from Hispanically Speaking News
Bolivia will become the first McDonald’s-free Latin American nation, after struggling for more than a decade to keep their numbers out of ‘the red.’
After 14 years in the nation and despite many campaigns and promos McDonald’s was forced to close its 8 Bolivian restaurants in the major cities of La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
McDonald’s served its last hamburgers in Bolivia Saturday at midnight, after announcing a global restructuring plan in which it would close its doors in seven countries with poor profit margins.
The failure of McDonald’s in Bolivia had such a deep impact in the company’s Creative and Marketing staff, that they produced a documentary titled “Why did McDonald’s Bolivia go Bankrupt,” trying to explain why did Bolivians never crossed-over from empanadas to Big Macs.
The documentary includes interviews with cooks, sociologists, nutritionists and educators who all seem to agree, Bolivians are not against hamburgers per sé, just against ‘fast food,’ a concept widely unaccepted in the Bolivian community.
Fast-food represents the complete opposite of what Bolivians consider a meal should be. To be a good meal, food has to have be prepared with love, dedication, certain hygiene standards and proper cook time.
and from Pravda.ru
McDonald's leaves Bolivia healthier forever!
After 14 years of presence in the country, and despite all the existing campaigns and having a network, the chain was forced to close the eight restaurants that remained open in the three main cities: La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
It is a question of the first Latin-American country that will remain without any McDonald's, and the first country in the world where the company has to close because it persists in having their numbers in the red for over a decade.
The impact for the creative and marketing managers has been so strong that a documentary was filmed under the title "Why McDonald's went broke in Bolivia," where they try to somehow explain the reasons that led Bolivians to still prefer pies to hamburgers.
Cultural rejection
The documentary includes interviews with cooks, sociologists, nutritionists, educators, historians and more, where there is a general agreement: the rejection is neither to the hamburgers nor to their taste. The rejection is in the minds and mentality of Bolivians. Everything indicates that "fast food" is literally the opposite of a Bolivian's conception of how to prepare a meal.
In Bolivia, the food to be good requires, in addition to taste, care, and hygiene, a lot of preparation time. This is how a consumer values the quality of what goes into the stomach, also by the amount of time it took to make the meal. Fast food is not for these people, the Americans concluded.
thanks, Fernando Elvira
There's more in the middle of an Egg McMuffin than an egg in the middle of a muffin.
ReplyDelete30 years later and I still can't get that out of my head.
When are we going to have a nationwide chain of healthy vege-burger fast food joints? It seems simple enough.
i wish the same would happen in Israel. McDonalds are one the most vicious, dangerous and exploiting corporations out there.
ReplyDeleteJeez... Whoever did that documentary is biased moron who doesn't really know anyhthing about urban Bolivia...
ReplyDeleteFast food is well accepted here, just come here for a weeks and you'll see it.
Mcdonald's failed due the fact that 60% of the population couldn't afford one on a regular basis, so cut the crap with the social thing, go ask anyone and around 90% will they you that they actually miss them
We're poor not idiotic tree-huggers
You sound angered, jso1985.
ReplyDeleteKeep it down or you may awaken the Ctulhu.
Good news for Bolivia. :)
ReplyDeleteI came across this funny tumblr (http://mcdonalds-waste.tumblr.com) photography who waste Mc Donald's, a good way to expose their policy.