High Profits........At What Cost?

"A snack pack with a Pepsi please!" This may sound very familiar to frequent customers of KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken). Since it is a very popular order, one cashier at  KFC  may hear this sentence over a hundred times during his/her monotonous eight hour shift. During this shift, this cashier may sell up to about ten snack packs at $28.00 each generating $280.00 for the company. However, he or she would have only generated $15.00 for his/ her self. This is notwithstanding the more expensive orders that this cashier would have taken.

We have often heard our Trinidadian friends boast that the KFC outlet on independence Square is the oultet with one of the highest grossing markets per capita outside of the United States of America. In fact in a 2005 Newsday article entitled "KFC Lovers Escape Unhurt", Nalinee Seelal reported that, "the Independence Square outlet of KFC is considered to be one of the busiest in the country and also one of the most profitable KFC outlets in the world."

Photograph of the Kentucy Fried Chicken (KFC) Outlet on

 Independence Square, Port-of-Spain
 (Photo taken by Sybastian Manners, February 4, 2015 )

After reading hearing from our friends and reading the Newsday report; we were not surprised when we found the Independence Square KFC outlet filled during the lunch hour of a weekday. In fact this is a sight which is also common in KFC outlets in small Caribbean islands like Dominica and St. Kitts.  It is also not surprising that Prestige Holdings, operator of KFC, Subway and TGIF restaurants, recorded an after tax  of $50.3 million for its financial year ended November 30, 2014 (Trinidad Express 2015).

Patrons In the Line at KFC, Independence Square During the Lunch Hour
 (Photo taken by Sybastian Manners, February 4, 2015 )

However, this business has complained that two of it's major problems are labour shortages and absenteeism. We believe that this occurs as the marginalised workers are paid very low wages. Furthermore, after speaking with friends who onced worked at this establishment; we gathered that apart from the Employee of the Month photographs, these fast food chains provide little opportunity for promotion and development for their workers. 

This we believe is evidence of globalisation and post-modern urbanisation in the city of Port-of-Spain. "Globalization involves an increase in interconnectedness across time and space where disparate lives are increasingly linked yet simultaneously disembodied" (Mohan 2000). In Port- of- Spain Globalisation has increased in tandem with post modern urbanisation. Signs of post-modernism is manifested in the shift of the city's economic focus from manufacturing to service industries. This has created avenues for the operation of borderless franchises such as KFC. Unfortunately, with the operation of these franchises we have seen social polarization whereby marginalised workers have becoming poorer and wealthy business persons have become richer. 
 

References:

    Mohan, Giles. 2000. “Dislocating Globalization: Power, Politics and Global Change” Geographical                 Association 85 (2): 121 – 133

    Nalinee, Seelal. 2005. "KFC Lovers Escape Unhurt." Newsday, September 11. Accessed                                March 2, 2015. http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,29951.html

  "Prestige Holding Reports $50.3 Million After-Tax Profit." 2015. Trinidad Express, February 10.                     Accessed March 2, 2015. http://www.trinidadexpress.com/business/Prestige-Holdings-                        records--503m-after-tax-profit-291462071.html