[Tiltowait--]

OK, we humans don't know each other, so visible status markers are very important. Status is super important to us, even if we deny it is (anyone who says so already has high status).

When you display low status markers like lentils, one of two things must be true: you're high status enough to display low status symbols and obviously nobody would think less of you for it, or you're actually low status. If you're actually low status, you're displaying your low status to the world. This is humiliating. It feels horrible and we humans avoid it like we avoid being burned to death in fires.

My grandmother would never eat beans & rice because she was born Cajun, and she was taught that to be Cajun was shameful and low status. Due to their cultural backwardness, lack of education, their cuisine was things they found in the swamp. They were somewhat rehabilitated by the food revival in the 90s, but when she was a girl it was bad and she avoided displaying those status markers in public.

[iagovar]

But how is exactly junk food a marker of higher status than lentils and beans? I get the US is different culture, but here in Spain eating junk food is frowned upon and I'd say in most of Europe. I'm asking because when I read americans in the internet I get mixed signals, and I don't really know what to think.

[erikerikson]

It's frowned on in a lot of the US too.

While many in this thread appear to be assigning the behavior to status seeking, I suggest it has far more to do with convenience seeking. We have the sad truth of poor, honest, hard working families keeping down up to four jobs and still needing to rely on food banks to make ends meet. There are too many factors to say how prevalent but this is a thing that exists in at least some cases.

[Tiltowait--]

The number of McDonald's in Europe makes me doubt your words.

In fact, here we are at visible status markers again. "My ingroup does this high status display, but your ingroup (my outgroup) has low status and we would never do that (despite the fact that we secretly do that when you think we can't be seen)."

[Fradow]

There are quite a few reasons to go into McDownald's in Europe that have nothing to do with status (in fact, as a parisian, and this has been echoed by several other europeans, it tends to get associated with lower status too):

- mostly because of convenience: a (arguably) tasty meal, ready to eat, for cheap

- like all junk food places, you can grab a meal whenever, which is not usual in most of Europe: restaurants don't serve meals outside of lunch and dinner times, in a roughly 3/4 hours window. If you are outside those windows, though luck getting a full hot meal outside of fast foods.

- toilets, wifi and a place to sit, no questions asked is very enticing for a category of people.

[iagovar]

I would be willing to bet money. In the countries I know, going to McDonalds is something you do once in a while, you don't use McDonalds as part of your diet.

I worked surveying consumer habits for a fish supplier in Spain and we saw how people demands more easy-to-eat stuff, but in supermarkets.

Eating out or ordering food is still viewed as leisure time or something you do in a hurry. Younger people has bad eating habits, but they still go to the supermarket and "cook" at their homes.

[immy]

From what I’ve seen they’re primarily in tourist centers, for the Americans.

[Scoundreller]

Free bathrooms is a good selling point.

Parisian friends said during their first push into France, they appreciated that they could buy something and do homework there for a few hours without getting pressured to leave.