PB1A on Fast-Food Menus
Working for a fast-food company almost makes you memorize
the menu of that company’s food menu. Whether or not you’re making food,
cleaning dishes, or managing, it is imperative that you know what that company
sells. Working at Saladworks, you would think I’d know exactly what is on their
menu. You’d be wrong.
Most people
know exactly what a menu at a fast-food place or restaurant, just based off how
often society buys cheap and inexpensive foods on the go. What first comes to
mind for me when thinking what would be on a food menu is;
-Food name
-Price (of food)
-Quantity (of food)
-Restaurant’s name
-Description of food
These are
the basics to a menu, and what comes to mind when I think about browsing
a menu. The sole purpose of a menu is informing the reader of what there is to
buy. With these “off of the top of my head” examples of what I believe should
be in a menu, it would be enough to create a very simple, textual, and straight
to the point kind of menu. Although these conventions of a menu are very simple
and well known, that doesn’t mean that they are the only aspects that are put
into creating one.
After
observing several “food menus”, such as Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Saladworks, there
are many more aspects to a menu than I had previously thought. Some of these
observations include;
-Calories in each menu item
-Further Nutrition information
-Difference in price between Combo and just a Sandwich
-With/without cheese
- Combo Number (ex. 1, 2, 3)
-Pictures of the food
-Advertisements for Upcoming food releases (future items
that will be on the menu)
-Slogans
-What meal the food is intended to be for (breakfast, lunch,
dinner)
-Desserts
After
finding all this information on food menus, there is a lot more thought and
consideration put into the creation of a menu. Not only is the food being sold
presented, advertisements for future foods on the menu are also shown. This is
a way of free advertising that almost all food businesses can use to help increase
future sales. Food nutrition details such as calories, carbohydrates, and fat
are also shown on many fast-food menus. It is now required under law to present
this information on certain foods in the United States.
Fast-food
chains began serving breakfast several years ago, and it caught on. Now almost
all fast-food chains have a breakfast sandwich item on their menu and advertise
that item under their “Breakfast” category. Desserts also fall under the same category
just because it is mainly consumed after Dinner. Categorizing menu items makes
it easier for the customer to choose what they wish to buy and allows the cashier
or waiter/waitress know exactly what they want.
All these conventions contribute to
the science behind what it takes to make a food menu. These ways of categorizing
menus create what we know as a “regular menu”, without us even knowing.
Good job! There are a couple things that I personally like about how you analyzed your examples. One of which is that you clearly listed out the most important observations from the textural genres. Another thing that stood out was how you organized the information on how important they are and how you introduced them.
ReplyDeleteDavid, Your blog is really nicely set up and in order, I enjoyed reading it. When eating at fast food people never really noticing all the things you mention such as Calories in each menu item, -Further Nutrition information, -Difference in price between Combo and just a Sandwich, -With/without cheese,Combo Number (ex. 1, 2, 3), -Pictures of the food, -Advertisements for Upcoming food releases (future items that will be on the menu), -Slogans, -What meal the food is intended to be for (breakfast, lunch, dinner), and -Desserts. Is all things people over look when they do eat fast food. Knowing most of this stuff you would think people wouldn’t eat fast food but most people do, and know what it will do to their bodies and they don’t care. If people weren’t so robotic and took time to notice things in life world would be different with crap fast food.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this because I LOVE food and I never really thought about it in a way that you talked about. Since starting college and basically living on my own, I am constantly ordering out, like all the time. When I was reading it was really intriguing because now I know every time I get something to eat, I make decisions on what I see on the menu. After reading, I now notice everytime I order its the menu and how it attracts me to order from a certain price. I liked how you went into detail about each restaurant and you how gave history on it. For example, when you mentioned the breakfast option at ost fast food restaurant along with deserts. Once one restaurant started the whole idea of the breakfast and desert it influenced all the other restaurants. I liked how you gave your own personal connection with working at Saladworks. It shows how you relate to about what you wrote. Overall, i enjoyed reading and I liked how you gave visuals of each different menu.
ReplyDeleteI love this genre choice! I was debating on choosing this one but glad someone else did because I am such a foodie. I love how organized your blog post is. It clearly shows the steps you took to fully analyze your genre. Your blog post shows that you really put the time and effort into making this piece informative for the reader. I love how after you added to your list after looking at menus. This showed that you did not just think once about your conventions but that you dug deeper. I was also a fan of how you talked about your experience with menus and working in the restaurant business. The restaurants you chose as your examples are some of my favorites. I love how you chose the most popular so you could appeal to numerous different people. Overall, great job and I can not wait to see what genres you choose next.
ReplyDeleteThis post is really well organized. You seem to have a really good grasp on the fast food industry because of your background, and that helps to build your credibility and give us good insight. The pictures you chose were very familiar to many and helped to play on my emotions. Although I may not eat fast food you helped me to better relate to the text. It was enlightening how you gave your analysis as to why brands display more nutritional information than you had originally assumed. The breakfast trend "bit", in addition to the nutritional information, was an apt way to show how the conventions of this textual genre are ever-changing, and how these companies tend to design their menus after one another.
ReplyDelete