The renovated McDonald’s, designed with the help of experts in feng shui, the Chinese art of creating harmonious surroundings.
I’ll Have a Big Mac, Serenity on the Side
Published on The New York Times by Jennifer Steinhauer
Sunday, march 2nd, 2008
Published on The New York Times by Jennifer Steinhauer
Sunday, march 2nd, 2008
HACIENDA HEIGHTS, Calif. — On a busy commercial strip in this Los Angeles-area community is a quiet place where the walls are dabbed with red, the booths form a semicircle — perfect for a palaver with a paramour — and two waterfalls flow silently.
It is not a new cafe heralding gentrification, but rather a McDonald’s, newly renovated with the consultation of experts in feng shui, the Chinese practice of creating harmonious surroundings.
“We wanted to make the restaurant a little bit more of a destination,” said Bryan Carmack, one of its franchisees, who runs 23 McDonald’s restaurants with other members of his family around Southern California. “It’s not so much décor as a theme, our theme being we want this to be a harmonic, peaceful place for people to be.”
The design clearly reflects the owners’ desire, shared by many purveyors of fast food, to keep customers in their establishments as long as possible. The goal is opposite that of fast-food restaurants of yore, whose greatest wish was high customer turnover.
To that new end, the remodeled store also has a “McCafe” — essentially an outlet for McDonald’s coffee sold at Starbucks prices — a flat-screen television and soft cushioned chairs, all intended to encourage lingering.
But the use of feng shui experts and the multiple Asian touches — a vase at the entry filled with bamboo, and red accents galore, among other things — are also nods to the ever-expanding Asian population here in eastern Los Angeles County, where streets with Spanish names are peppered with stores bearing Chinese-lettered signs and where one of the largest Buddhist temples in the nation makes its home.
In the evermorphing county, the feng shui McDonald’s, as it has quickly become known, is “a perfect example” of global capitalism’s co-opting people’s cultures, said Gilda L. Ochoa, an associate professor of sociology and Latino studies at Pomona College, who grew up here in the 1970s. “Hacienda Heights,” she said, “is a microcosm of a changing United States.”
From 1990 to 2000, census figures show, the number of Asians as a proportion of the 53,000 residents in the unincorporated town increased to 36 percent from 27 percent. The number of Hispanics, 38 percent of the population in 2000, also grew in that time, though less significantly.
Mr. Carmack said he decided that the McDonald’s here, which opened in the early 1970s, needed to be rebuilt last year, and he wanted the place to reflect the community. So he consulted with a feng shui study group, made up of McDonald’s operators and officials and led by a feng shui master. They gave an extensive list of recommendations.
He then turned to Brenda Clifford at JBI, a Long Beach firm that has designed many of Mr. Carmack’s themed McDonald’s restaurants, like one with a running train inside in Buena Park, near the Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park, and a ’50s-style drive-in in La Verne, a nod to Route 66.
But not everything recommended for this McDonald’s was practical, Ms. Clifford said. One has to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, among other things.
Nonetheless, the traditional McDonald’s was radically altered. The walls are now curved, the ceiling and floor tiles are placed at distinctive angles, and the doors swing open and shut in opposite directions, all in the name of keeping luck within the restaurant. The number 4, considered bad luck in some Asian cultures, is absent in the street address and the phone number. The walls are painted in earth tones — close to nature and soothing to boot, Ms. Clifford said — with red accents.
“A lot of things are subliminal,” she said. “Balance in life, that’s what you want.”
There is also a wall displaying three pieces of brushed aluminum graphic art, one featuring a crane — because “it represents fertility,” Ms. Clifford said — another a koi fish (prosperity, she said) and the third an iguana. Yes, an iguana.
“That last one was because I have to meet the demographics in the community,” Ms. Clifford said. “I have a Latino community that eats lunch there, and you don’t want to alienate anyone.”
Calvin Liu sat in one of the cushy red booths the other day, finishing up a snack with his brother Willie. They work in nearby City of Industry, and were struck by the restaurant’s new look. They were not sure if it made them feel more balanced as they polished off their French fries, but they did concede that the design was appealing.
