Day 267: Ubiquitous

Day 267: Ubiquitous, originally uploaded by susanvg.

Driving between my two residences I had to stop for supper and like many who travel highways, I stopped at a fast food place. It was a question of convenience as I really wanted to get from point a to point b quickly. These so called restaurants are ubiquitous, homogenizing the world with their lack of character. This sign could be anywhere in Canada and with slight variation could be in many places in the world.

Often when you drive in the suburbs of a city there is a strip with one fast food place after another. You have no sense of where you are. There is little to identify one community from another. Aside from the fact that they are ruining the health of our nations through their plentiful servings of over-processed food and fried offerings, they are ruining our taste buds.

So many people eat here because they know what they will get. Even in a city like Paris, where there is a plethora of good restaurants at fairly reasonable prices, fast food places do a brisk business both with locals and North American travellers. There seems to be a need to stay with the familiar even when venturing away from home.