The food service industry has features which set it apart from other areas of the
service sector such as financial and professional services (Johns, 1999a). It is closely
concerned with food choice and quality, but at the same time has long been
considered to offer a rich meal experience to which many other factors contribute
(Campbell-Smith, 1967). The food service industry exemplifies two aspects of
postmodern consumer culture. As Peacock (1992) notes, it is flexible, artisan-focused
and context-dependent enough to offer a high degree of customisation. Thus it can
provide an ultimately short-lived fashion product in a highly simulated environment:
typical criteria of postmodernism (Jameson, 1984). At the same time, this is the
industry that has seen the most blatant operationalisation of service, Ritzer’s (1996)
phenomenon of McDonaldisation, which he claims to be the other face of
postmodern consumer society.