It’s a bit daffy. Show a picture of a bunch of popular commercially sold wheels/tire assemblies. Wow. They all look about the same. They all are mostly the same or similar materials. Well yeah. The innovation isn’t necessarily that they came up with a better shape- it can be in the supply chain- finding ways to produce more product so that everyone who wants it or most can have it, lowering costs, improving aspects that aren’t obvious to the naked eye.
But if you want to look at fast food for innovation- look at some of the crazy stuff KFC Taco Bell or Jack in the box and others have done- innovation is the soon to be coming back “KFC Doubledown” that uses chicken instead of bread to make a sandwich. Innovation is KFC hot dog in the Philippines that uses a chicken bun and a cheese filled dog. When food gets innovative… many of us aren’t ready for that or willing. Breads and staple foods and simple dishes have largely been the same across time and location through history-
capitalist or not there are only so many things we can eat and so many ways to prepare grain or sever vegetables or such. The exact ingredients or way it is cooked may differ but rice is rice, flat breads are flat breads, etc etc.
one also should understand that innovation isn’t necessarily something we would see as “good” or “good” for “society” or “the planet.” So I mean…. a chicken sandwich is a chicken sandwich regardless of your governing philosophy or economic model, and greed, corruption, entrenchment, nepotism and other such things exist in communism, capitalism, just about any ism where humans have control. Industrialization cannot change our nature, it can only give a means to express it on a grander scale.
It’s also important to note that in this instance, they aren’t trying to come up with an innovative chicken sandwich. People want to know what to expect. These sandwiches all represent fulfilling that expectation —not innovating something revolutionary.
That’s a good point. The consumer market can be summed up as “give people what they want.”
The three main ways to do this are either to give people what they know they want, create want for what you have that isn’t wanted, or give people the thing they wanted but never knew they did. That last one and arguably the second one are the main ones that tend to require “product” innovation- in either innovating a product that fills an unfilled need for the latter, or finding or creating a need for that which people don’t want.
There can still be innovation in supplying what people know they want- as stated above, sourcing and supply chain and differentiating yourself in the market etc. but that is more business innovation or the creation of new technologies to aid distribution and supply. Generally selling people what they know they want is the simplest and most effective way to profit, and most modern people in developed countries have lived their lives in a mass produced world where..
.. consistency is expected. Even our fruits and vegetables are grown, groomed, and culled to ensure a high consistency between any two naturally occurring biological constructs. If you got a burger from McDonald or a chicken from the store or a box of snacks that “looked different” you’d likely be suspicious of it and think it might be bad or was a poor quality item. The meat and vegetables and breads we eat tend to have consistent color, texture, largely even flavor. Sizes tend to be similar. For their seeming irregularities- McDonald’s and others chicken nuggets actually have a set number of “shapes” and some places nuggets don’t bother and all are one uniform shape like an oval or such. Often times inconsistencies in product are marketing- carefully placed to mitigate the perception of processing or “artificiality.”
So indeed- a very good point. One thing people don’t consider with innovation is most things were at one time innovative. Not every airplane is made by “Wright aviation” because the world didn’t watch the Wright brothers fly and say: “well shucks. Guess I have to go invent something else, this one has been done already…” Someone had a good idea or an idea people liked and so others jump in to capitalize on it.
At some point in human history there was no fried chicken sandwich. Some mad lad or lass said “I’m going to put fried chicken… in a sandwich..” and likely it was multiple people across distance and time who all had the same - to them- innovative idea, which others saw and liked and copied. And of course innovation is iterative usually. It builds on the past.
The Wright brothers get credit for the first plane but not the best plane. Others copied their idea and made tweaks and innovations and the planes we have today are much safer and more capable than their design. Had the Wrights lived to 2023 and spent that time being the sole innovators of aircraft technology on earth we likely wouldn’t have the aircraft technology we have today. While a fast food chicken sandwich may or may not be as significant or romantic a part of human history as manned flight, it’s someone’s job and it’s something people want so it’s good someone is supplying it I suppose. Inarguably to all but the least discerning pallets you can taste the difference between most chicken sandwiches or menu offerings from different fast food places.
A Wendy’s chicken sandwich and a chick fillet and a Popeyes etc. do not taste the same and many have their own opinions on which is best. One aspect of capitalism in a “free” nation is choice. That itself is an innovation. The simple fact that for a couple dollars- for maybe 0.x-20 minutes of work, most people can have not only a chicken sandwich, but such choice over it- that shows a huge amount of innovation. The very concept of being able to essentially procure abundant food on demand for little effort reliably is very rare in human history for 99% of the population let alone having such diversity of choice in what we can eat and how it be prepared. But we are conditioned largely to homogeny as a result of the mass production that makes such things possible.
In essence, past generations may have had more theoretical diversity in their diets but generally had that diversity out of necessity and not choice, or had theoretical options but low availability or high effort in procurement. We have a dizzying amount of choice but those choices tend to fall within certain standardization because to supply the breadth of choice in the quantities demanded by billions of people means that we get mostly one color of carrot, a handful of things made to mass production standard, and we are used to that. People tend to gravitate towards what we know.
But if you want to look at fast food for innovation- look at some of the crazy stuff KFC Taco Bell or Jack in the box and others have done- innovation is the soon to be coming back “KFC Doubledown” that uses chicken instead of bread to make a sandwich. Innovation is KFC hot dog in the Philippines that uses a chicken bun and a cheese filled dog. When food gets innovative… many of us aren’t ready for that or willing. Breads and staple foods and simple dishes have largely been the same across time and location through history-
one also should understand that innovation isn’t necessarily something we would see as “good” or “good” for “society” or “the planet.” So I mean…. a chicken sandwich is a chicken sandwich regardless of your governing philosophy or economic model, and greed, corruption, entrenchment, nepotism and other such things exist in communism, capitalism, just about any ism where humans have control. Industrialization cannot change our nature, it can only give a means to express it on a grander scale.
The three main ways to do this are either to give people what they know they want, create want for what you have that isn’t wanted, or give people the thing they wanted but never knew they did. That last one and arguably the second one are the main ones that tend to require “product” innovation- in either innovating a product that fills an unfilled need for the latter, or finding or creating a need for that which people don’t want.
There can still be innovation in supplying what people know they want- as stated above, sourcing and supply chain and differentiating yourself in the market etc. but that is more business innovation or the creation of new technologies to aid distribution and supply. Generally selling people what they know they want is the simplest and most effective way to profit, and most modern people in developed countries have lived their lives in a mass produced world where..
At some point in human history there was no fried chicken sandwich. Some mad lad or lass said “I’m going to put fried chicken… in a sandwich..” and likely it was multiple people across distance and time who all had the same - to them- innovative idea, which others saw and liked and copied. And of course innovation is iterative usually. It builds on the past.