From Reuters:
“Factbox: What's in a name?
Rebranded McDonald's outlets open in Russia”
McDonald's (MCD.N) restaurants
flung open their doors in Moscow once again on Sunday under new Russian
ownership and a new name, Vkusno & tochka, which translates as "Tasty
and that's it". Here's what we
know:
LOGO: The famous Golden
Arches have been taken down and replaced with a new logo comprising two fries
and a hamburger patty against a green background.
BRANCHES: Vkusno &
tochka reopened on Sunday in Pushkin Square in what was McDonald's first
restaurant in Soviet Moscow in 1990, when it sold as many as 30,000 burgers,
but the queue outside the restaurant was much smaller than three decades ago. Initially
15 rebranded restaurants will open in and around the capital and another 200
restaurants by end-June and all 850 by the end of summer, executives said on
Sunday.
MENU: McDonald's flagship
Big Mac is missing, but other popular items are on a smaller menu selling at
slightly lower prices. A double cheeseburger was going for 129 roubles
($2.31) compared with roughly 160 under McDonald's and a fish burger for 169
roubles, compared with about 190 previously.
OWNERSHIP: Siberian
businessman Alexander Govor has taken over the franchise operation through his
firm GiD LLC. He has been a McDonald's licensee since 2015 and had helped the
chain expand into remote Siberia, where he operated 25 restaurants. McDonald's
will have an option to buy its restaurants in Russia back within 15 years,
Russian authorities have said.
MANAGEMENT: McDonald's
former Russian head Oleg Paroev is running the business as chief executive of
Vkusno & tochka. Until the takeover, he had worked for McDonald's
for seven years, including as chief financial officer of the Russian business
for 6-1/2 years until November 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile. He
was appointed Russia McDonald's CEO in February, weeks before Moscow sent tens
of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Govor will retain the
chain's tens of thousands of employees for at least two years, McDonald's said
last month.
^ Russians will see and taste the
difference of this sub-par wannabe McDonald’s. They aren’t stupid. Clearly those going to these
fake versions are patriotic Nazi Zs who will eat-up (literally and figuratively)
anything Putin throws at them.
Soon the ordinary Russians (those
that haven’t drank the Kremlin’s Kool-Aid) will go to these places and see and
taste the difference.
There’s a long history of this of
kind of thing in Russia. In the Soviet Union Jeans were officially banned from
importing and manufacturing (but not for wearing) as being too “Western” and
anti-Soviet. While Jeans weren’t banned to wear local Neighborhood Communists
would stop anyone wearing Jeans (or other Western clothing) or who had
Western-style haircuts (like what The Beatles wore) and would make them change
or cut their hair right in the street. Their name would be taken (every Soviet
had to carry their Internal Passport with them at all times and had to show it
to whomever asked for it) and the Police would then be notified. You could end
up in a Gulag or Penal Colony if you had too many anti-Soviet, pro-Western “infractions.”
Starting in the 1950s – when Americans
started going to the USSR in larger numbers – the Soviets saw American Jeans in-person.
Soviets unable to speak English would go up to Foreigners on the streets and in
buildings and offer to buy the Jeans they were wearing. It didn’t matter the
size or state of the Jeans – they could be resold to someone else if needed.
In the late 1960s the Soviet
Communist Government allowed the manufacturing of Soviet-made Jeans. Like most
things made during Soviet Times these Soviet Jeans were of very poor quality,
didn’t look or feel like American Jeans. The trade for Foreign Jeans continued.
One pair of American Jeans would sell for
around 200 Soviet Rubles (the average monthly wage of a Soviet Citizen) -
for comparison the Soviet-made jeans were 10 Soviet Rubles.
When my Great-Aunt and
Great-Uncle went to the Soviet Union in 1976 (visiting Minsk, Kyiv, Moscow,
Leningrad and other towns in-between) they were often stopped and asked for
their Jeans. The only problem was that my Great-Aunt and Great-Uncle were in
their 40s and 60s and didn’t wear Jeans so they didn’t have any.
These fake Russian McD’s will be
the same as the Soviet Jeans and Russians will want the real thing and not any
cheap substitutes (although they won’t be able to ask any Foreigners to buy any.)
It would be nice if Russians
yearning for the real McDonald’s made Putin and his Nazi Zs end their Genocide
in Ukraine. ^
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