Final answer:
McDonald's is engaging in upselling when it invites customers to super-size their meals. This aligns with the concept of McDonaldization, characterized by efficiency and predictability at the cost of reduced product variety. Efforts like farmers markets represent a de-McDonaldization movement.
Step-by-step explanation:
When McDonald's asks its customers if they would like to super-size their meals, it is performing an upselling technique. Upselling is a sales strategy where a seller encourages the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale.
While McDonaldization has made food and services more accessible worldwide with predictability and efficiency, it also results in a reduced variety of goods, making products more uniform and generic. This is highlighted by the homogeneity in products like generic mass-produced shoes versus those crafted by a local cobbler, or a standardized Starbucks coffee as opposed to one from a local diner. However, there are movements that oppose this trend through de-McDonaldization efforts such as farmers markets and microbreweries, which emphasize the unique and local aspect of products.