The McDonaldization of the society involves that changes in economics, management and the sociology of the community to the extent that it has become a part of the modern culture (Stillman, 2003, p. 108). The principles of McDonaldization directly conflicts with the “mom and pop” stores and consequently hurts the traditional business set up. The following are some of the ways McDonaldization affects the regular businesses.
The first is the stiff competition. The presence of large stores in many parts of the world changes the customer preferences. The clients’ consumption behaviors changes leads to reduced clients or customers to the traditional businesses. That presents extreme levels of competition that the “mom and pop” enterprises cannot manage. The situation is made worse by the extreme levels of efficiency and predictability that attracts customers to large stores to the detriment of the traditional investments. The infrastructural setup, services, and the after sales services keep clients loyal. The online shopping and home delivery also gives the customers flexibility that the traditional business setup have no ability to maintain. Additionally, the large stores have the economic capabilities to carry out extensive advertisements to attract a large clientele of customers.
Besides, the struggle for workers may render the small business vulnerable. Although there are claims of dehumanization due to McDonaldization, the employees usually get higher wages than in the traditional enterprises. As a result, experienced workers tend to prefer the multinationals store over them. Such may lead to reduced operations, inefficiency, and eventually the investments get faced out altogether. At the same time, the mass culture developing as a result of McDonaldization threatens democratic consumption. From this perspective, the traditional businesses suffer since they have little impacts on the same.
Reference
Stillman T. (2003). Introduction: McDonald's in Question: The Limits of the Mass Market. American Behavioral Scientist 2003; 47; 107. Retrieved on July 18, 2015 from http://studysites.sagepub.com/mcdonaldizationstudy5/articles/McDonaldization_Articles %20PDFs/Stillman.pdf