“A lot of feng shui is conceptually esoteric,” Mr. Liu said. “But it does seem a lot more high-end.”
.
Vocabulary:
Serenity: The state or quality of being serene, peace, peacefulness, peace of mind, repose, heartsease
Surroundings: the area in which something exists or lives, Synonyms: environment, environs, surround
Commercial strip: commercial area
Dabbed: covered (in this context: painted)
Booths: A seating area in a restaurant with a table and seats whose high backs serve as partitions
Palaver: speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly - Synonyms: chatter, piffle, prate, tittle-tattle, twaddle, clack, maunder, prattle, blab, gibber
Paramour: A person's regular sexual partner: lover
Heralding: praising vociferously - Synonyms: acclaiming, hailing
Gentrification: The restoration and upgrading of deteriorated urban property by middle-class or affluent people, often resulting in displacement of lower-income people
Franchisees: One that is granted a franchise, as to market a company's goods or services in a certain local area
Décor: Decoration
Purveyors: someone who supplies provisions (especially food)
Goal: Objective
Yore: A former period of time or of one's life: past, yesterday, yesteryear. Idioms: bygone days, days gone by, the good old days, the old days
Turnover: The amount of business transacted during a given period of time
Outlet: a place of business for retailing goods - Synonyms: mercantile establishment, retail store, sales outlet
Cushioned: a soft bag filled with air or a mass of padding such as feathers or foam rubber etc (Assentos macios)
Lingering: continuing for a long time
Galore: in great numbers
Nods: The act or process of accepting: acceptance, acquiescence, agreement, assent, consent, yes. Informal OK.
Peppered: To mark with many small spots
Evermorphing: always transforming one image into another
Comply: To act in conformity with
Americans With Disabilities Act: civil-rights law, enacted 1990, that forbids discrimination of various sorts against persons with physical or mental handicaps. Its primary emphasis is on enabling these persons to enter the job market and remain employed, but it also outlaws most physical barriers in public accommodations, transportation, telecommunications, and government services.
Nonetheless: In spite of a preceding event or consideration
Soothing: Tending to soothe – calming, placating
Subliminal: below the threshold of conscious perception
Appealing: Attractive
It is not a new cafe heralding gentrification, but rather a McDonald’s, newly renovated with the consultation of experts in feng shui, the Chinese practice of creating harmonious surroundings.
“We wanted to make the restaurant a little bit more of a destination,” said Bryan Carmack, one of its franchisees, who runs 23 McDonald’s restaurants with other members of his family around Southern California. “It’s not so much décor as a theme, our theme being we want this to be a harmonic, peaceful place for people to be.”
The design clearly reflects the owners’ desire, shared by many purveyors of fast food, to keep customers in their establishments as long as possible. The goal is opposite that of fast-food restaurants of yore, whose greatest wish was high customer turnover.
To that new end, the remodeled store also has a “McCafe” — essentially an outlet for McDonald’s coffee sold at Starbucks prices — a flat-screen television and soft cushioned chairs, all intended to encourage lingering.
But the use of feng shui experts and the multiple Asian touches — a vase at the entry filled with bamboo, and red accents galore, among other things — are also nods to the ever-expanding Asian population here in eastern Los Angeles County, where streets with Spanish names are peppered with stores bearing Chinese-lettered signs and where one of the largest Buddhist temples in the nation makes its home.
In the evermorphing county, the feng shui McDonald’s, as it has quickly become known, is “a perfect example” of global capitalism’s co-opting people’s cultures, said Gilda L. Ochoa, an associate professor of sociology and Latino studies at Pomona College, who grew up here in the 1970s. “Hacienda Heights,” she said, “is a microcosm of a changing United States.”
From 1990 to 2000, census figures show, the number of Asians as a proportion of the 53,000 residents in the unincorporated town increased to 36 percent from 27 percent. The number of Hispanics, 38 percent of the population in 2000, also grew in that time, though less significantly.
