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Comment by AltruisticGapHN | Hacker News Reader

Wow thatt's pretty rough. Just recently I saw some old footage of when Russia opened to the West and all those 90's kids in Russia going to the first Mc Donalds opening there.

Then again McDonalds is a good example of a lot of things that are just plain wrong about western culture... so no loss for Russia I guess.

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Regardless of what people think about McDonalds, this is a very symbolic move. People in the west remember those 90s scenes on TV of McDonalds opening in Russia, and it was symbolic of Russia opening up and a new prosperous relationship with the west. I would not be surprised if the US government nudged McDonalds to exit swiftly and publicly like this because the optics are very clear: Russia is going backwards.

Did McDonald's internationally do better over the last 20 years than it did in the US? Between 1990 and now, it seems to me that it lost a lot of cultural ground domestically, (and so did Pizza Hut, Gorbachev commercial and all). The few times I've gone into a McD's lately, every single time they've heavily pushed a "How did we do?" survey, as though they're a jilted lover wondering what went wrong. The optics in 1990 were as much for Americans as for Russians, but if it happened today, Americans wouldn't be impressed; they'd need something like opening a Chick-fil-A in Saudi Arabia.

McDonalds in non US countries is often very different from the US. Its still probably not the healthiest option, but it operates in a different market segment.

The McDonald's on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées has triple cheeseburgers which aren't usually available even in the US, but it is certainly a bit "higher class" if you will, though that may be related to restaurants in general not being as frequented outside the US (only Italy comes close apparently).

No free refills, though.

you guys must eat at McDonalds a real lot to be able to discern any difference, it's exactly the same food in slightly different shapes.

I disagree. McDonalds in the US is gross. I've had McDonalds in Europe 4-5 times and each of those were pretty OK.

(Why am I eating McDonalds in Europe? Sometimes when you get off a train and don't have your bearings yet in a place, something fast that's a known quantity is the way to go even if it pales to other options you'll find soon).

The "Here" app loaded with a country has all the McDonalds, which are guaranteed (almost always) to have a restroom and wifi. Can be worth it's weight in gold.

(I don't notice a ton of difference between USA McDonald's and other ones, though the taste can be slightly different, and I don't usually frequent McDonalds in dense urban areas in the USA.)

It makes sense that they adapt the menu slightly for each demographic. Also that they need to source meat etc in a competitive way, not from across another continent so just by that mere fact it may be slightly better (I think I'm not mistaken that US has really refined meat production to the extreme...).

McDonalds in Russia and Ukraine has historically been better in quality and taste than anywhere else in the world. When I first came to US, I was very surprised to see how dirty it is and what garbage the food is.

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