Christopher R
The differences between a Farmers Market and a well known fast food place, for starters ask any pedestrian in the neighborhood where you can pick up the best Chinese food, or the best burgers and you’ll be there in ten minutes. Ask any pedestrian walking around in the same neighborhood where the farmers market is and you’ll probably get a confused look or an unsure answer if an answer at all. The reason behind this is if you want to know where the local Wendy’s is you can see it on Google maps, go on the website. Get an idea from the bottom of the commercial, look at the sign that’s probably in many subway stations or walk around until you see the red awning. The main reason that people do not eat foods from farmers markets more often are because they aren’t advertised. As a matter of fact if you look on the television that is displayed in the Wendy’s on 14th street there are advertisements for the Wendy’s. While standing in the Wendy’s ideas are being crammed in your head to shop at Wendy’s because they have the best burgers that are “never frozen”. Or they have the freshest vegetables out of the other fast food chain restaurants. Even if someone did want to go the farmers market it would be a lot easier to Google the nearest grocery store or the closest fast food place. The idea of going to a farmers market is also not something many people think about a lot because most people don’t live by a farmers market so don’t know what they offer. However when people think about the Wendy’s that is right next door they can think about what they want, how much it cost and how long it will take.
There was a couple located in the Wendy’s who were interviewed by Andy and Eloise were asked what kinds of things makes them come to Wendy’s and the eating habits that they have. When they were asked why they choose to come to Wendy’s opposed to all of the other eating choices in the city they respond, “Well it’s cheaper and I know what I’m going to get when I come here”. This seems like something most people think self consciously when choosing foods. Most of the time people do not have time to go to a restaurant that may have fresh food that tastes good. It’s more difficult to obtain food that you might find a farmers market because not only are there a small quantity of them but the places which are more well known and local don’t use ingredients from a farmers market. The couple was also asked how healthy do they think they eat normally on a scale from one to ten and the answer was a five. I thought to myself that I would probably also give myself a five but when I looked at their stature they were heftier then the average person. I looked around at what might make someone want to come into a Wendy’s even though there are consistently on the news with updates about how the food is cooked in fast food places. The stories usually are reporting bad news, for example the Kentucky Fried Chicken on 14th street a block away from the Wendy’s was once invaded by rats and it became a tourist attraction. KFC also was reported to abuse the chickens they cook while they are in the slaughterhouse and the chicken they were distributing chickens that were in poor sanitation slaughterhouses. The Wendy’s had many pictures of food they sell; however this was not the way they sold it. Looking around you would see a cheeseburger with sesame seed buns, whole lettuce, fresh looking onions serviced on a plate. The fries would all look crisp and none over or undercooked. However when you get this food you see a piece of meat sandwiched between two small buns and hard over cooked fries. Because of these pictures some people think they are getting top quality for a low price and when they see the advertisements about the never frozen meat they see this as healthy food at a cheap price. My classmate Ruben also tried to interview a Wendy’s worker asking why she choose to work at Wendy’s oppose to any other place and she just walked away giving off the impression she didn’t really have a reason. It wasn’t because they had a great business or good food but just because it was an easy job to get.
While leaving the Wendy’s and listening to the guy near the Wendy’s with a stack full of 1 dollar bills for 10 Wendy Frosties (Milk Shake) yell out, “There’s no better deal than this, who else can give you this much bang for one buck.” I thought to myself if he has even 10 dollars in his hand although it looks like more that’s 100 Frosties consumed within most likely less than 50 people meaning they continue to sell and because they continue to sell that’s more advertising and it goes around in a circle. The Farmers Market however was completely different from the Wendy’s. The Wendy’s had a place for seating after the consumers had gotten the food. The Farmers Market on the other hand didn’t have this because they weren’t selling meals. The woman from the Wendy’s said she liked her food fast and cheap but all I could see at the Farmers market was food that could be used to make a meal. It was pretty expensive but it all looked fresh and you could make the same meals from the Farmers Market ingredients that you get at a fast food place. The Farmers market only advertisements were the green tents that signaled there was another booth under the tent. I went to a woman who looked like she was cooking something and she told me she was doing, “Teaching people how to store salsa in containers. This way you don’t need to put it in the refrigerator and you can have it up to a year. Unlike anything you get in the normal store”. So I asked, “How much would this cost?” She responded, “I’m not selling any kind of special container there’s a book that teaches you how to do what I’m doing." So this isn’t any kind of food the lady is selling but she is teaching you something that could help you in the long run. However when people think about going to lunch, they don’t want to eat natural raw tomatoes. Like the lady in Wendy’s said, people want the food quick and to have good taste but not always about where the food comes from. In fact how many times do people order something completely based on where it comes from.
The Farmers market also will have a tough time selling because not only are they expensive as seeing usually the tents are owned by people who have to pay a lot to get the supplies, but fast food places are all marketing themselves as healthy. No one who want to get lettuce that they know is healthier, has been preserved properly and taste good for 4.00 dollars when they could get what they is the same thing along with the burger around it and fries for 2.00. Its less likely someone will buy different kinds of pastas for 10.00 that are good tasting and healthy for you when the Olive Garden will give you as much pasta as you can possibly consume for the same price. Not only is it marketed cheaper in the food chains but it is also prepared for you. This takes out the inconvenience that people see when the walk through a Farmers market and this is because of the difference in marketing. Wendy’s has: “cheap, already prepared, fast, local, healthy food”. Whereas people see the Farmers market as, “expensive, healthy, not prepared/hard to make, out of the way food”. People don’t usually think about where the food comes from unless you tell them.
The people in the Wendy’s did not see food to be a sacred thing because you can get it from so many places that it doesn’t really matter. There are so many types of food and the big idea people have about food is the taste. However I think the people that buy from the Farmers market may seem food as sacred because even though it is expensive and usually out of the way, if you take the time to buy from a place where the employees are well educated about the food they are selling. These workers can explain in depth about how this food was good and worth eating. I feel if you shop your food is sacred to you and you care a lot about what goes into your body instead of settling for the kinds of food you can get on every street corner.
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