Globalisation, is that you?

I promise I would never forget the day McDonald's left here for the first time. Claiming that it was not making a profit. "Is that all this is about? Making money?" I thought to myself as a distraught little girl. I could not understand. "This is about more than just money! What about that broad, full mouthed smile you see when my happy meal is handed to me?!? What about when that ice cream cone is no longer enough for the wrath of that wonderful vanilla soft serve ice cream; subsequently spilling out onto my hands. Is that not enough to make you stay McDonald's? If that isn't enough then I don't know what is." I said as tears streamed down my plump, red cheeks. Filled with dismay and horror and disappointment. It was all too much for me to handle.

However, many years later, a completely different market plan and clearly a different impact on the market, my dear dear McDonald's is back at home. Where it belongs. Also, many years later, I've come to accept the fact that everything IS actually about money (pretty sad, but what can I say. I've got my McDonald's back.) Now, I can finally understand why McDonald's left in the first place, and now why they have returned to me, it is quite interesting.

I remember hearing someone say "We is not chicken people really. We like burgers and thing. That's why dem didn't make it down here. We Trini's love a burger. Well except for KFC, but our KFC chicken is 11 natural, local herbs and spices. McDonald's chicken: I wasn't feeling that at all, at all, at all." In some of the best local Trinidadian dialect I have ever heard, I must admit. Also, have you ever wondered by Trinidadians feel the need to repeat things more than once? Anyway. Now that I have have some more knowledge about the topic. I can say that the demand for McDonald's wonderful chicken was not there. We really were not "chicken people" unless it's stewed, curried, or fried by KFC. 

Then that just makes me wonder... What changed?

I don't think the people changed, no.

I don't think the market changed, maybe. 

I think it was the ideologies of the people that changed completely. 

It seems that the way many Trinidadians think has changed within recent times and what can we blame for that? Is it Globalisation? I mean the widening of knowledge and theories and the impressionism upon the minds of a very impressionable people (Is that bad? I hope not) can definitely be the reason for the success of McDonald's then vs now.

Giddens (1991) describes Globalisation as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa. It involves a greater interconnectedness across space and time where disparate lives are increasingly linked yet simultaneously 'disembodied.'

Ritzer (1996) says that the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world. This is exactly what brought McDonald's back to Trinidad. It was economic opportunity based on the changed, altered minds of the locals, where fast food restaurants like McDonald's could strive (and are striving) within this economy. Trinidadians have this belief that whatever is NOT from Trinidad has to be the best quality, best make, lasts longer etc. Don't get me wrong, I almost cried when I heard McDonald's was coming back; any trip outside of the Caribbean, the first thing I ever did when I landed was eat McDonald's (the addiction was real!) 

Globalisation has opened many doors for us and although it may seem that the this flow of technology, power, education is only incoming, that is not the case at all. Our culture is one that has been widespread for years, seeing an increase in the number of tourists that frequent our country for Carnival year after year.

So I hear McDonald's is coming back and all I can say is Globalisation, is that you?

Anthony Giddens. Globalisation: Power, Politics and Global Change. Geographic Association, 1991.

George Ritzer.  Globalisation: Power, Politics and Global Change. Geographic Association, 1996a.