Supersize Me - McD v kebab shop

to be honest Supersize me was a very clever cash in that captured the mood of the media.

I mean you got to ask why he went after McDonalds instead of just exposing the local kebab shop, or even Caburys chocolate.

I mean if i ate in my local kebab shop every meal time i'd probably be dead in a fucking week.

Kebab shops don't aggressively market at children.

Kebab shops don't lie about their food being unhealthy and full of shit.

As far as I'm aware, kebab shops don't buy up large swathes of South America to deforest for rearing beef in order to keep up with rapid capitalist expansion.

As far as I'm aware, there's never been a kebab shop that has suddenly closed and moved elsewhere for an excuse to sack it's workers when they try to unionise.

I'm sure there are plenty of other points to be made about McD's (whilst recognising that it's capitalism and the state that need to be targetted ultimately rather than individual companies) but that's just what comes to mind.

Yeah. And last I checked, McDonalds don't do falafel in pitta with houmous and salad, and even if they did, it'd taste like powdered sweaty balls and you'd get hardly anything in your meal and only want to eat again 5 minutes later.

I read it fine

Because they can't afford to

Er, only cos they can't afford advertising

Again because they're too small

Again because they're small and low-profile. If a kebab shop did get decently unionised it would just go bust and close down anyway, such are the problems of small businesses. I bet wages and conditions are way worse in kebab shops, not to mention the impossibility of organising in ultra-exploitative small businesses anyway. If we're about building the new society in the shell of the old, you can see how this is possible somewhere like McDs, but in thousands of tiny kebab shops??

Chris's Chips in Eversholt Street is pretty good (although eating there 3 nights a week is probably a mistake), but then they're "shitty english chips".

French Fries suck.

I don't think it matters. In terms of financial exploitation I think it's probably far more exploitative (Starbucks for example have better wages and conditions than individual shops). Every evil multinational started out a small business, I don't see any qualitative difference between them - other than the fact it is possible to organise and win improvements much more easily in large businesses.

It's not for "greed" - it's for the capitalist grow-or-die imperative. If all McDonalds execs got consciences, stop destroying the environment and paid all their workers good wages they would quickly go bust or be bought out. In fact they might not even be able to do that due to laws making companies act in the interests of their shareholders.

I'm well aware of this; this doesn't make small companies better however, cos as I said at least with large ones there's more possibility to "build a new society in the shell of the old".

I think it's more because people aren't organising against them, sinply because it's almost impossible to do so.

The mainly Turkish JJ Foods small business in Tottenham sacked all its workers who joined a union, then called in fascists armed with clubs to beat the strikers.

If any tiny business got big, it would be forced into acting in exactly the same way as any other major corporation, simply because that's how capital works.

Thanks john you just reminded me why i hate the petite bourgeois so much!

Fucking pathetic cunts they are. Desperately clinging onto a poxy fucking empire of corner shops and shit hole fast food outlets.

Maybe my hatred of small businesses comes from working in them for about 6 years.

Hmm. Depends on the kebab shop guy's individual personality, as me John gav and rkn can verify

Oh, it seems it's easier to shirk out of jobs from large companies by getting a weird haircut. With smaller businesses there's the off chance the manager might not care, but big businesses have policies about that sorta thing.

No I was just more talking about the big business small business thing. You get the occasional small business who'll accept you for a job with a weird haircut, which makes it harder to stay on the dole. Not that I'm shirking on purpose, honest.

So basically what you're saying is you prefer the petit-bourgeiosie to the bourgeoisie??

Sides, the original argument was not that McDonalds is no worse/better than a kebab shop, it was that Supersize Me could have been made about any "fast" food establishment anywhere. I mean, the class angle in Supersize Me is pretty...well, non-existent really. It focuses on health, if i remember rightly. I only watched it once and found myself wondering how someone could pastische Michael Moore. Badly.

maybe this McD & kebab shop discussion could be split from the movie thread?

My 1p's worth: i disagree with John.'s position about "singling" out a corporation. We do this in other areas all the time: singling out practices when talking about womens issues, singling out labour laws, or trade union weaknesses etc when highlighting the situation in the workplace.

Using McD as a global example of how capitalism operates and extracts profit using pretty much any means necessary is a good way to demonstrate how it all works. The brand is familiar, so there is an immediate connection. Of course the criticism has to be from the angle of recognising that this is just how capitalism works - and avoid creating the image that McD = bad, Burger King = ok.

Read my response to John.. No I don't.