8. Richard and Maurice McDonald created several links in the food distribution chain
The success of McDonald’s, created by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1940, though not as a franchise operation until 1953, changed the American food distribution chain in several ways. McDonald’s became the world’s largest restaurant chain by the 21st century. Yet its success created numerous competitive chains, some of which faded into history while others thrived. One of its signature products, the French fry, presents an example of how events disrupt America’s food chain. A disruption of sales for the fast-food industry creates a glut of frozen French fries in the hands of suppliers, who then cannot purchase potatoes from farmers.
At the same time, pressures on grocery stores from consumers purchasing frozen French fries for at-home consumption create a shortage, and the companies producing them can’t keep up with demand. Nor can the commercial French fry producers shift production and packaging to meet the increase in at-home consumption. The system which evolved beginning in the 1950s became entirely dependent on the fast food and other restaurant companies purchasing their products. Thus, in a time of shortages of frozen potato products, farmers have no choice other than to destroy their crops, having no other market through which to sell them. Similar disruptions occur throughout the food chain.