Why are Fast Food Restaurants popular?
Fast
food restaurants are here to stay in Malaysia and they continue to be more
popular and patronised. According to a survey conducted by AC Nielsen, a global marketing research firm,
59 percent of Malaysian respondents stated they eat fast food once a week or
more. What makes McDonald’s, Starbucks, Subway, Burger King, Pizza Hut – just
to mention a few - so popular among Malaysians? According to the respondents of
the survey, there are numerous
factors that ensure their popularity such as convenience, as well as lifestyles, the taste,
menu choices, prices and the perception of these restaurants.
Convenience and lifestyle
Nowadays,
both parents need to work in order to afford and maintain their present lifestyles. This means there
is less home-cooked food for their children and themselves during work days. Hiring
maids to prepare meals would be grossly expensive. Such being the case, it
would sometimes be more convenient
and much cheaper for their children and themselves to eat fast food. Moreover, in
the office environment, one may not be able to leave the office or may not have
sufficient time to wait for a traditional meal like fried rice or noodles which
requires some waiting time, especially during the long queues. Adding to convenience, fast food
outlets offer delivery services too.
University students make up a large proportion of young fast
food consumers according to a survey done by UTM*. They prefer eating fast food
as it is more convenient
and faster than preparing their own food. Moreover, some hostels forbid
cooking. Their lifestyles
include the option of studying until the wee hours so when hunger strikes, they
can always pick up food at 24-hour restaurants which are available in most
towns and city centres. Furthermore, hanging out at Pizza Hut or Wendy’s is a
great place for students to unwind, meet up or shoot the breeze. Apart from
this, fast food can be consumed anywhere, be it at home, in the office, while
waiting at the laundry mart or while walking.
Taste, Menu
Choices, Prices
Fast food is laden with monosodium glutamate (MSG) and
sugar. This is one of the reasons it tastes great and most people love it. There are different fast food restaurants to
visit which means more menu choices. This variety of menus ranges from burgers, pizzas,
sandwiches, doughnuts, fried chicken, rice or broth, crepes, Asian dishes like
popiah, roti chanai and yong tau foo to sweet beverages like fruit juices,
coffee, tea, ice-creams and sodas. As fast food is mass-produced, operators are
able to lower cost and thus pass the savings on to consumers which means reasonable-priced food. College
and university students favour them as they are cheaper than meals at
table-serving restaurants.
Perception of Fast Food Restaurants
Due to intense advertising by fast food restaurants, Malaysians
have come to identify them
as being family-orientated
where family members, relatives and friends can come together to hang out for
some tasty meals at affordable prices in a clean, air-conditioned atmosphere
that prohibits smoking and alcohol. Also, one can sit as long as one wants. Staff
at fast food restaurants are usually well-trained to handle customers. They
greet you politely with ‘Good morning or afternoon or may I take your order?'. Certain fast food restaurants like McDonald’s even provide playgrounds for
children to play and scream while mommy and daddy eat heartily. Toys are also
included in the meals. Restaurants even offer free wi-fi so that one does not
want to leave after eating for some internet browsing.
Disadvantages
Proponents of healthy food hold a negative view on fast
food restaurants as peddlars of unhealthy processed food which is loaded with
salt or MSG, sugar, colouring agents and food additives which have been known
to cause or may cause heart, diabetes or cancer-related diseases. Apart from
this, new research from the University of Notre Dame, USA
discovered that fluorinated compounds, which are known to cause cancer-related
disease, are present in fast food wrappers. Despite such alarming discovery,
fast food consumption remains
popular as ever.
To sum up, the
convenience factor, as well as the lifestyle, the influences from parents and those
from the advertising media will continue to ensure the popularity of
fast food restaurants.
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* Universiti Teknologi MARA
Remarks:
1.
Green highlights denote the Thesis
Statement
2.
Yellow highlights denote the Topic Sentence
3.
Light Blue highlights denote the
Re-statement of the Thesis Statement
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