Cadet Killian Buckley's Blog

As we have been reading “Golden Arches East” by James L. Watson, in class we have been discussing the various details of each of the chapters.  We have discussed similarities and differences in how each East Asian country has dealt with the introduction of a foreign food company, McDonald’s.  Today, while reading the news online, I came across a story regarding the town-turn of McDonald’s in China.  The company’s down-turn is related to an incident in which expired meat was being used to make burger patties.  This outraged the Chinese media and the citizens of China.  While, examples such as this occur in other western nations, such as incidents of contaminated peanut butter in the United States.  However, in the book, many of the people in the East Asian nations mentioned one similar quality that they all loved about the company of McDonald’s; they loved how clean it was.  This aspect of cleanliness was and still is missing in the restaurant industry in these nations.  McDonald’s caters to the market, specifically families, that want a clean, safe place to eat and congregate.  This incident may not be seen as just an outrageous lack of cleanliness to McDonald’s Eastern customers, it is also a break of trust.  They trusted that this company would be clean and provide safe food for their families.  This incident may result in a economic downturn for McDonald’s in the Far East.