Originally Posted by
rickg523
I know the general thought is "those damn Americans and their fast food!"
But I sure see a lot of locals scarfing it down.
Once I was in Pizza Hut near London (brought there by my English hosts) and got the side-eye from most of the other patrons for eating a slice with my hands. Don't tell me those were Americans eating that cardboard and tomato paste with knives and forks.
There's a two story (!) Five Guys on the Champs Elysee. I was just there last week. It's pretty full of French kids.
I also saw a giant KFC near the village of Mulsanne. The big racing events held near there draw a quarter of a million people, but hardly any Americans. So who's eating all that American fast food?
I've also noticed on this trip (I was with two teenagers), that the same bistro where I'm ordering foie gras pate and duck confit, the kids could have double bacon cheeseburgers. Which nicely avoids one of the commonly cited complaints about misfit traveling companions.
Locals eat fast food around the world for the same reason North Americans do. It's cheap, fast and readily available.
There is also a sense in some places that the arrival of a big global chain means that your city has moved higher on the world stage. I was in Armenia around the time the golden arches first announced their plans to set up an outlet in Yerevan and the locals were quite proud of the fact they were coming.