Burger King in the USA vs. Burger King in Seville by Mateo Rueda

Before coming to Spain, I promised myself that I would do my best to experience the culture here; this means doing whatever I can to immerse myself in the people, history, cuisine, and other aspects of the quotidian life in Seville. However, even though I resisted the pull of fast food chain options easily found in the U.S. for a few weeks, I eventually caved and went into a Burger King that is only a few blocks away from my residence.

When I entered there was a familiar feeling of being in any Burger King in the U.S.. Even though I don’t frequent Burger King, it is still my go to late at night or on road trips if there is nothing else around. What I immediately noticed was that the prices were higher and that the menu options were a bit different. For example, in the U.S. you can’t get an egg on your burger anywhere if you’re at a fast food place. Even more surprising is the ability to get a beer on tap to go along with your Whopper. However, for the most part the vibe was the same and these small deviances in what I expected didn’t make it much different than one of these restaurants back home. I thought to myself, maybe Burger King has been able to break the paradigm of slow service etc. that is characteristic of the Spanish.

Although I may have been fooled initially, the well-oiled fast food machine that I’m used to at home seemed to have not been taken care of in Spain. When I got in line I immediately noticed that the five people in front of me were incredibly frustrated with how long they’d been waiting given their snarky comments and body language. This was exacerbated by having only one man on a register who kept running into the kitchen, where nobody even used gloves, to exchange jokes with one of his coworkers. In fact, the process of ordering alone felt even longer to me than going to a regular restaurant for tapas. While I understand that people aren’t rushing around as much it felt almost like a practical joke was being played on me. I honestly couldn’t tell that if the start juxtaposition was what had me thinking everything was taking so long of if I was in fact waiting an inordinate amount of time.

What I still can’t understand about Spanish culture is the incredible slow pace everyone moves at. While I can appreciate that back home people may say everyone is too stressed out or moving too quickly, in Spain it feels like the bottom line must get impacted by the general ambivalence people seem to have in doing their jobs. The good thing about fast food here is that you pay up front, the bad thing is that you get less food than at home and the prices are twice as much. In a culture where everyone is set on moving slowly and relaxing, I don’t understand the place that “fast food” has in the culture, especially when it is not even more economical than going to a local bar or restaurant for drinks and tapas.