The Culture of Fast Food Options

In this week's blogpost, I would like to examine the cultural influences on consumer behavior and how these influences differ in fast food in the United States versus Chile.  This past weekend, I ventured to the capital city of Santiago and observed different traits when it came to fast food restaurants.  I was walking with my friends down my hotel's street, looking for something to eat, when we noticed practically every restaurant that we walked by had almost the same exact menu.  Each served completos, chorillanas, churascos, and a few other Chilean dishes.  After we saw four of these identical menus on the same block, I began to wonder how they can each stay in business.  It seems like there is not much that sets each one apart.  I asked my Chilean mama about this and she explained that for fancy restaurants there is more variety, but for fast food, Chileans typically want to eat something that they are familiar with quickly and continue on with their day.  In the United States, fast food has branched off into infinite options.  There are fast sandwiches,  fast Chinese food, fast mexican food, fast  middle eastern food, as well as many other quick alternatives.  Restaurants in one region typically try to create a menu that promotes their individualism and sets them apart from the rest of the pack.  The Marketing Principles book defines culture as "a society's personality".  The United States personality is heavily influenced by immigration and the "melting pot" of the different ethnic groups.  The book continues on to explain the theory of acculturation and how immigrants in the United States assimilate into American culture, while still resisting a complete loss of their original culture.  This acculturation is evident in how foreign foods have been altered slightly by immigrants to make them more suitable for the American palate.  For example, American Chinese food remains different from the food actually served in China.  On the other hand, I believe the many immigrants in the U.S. have made Americans more adventurous eaters, as foreign foods have become more popular in recent years.  It was interesting to see that in Chile, although there are foreign restaurants, for the most part, Chilean fast food remains relatively Chilean.  These different consumer choices can definitely be attributed to the varying cultures of the two countries.