Creative Ergonomic Seats and Fast Food Profits

I talk often about how hard it is to find comfortable and ergonomically correct chairs. Here is an instance of very bad ergonomic seat design which is possibly intentional. Looking at the picture below, a few things are noteworthy: 

1. The seats are angling backwards from the table.
2. The seats are very low in back.
3. The lower back support is arched to push your back forward.

1. 
   

These ergonomic chair design elements have a negative impact on the tension in your body.

The overall effect is to make you hunch forward toward the table - and your food - and I believe to make you eat faster. The fast food industry wants you to eat fast so that they can move you out from the table and replace you with their next customer.

This sitting position, with your hips below your knees, forces your upper body to lean forward. Sitting like this puts stress on your spine, muscles and nervous system. You can’t be comfortable for very long like this even if it is a bit below your conscious awareness.

But think about it and you will notice that you usually don’t stay too long at fast food places. Do they design your chair as well as your surroundings in order to move you along so they can get to their next customer?

Is this “Creative use of ergonomic seat design” possibly harmful or at a minimum being deceitful for profit? You decide.