1931 checklist for White Castle employee ( source : Philip Langdon )
From the vantage point of 2012 , it ’s somehwat hard to imagine a time when conformity was the restaurant industriousness ’s strong selling point . But during the cost increase of fast food eating house in the first half of the twentieth century , people were very much attracted to the idea of body across the various emplacement of a give restaurant chain .
uniformness in nutrient and architecture was meant to involve that a particular eating house was running as an effective machine ; roil out intellectual nourishment cheaply and safely . The success of this method acting — theMcDonaldizationof eating outside the domicile , for lack of a better term * — contribute to the detonation of the fast solid food manufacture in the United States .
A 1932 leaflet for White Castle proudly proclaimed :
When you baby-sit in a White Castle remember that you are one of several thousands ; you are sitting on the same kind of stool ; you are being swear out on the same kind of sideboard ; the coffee you drink is made in conformity with a sure pattern ; the ground beef you eat is prepared in incisively the same way over a accelerator flame of the same strength ; the cups you drink from are identical with G of cups that thousands of other multitude are using at the same moment ; the same banner of cleanliness protect your food … Even the men who serve you are guided by standards of precision which have been thought out from beginning to terminate . They dress out alike ; they are move by the same principle of good manners .
Clearly , this uniformity of experience did n’t just evidence itself in food and architecture ; it was also important that employees act , clothes and wash consistently across various placement .
Below is the 1931 checklist that dictated how White Castle employee were supposed to dress , wash and present themselves :
Cap should cover hair .
Keep hair trimmed .
Be ready to make suggestions .
Have light shave .
Be inclined to talk pleasantly .
Brush tooth .
Correct risky breathing space .
Get rid of chewing glue .
have on clean catch .
Be indisputable tie is not frayed or cheating .
wear thin fresh shirt .
Button all shirt buttons .
No body odor .
Fold shirt sleeves neatly .
Fasten apron neatly .
Have shirt neatly tucked in pant .
No patches in pant invest .
No wrist joint sentry .
No flashy jewellery .
Wash manpower .
Clean fingernails .
Wear white trousers .
Turn up trouser if too long .
tire out comfy shoe .
Perhaps no better case of the way that employees became interchangeable piece in a much larger quick food machine was in the substitution to paper hats . Initially , White Castle employees wore linen cap , but these would wither after being wash . The troupe flip-flop to disposable paper cap which could be adjusted to fit different head size .
informant : Orange Roofs , Golden Arches : The Architecture of American Chain Restaurantsby Philip Langdon
- McDonald ’s was n’t founded as a hamburger business until 1948 , but their method of fast food efficiency and consistency ( for good or worse ) were evolving for decade before they make it on the scene .
1930s
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