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Zachary Thomas

Professor Benjamin Good

RC 1000 Expository Writing

10/14/2021

Is fast food a necessary, important, and satisfying part of our society that should remain?

Today, nearly 40% of adults in America will consume some type of fast food (Fryar). In

context, that number is truly remarkable. 40% of adults in America is roughly equivalent to 100

million. That’s how many people fast food joints collectively have fed just today. Quite

obviously, without fast food being an option many people would be forced to search for other,

most times more expensive and time consuming, alternatives. In this sense, fast food may not be

completely necessary, but it certainly does function as a very important and helpful part of our

everyday lives. The questions surrounding fast food don’t simply end with its role and

importance in our lives though. Several other questions stem from this discussion that, in many

cases, offer more argumentation to take place: Is fast food a satisfying part of society?; Which

fast food restaurant(s) is most appealing and satisfying to customers? And what makes it(them)

the best?; Which fast food restaurant(s) offers the best opportunity for the working class? Many

of the subtopics or sub questions that arise from the initial discussion involve the inclusion of

individual franchises, rather than approaching the market as a whole. When tackling these

subtopics, I myself have come to the conclusion that Chick-Fil-A remains superior generally

across all categories. Therefore, within this paper, I argue that fast food is a great and satisfying

part of society, and Chick-Fil-A is the best fast food chain among the rest for a variety of

reasons.
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Fast food has been relevant for many decades, and throughout its extensive history,

millions upon millions of people have enjoyed it. “36.6%”, or nearly 90 million adults consume

fast food on any given day (Fryar). While its large following may seem to be enough to prove

that fast food is indeed a great and satisfying part of our society, multiple arguments oppose this

belief. In particular, the most relevant opposing argument is that fast food is unhealthy, and

exposes an exceedingly large portion of the population to unhealthy eating, therefore causing a

mass amount of obesity. Statistically, fast food restaurants are “significantly clustered” within

areas that are a “short walking distance” (within 1.5km) from schools (Austin). Additionally, it’s

statistically proven that fast food restaurants being located nearby to any particular customer

generates an increase to observed obesity rates related to that specific area. For example, when

this study is focused on and applied to 9th graders a “5.2% increase in obesity rates” is witnessed

among them, relevant to the nearby area (Currie). Although these statistics do reveal that fast

food restaurants can lead to an increase in unhealthy eating and obesity, fast food is not what

directly causes those problems. The catalyst for those events would be the decision making of the

individual. No one is forced to eat fast food, and even if in any situation fast food is one's only

option to fulfil their hunger, in today’s society nearly every fast food restaurant offers a variety of

healthy products, and there are even fast food restaurants such as Chipotle that specifically focus

on making healthy products for consumers. With that being said, the fast food market has a very

large following, and it’s clear that even though the market does provide the opportunity and risk

for unhealthy eating and weight gain, everyone within it chooses to take that risk, and they do so

time and time again as I previously mentioned, nearly 90 million adults consume fast food on

any given day. The very fact that a mass amount of people on their own decide to go to fast food
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restaurants on a daily basis is enough to prove that fast food is a great, important, and satisfying

part of our society.

Within the fast food industry, there are hundreds of different companies that attempt to

establish themselves and outcompete their competitors to garner more income. A variety of

factors go into being a highly successful fast food joint, with more and more success coming

from each improved factor. “Customer satisfaction”, worker satisfaction, speed of service, and

“product quality” are some of the absolute most important factors that lead to the greatest

increases in consumer loyalty, which ultimately leads to brand success (Nezakati). One company

that excels in these important areas is Chick-Fil-A. Having been a loyal customer for many years

and a recently hired employee, I can personally say that Chick-Fil-A certainly does satisfy their

customers as they consistently offer great customer service. Afterall, they have been the leading

fast food chain on the customer satisfaction index, which addresses several important factors

such as “accuracy of a food order, food quality, restaurant cleanliness, and helpfulness of

waitstaff”, mobile ordering, and speed of service for the past seven years (Cobe). On this index,

Chick-Fil-A has steadily and consistently grown its score year after year, while other fast food

chains have been rather inconsistent like Chipotle, which climbed to second place with a score of

80 just last year, then lost 4 points and fell to ninth this year. Additionally, Chick-Fil-A never

fails to have speedy drive through lines, their product quality is subpar compared to that of other

fast food restaurants, and they provide excellent working environments for their employees with

exceptional pay rates. Chick-Fil-A ranks among the top five fast food restaurants in terms of

average pay rate (Indeed). Furthermore, as a Chick-Fil-A employee, and a past employee of

other fast food restaurants, it's worth noting that Chick-Fil-A isn’t an average fast food restaurant

when it comes to basic respect for employees, overall treatment of employees, and management.
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At every Chick-Fil-A location employees are treated in the same way at which the customers are

treated, and that says a lot considering how well we all know Chick-Fil-A takes care of its

customers. In the actual working environment, employees for Chick-Fil-A are encouraged

everyday to do the best job possible, and they’re not given up on if they make a mistake.

Employees are also given freedom when it comes to work availability and desired work

positions. Management at Chick-Fil-A is also subpar as they employ several managers to lead

the way as opposed to the few managers that other restaurants hire. Every Chick-Fil-A has its

own owner/operator that carries out many managerial activities, a general manager, an assistant

general manager, a human resources team, a food services director, several shift managers,

several assistant shift managers, and a group of trainers for both the front of house positions and

the back of house positions. With that being said, for the average employee that enters a

Chick-Fil-A team as an ordinary team member, there is a ton of opportunity to grow and gain a

higher status within the company over the time of employment as there is a surplus of higher

positions. There are also many benefits that each employee receives such as educational

investment programs, health care plans, potential scholarship opportunities, and family care.

The argument on which chain is the best can be very opinionated, but when statistics and

facts are incorporated, to me it’s rather obvious that Chick-Fil-A is the market leader. That

clearly doesn’t stop, and shouldn’t stop anyone from visiting other chains. After all, Chick-Fil-A

isn’t a monopoly, it’s a part of an industry. An industry that feeds millions day after day. One

could only guess what would happen if it ceased to exist.

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Works Cited

Austin, S. Bryn, et al. "Clustering of fast-food restaurants around schools: a novel application of

spatial statistics to the study of food environments." American journal of public health

95.9 (2005): 1575-1581.

Cobe, Patricia. “Chick-Fil-A Tops The List of Consumers’ Favorite Chains.” Restaurant

Business. Jun. 29th 2021. Chick-fil-A tops the list of consumers' favorite chains

(restaurantbusinessonline.com)

Currie, Janet, et al. “The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity and Weight Gain.”

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, vol. 2, no. 3, American Economic

Association, 2010, pp. 32–63, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25760073.

Fryar CD, Hughes JP, Herrick KA, Ahluwalia, N. Fast food consumption among adults in the

United States, 2013–2016. NCHS Data Brief, no 322. Hyattsville, MD: National Center

for Health Statistics. 2018.

“Highest Paying Fast Food Jobs.” Indeed. Oct. 5 2021. Highest Paying Fast Food Jobs |

Indeed.com

Nezakati, Hossein, Yen Lee Kuan, and Omid Asgari. "Factors influencing customer loyalty

towards fast food restaurants." International Conference on Sociality and Economics

Development. Vol. 10. 2011.