Chapter 4 Summary Fast Food Nation

Eric Schlosser starts chapter with Matthew Kabong who works for the Little Caesars Pizza in Pueblo, Colorado. Eric is one of workers who work for Dave Feamster. Feamster played hockey for Black Hawk before he got an accident during a hockey game. “Feamster was struck from behind by Paul Holmgren,” (93) so he couldn’t play hockey anymore because “the cracked bone didn’t heal.”(93) Therefore, he becomes a franchisee for the Little Caesars Pizza. The author, Schlosser, is very successful by leading readers from pizza workers’ lives to the reason why Dave Feamster opens his pizza restaurants. He uses almost all his money to pay for franchise fee which is $15,000. In the next section in chapter four, “deception to a new faith,” Eric Schlosser takes the readers back to the 19th century when franchising opened a new business major. Mostly, he talks about McDonald’s history, and how McDonald became a giant corporation. In 1960s, McDonald “hired Louis Cheskin—a prominent design consultant and psychologist – to help ease the transition” (97). At that time, McDonald didn’t only sell hamburgers, but they franchised to earn a lot of money. During this time, Burger King and FKC also became bigger corporation. In this period, franchisee also could earn money, so both sides were happy. In next section, the readers can see a “real franchising world” in “free enterprise with federal loans.” Beginning this section, Schlosser starts with how much people have to pay to become franchisee with fast food restaurants. Then, he shows the readers the fact that is “38.1 percent of new franchised business had failed.”(98). There were many conflicts between franchisees and franchisors. The statements were very long, and once when franchisees signed a contract, they were mostly on their own. A franchisee could lose all the money when a contract was terminated. In 1990s, Subway had a lot of problems in franchising, and “Committee, has call Subway the “worst” franchise in America.” (100).