Mr. Carmack said he decided that the McDonald’s here, which opened in the early 1970s, needed to be rebuilt last year, and he wanted the place to reflect the community. So he consulted with a feng shui study group, made up of McDonald’s operators and officials and led by a feng shui master. They gave an extensive list of recommendations.
He then turned to Brenda Clifford at JBI, a Long Beach firm that has designed many of Mr. Carmack’s themed McDonald’s restaurants, like one with a running train inside in Buena Park, near the Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park, and a ’50s-style drive-in in La Verne, a nod to Route 66.
But not everything recommended for this McDonald’s was practical, Ms. Clifford said. One has to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, among other things.
Nonetheless, the traditional McDonald’s was radically altered. The walls are now curved, the ceiling and floor tiles are placed at distinctive angles, and the doors swing open and shut in opposite directions, all in the name of keeping luck within the restaurant. The number 4, considered bad luck in some Asian cultures, is absent in the street address and the phone number. The walls are painted in earth tones — close to nature and soothing to boot, Ms. Clifford said — with red accents.
“A lot of things are subliminal,” she said. “Balance in life, that’s what you want.”
There is also a wall displaying three pieces of brushed aluminum graphic art, one featuring a crane — because “it represents fertility,” Ms. Clifford said — another a koi fish (prosperity, she said) and the third an iguana. Yes, an iguana.
“That last one was because I have to meet the demographics in the community,” Ms. Clifford said. “I have a Latino community that eats lunch there, and you don’t want to alienate anyone.”
Calvin Liu sat in one of the cushy red booths the other day, finishing up a snack with his brother Willie. They work in nearby City of Industry, and were struck by the restaurant’s new look. They were not sure if it made them feel more balanced as they polished off their French fries, but they did concede that the design was appealing.
“A lot of feng shui is conceptually esoteric,” Mr. Liu said. “But it does seem a lot more high-end.”
.
Vocabulary:
Serenity: The state or quality of being serene, peace, peacefulness, peace of mind, repose, heartsease
Surroundings: the area in which something exists or lives, Synonyms: environment, environs, surround
Commercial strip: commercial area
Dabbed: covered (in this context: painted)
Booths: A seating area in a restaurant with a table and seats whose high backs serve as partitions
Palaver: speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly - Synonyms: chatter, piffle, prate, tittle-tattle, twaddle, clack, maunder, prattle, blab, gibber
Paramour: A person's regular sexual partner: lover
Heralding: praising vociferously - Synonyms: acclaiming, hailing
Gentrification: The restoration and upgrading of deteriorated urban property by middle-class or affluent people, often resulting in displacement of lower-income people
Franchisees: One that is granted a franchise, as to market a company's goods or services in a certain local area
Décor: Decoration
Purveyors: someone who supplies provisions (especially food)
Goal: Objective
Yore: A former period of time or of one's life: past, yesterday, yesteryear. Idioms: bygone days, days gone by, the good old days, the old days
Turnover: The amount of business transacted during a given period of time
Outlet: a place of business for retailing goods - Synonyms: mercantile establishment, retail store, sales outlet
Cushioned: a soft bag filled with air or a mass of padding such as feathers or foam rubber etc (Assentos macios)
Lingering: continuing for a long time
Galore: in great numbers
Nods: The act or process of accepting: acceptance, acquiescence, agreement, assent, consent, yes. Informal OK.
Peppered: To mark with many small spots
Evermorphing: always transforming one image into another
Comply: To act in conformity with
Americans With Disabilities Act: civil-rights law, enacted 1990, that forbids discrimination of various sorts against persons with physical or mental handicaps. Its primary emphasis is on enabling these persons to enter the job market and remain employed, but it also outlaws most physical barriers in public accommodations, transportation, telecommunications, and government services.
Nonetheless: In spite of a preceding event or consideration
Soothing: Tending to soothe – calming, placating
Subliminal: below the threshold of conscious perception
Appealing: Attractive
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