The notion of standardization is linked to the concept of massification. This derives from a critique of mass culture where distinction of taste and culture are said to be lost in unadventurous and unimaginative products and services designed to appeal to the lowest level denominators of mass consumption. Aesthetic values and discriminating taste atrophy in the face of standardized products. The manufacturers of goods and services have an interest in producing uniform products which can be sold to a large number of people. The more uniform the product, the greater are the economies of scale which can be made and, therefore, the greater the profit on each unit sold. This is the argument of Ritzer (1996), who uses the spread of McDonalds fast food restaurants as a metaphor for the increasing standardization and rationalization of contemporary society. Such standardization produces simplified product ranges, emphasizes quantity over quality and values uniformity over experimentation (Wood, 1998). Further, as Wood (1995) points out, the variations produced to appeal to local markets (mass customization) produce only the illusion of consumer choice, since the consumer can only choose between different variants of essentially the same product. In the absence of choice, there is little opportunity for strategies of distinction based on class. Taste is socially constructed, but through the influence of suppliers of uniform food products and services.

Ritzer (2001) argues, using terminology drawn from Bourdieu, that in a highly McDonaldized society "we can expect the habitus of most people...