Mom and Pop stores have managed to escape McDonaldization

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Table of Contents

Introduction
McDonaldization relative to Mom and pop stores
Conclusion
Work Cited

Introduction

McDonaldization according to George Ritzer is the process by which the operational mechanisms of the McDonald fast-food chain of restaurants are being applied as the standard mode of operation not only in other businesses but also in social conduct on a global scale. Mom and pop stores on the other hand are commercial ventures that are central to a specific locality like a town or city.

These businesses are owned and run by established members of the given society and are known to have historic or native value. Such businesses include the local general store or the local drug store where the proprietors are usually personally acquitted to their common customers.

McDonaldization relative to Mom and pop stores

To fully understand the extent in which mom and pop stores have deviated from McDonaldization, it is imperative to understand the underlying principles of McDonaldization. According to Ritzer, McDonaldization has four elements of operation and they are efficiency, calculability, predictability and the replacement of human with nonhuman technology.

The application of these elements has notably been different in mom and pop stores via-a-vies McDonaldization. According to Ritzer, efficiency involves the optimization of standard modes of operation to arrive at a much greater speed to the required end of a process. McDonaldization has accomplished this by reorganization of due process, simplifying goods and services and allowing the customer to perform various tasks rather than using paid employees (Ritzer 58).

However, the mom and pop stores insist on personalized service thus dependant on service staff. A notable indicator to the lack of McDonaldization in these stores is the fact that mom and pop stores still have customer attendants and service personnel who endeavor to serve their customers rather than allow customers to serve themselves (Ritzer 61). Such services as catering and after sale services are now exclusive to mom and pop stores consequently extricating them from McDonaldization.

Calculability is the quantification of input and output which has been achieved through the use of bureaucracy, where various hierarchical levels perform specific limited tasks in aid of the greater process. It is worth noting that bureaucracy is entirely superfluous in terms of its application in mom and pop stores (Ritzer 78).

There is no apparent need for bureaucracy in the local general store for they thrive on effective service at minimal cost. As a result, one attendant is capable of performing a multiplicity of tasks while serving two or three people at the same time.

McDonaldization has ensured that predictability is sustained by providing structural systemization and veto points through which customers must go through to get to the final product. For example there are security checks at the gate to man cars, metal detectors at the doors, a specific direction to take to get to the product and finally a line for different payment options.

Mom and pop stores on the other hand do not rely on sequential impediments to provide goods or services (Ritzer 99-100). Customers are accustomed to walking in and procuring the products they need, pay for them and leave the premises, hence these stores have deviated from McDonaldization.

McDonaldization has especially been prominent in the application of mechanical and electronic services thus avoiding human labor (Ritzer 120). Bank tellers have been replaced by ATM machines, doormen have been replaced by keycards and security personnel have been replaced by CCTV cameras, among others.

The prominent absence of advanced technology replacing human labor in mom and pop stores is an indication of their divergence from McDonaldization (Ritzer 122). These stores chiefly depend on human labor to provide effective and personalized service and the most they can employ in terms of technology is a security camera and the cash registry.

Conclusion

It is evident that mom and pop stores have in their true essence deviating principles from those of McDonaldization. It is also clear that mom and pop stores heavily rely on simplicity of process and human labor to provide goods and services. It is therefore appropriate to perceive that whereas McDonaldization is highly profit driven, mom and pop stores are more product-oriented thus the great divergence from McDonaldization.

Work Cited

Ritzer George. The McDonaldization of Society. Web.

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Mom and Pop stores have managed to escape McDonaldization

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