Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mom’s visiting the site today.
On this pleasant Sunday morning I would like to present everyone with a short video showing the light box I’ve built for my fast-food photography. It’s simple but effective.
I suppose it’s normal to worry about saying something to upset people when you are starting a new site. After putting your heart and soul into it, you want everyone to enjoy what you have created. However, the reality of the situation is no matter what you say or do, there will always be somebody who disagrees. When doing product reviews, placing scores on items, the pressure can be intense because of the loyal fan-base and employees from each chain watching on. When you are new at doing it, trying to make your mark on the fast food world, that spotlight has a way of making you feel like a tiny ant, who was unlucky enough to crawl past a curious kid with a giant magnifying glass on a bright sunny day. We all know what happens to the poor ant.
With the helpful feedback of a couple friends (one old, one new) I’ve realized that I have been too conservative at times. I’ve been playing it too safe. One example is my review of the Burger King Loaded Steakhouse Burger.
I had originally set a score of only 2.5 stars out of 5, and even used the term “rip-off” to describe it’s value at the $5 price point. But after sleeping on it, I woke up the next morning and changed my review to 3 stars, and removed the rip-off comment and replaced it with a more polite “I want my money back”. I worried that I was too harsh, or that I might have over-reacted. After all, it was the lowest score I had given yet.
But I realize now, I should have trusted my first instinct. There is no reason to be afraid. I was not slamming Burger King, or trying to hurt them. I was simply attempting to give my honest opinion about this one particular product.
The fact is — It’s hard to be a nice-guy when giving a bad-review.
This weekend, I will be a critic of my own work, going over every review that I’ve written so far, and making sure I expressed myself in the way I had originally intended. I might even update a few scores by dropping a half-star, or increasing a half-star.
The site is new — I’m new — and the ’system’ is still being developed. This is a perfect time to make such adjustments, and look within myself to become a better writer and reviewer. At barely 2 months old, FFC has come a long way fast, but now it’s time to learn from mistakes and build towards a better future. I hope that anybody who might read this post, or has ever visited my site, will bear with me as I experience these growing pains. I’m dedicated to making Fast Food Critic the best it can be, but I know there’s going to be some detours and bumps in the road as we travel along.
My sincere thanks to my old friend RJ, and my new friend DD (Geezer).
It’s been a busy couple weeks. There is an incredible amount of work involved in getting a new site off the ground. Thankfully I have the help of my friend Karl who is a fantastic coder and designer. Together we have made lots of tweaks and changes to the site, in an attempt to get it ‘right’. I’m very pleased, and proud of the progress here at FFC. As for content, I’ve been covering the fast food news for the past couple weeks, and I posted my first fast food review 2 days ago. I’m going to stick to fairly basic items for review at first, to establish a baseline for our review system and formula. But it won’t be too long before we start covering the newest, hottest, coolest fast food and activities from around the quick serve industry. I say “we” because soon I will be joined by a couple friends, and fellow fast food fans. It’s a slow start, but I’m trying to do everything the proper way. This is just the beginning for Fast Food Critic. I hope we can become a source of fun and information for whomever happens upon our humble little site. Thank you very much to those who have already visited.
Random thoughts from the FFC Editor: Does anybody else find it strange that we often pay the person who washes our car, or mows our lawn, more money than we pay the person who cooks and serves the food we eat? These fast food workers spend their days on their feet, in (or around) a hot kitchen, they have to deal with the unforgiving public, screaming children, and of course there’s always somebody giving them a hassle because they forgot to hold the pickles or onions. Yet we expect them to be friendly and serve our food fast, fresh and with a smile.
But honestly, how can we really expect to get good service, and quality food, from employees who work under those conditions, barely earning minimum wage?
The problem is not just the fast-food corporations being tight with their wallets, it’s also us, the consumers. We demand $1 burgers and $1 fries. We are cheap when it comes to food, and the industry is just trying to keep us satisfied. Only if we tell them we’re willing to pay more, will they give us better quality. If we don’t — they won’t.
Personally, I think it’s time we start to expect more from fast-food. It may not be fancy, and it might not be the healthiest choice, but it’s still the fuel we use to power our bodies. It provides us with nutrition, and it keeps us alive.
Since this is “fast” food, many people consider it unimportant. That needs to change.
Expect a FFC feature story on this topic soon.