon.com, such as those associated with inattentive, surly, or incompetent counter people.

 There is great calculability involved in shopping on Amazon.com. Prices are clearly marked and consumers know exactly what the total cost of an order is. Before finalizing a purchase customers are able to delete items, thereby reducing the final cost. The marquee at McDonald’s offers preset prices and similar calculability, although unless customers are able to do the math in their heads, the final price is not known until the purchase is completed.

 Shopping on Amazon.com is tightly controlled by the nature of the site and its reliance on nonhuman technologies. Consumers can only order what is on the site and cannot ask (there is no one to ask) for products to be modified. In addition, there are no crowds, to say nothing of unreliable and intrusive salespeople, on Amazon.com. Great control is exerted over customers at McDonald’s, but they are able to request some modifications in at least some of the food they order. This is one of the reasons that lines can be long at counters and drive-throughs. Counter people, as well as those who staff the drive-through windows, can adversely affect the process in various ways (for example, food may not be modified as requested; it is not unusual to drive or walk some distance only to find that one’s sack of food does not include exactly what was ordered).

 The main irrationality of rationality associated with Amazon.com is its tendency to lead to excessive consumption, while that is not possible at McDonald’s given its limited menu and low prices. However, it is possible, even likely, to consume too many calories, too much fat, and too much sugar at McDonald’s (Spurlock 2005). ●

Visit edge.sagepub.com/ritzeressentials4e to

 Watch an interview with Ritzer about his book The McDonaldization of Society.

 Examine photographs and learn more about what Smithsonian magazine has identified as the most unique McDonald’s restaurants in the world.

 Look at menu items from different McDonald’s restaurants.

Ask Yourself

What would your life be like in a postconsumption age? In what ways might it be better? Worse? Why?