Sunday 21 April 2013

McDonald’s goes belly up in Bolivia

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.

Sources :
  1. Pravda.Ru
  2. Image

5 comments:

  1. Branded was an awesome film...

    eerie. First time I've see something like this and it was posted at the same time I wrote the above. If you've seen it you know how relevant this theme is.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have lived in Bolivia, have family there, and still visit once a year. As far as I'm concerned, Mc Donalds has never actually opened a store in Cochabamba. Bolivians love fast food. Ever major city has its street side kiosks where club goers can flock to after a night of dancing and debauchery. At least one of those kiosks sell hamburgers. Other than that, Bolivians find there local "fast food" much more appealing such as the tranca pecho, silpancho, pique macho, and so on. "Fast foods" from corners all over the country are also easily obtainable and proudly consumed as delicacies such as saltenas (Sucre), sandwich de Chola (La Paz), and so on. Lastly, however what may be the largest reason as to why Mc Donalds has never caught on is the fact that Bolivians no longer look up to the United States and dwindling desire to mirror the culture. For almost a century of widely looking up to the United States it in which the event peaked in the 80's when Bolivia's largely unstable governmental history finally reached democratic stability, Boliivia looked up to the United States ways of peace, recycling, and parks and recreaction service. Since then, things have changed in the U.S. as well as the image it portrays. Bolivians simply opt for familiar food and support for their neighbor rather than for a giant. Bolivia simply never was and most likely with never be the land of giants.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is old news. McDonalds has been out of Bolivia for years.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, whatever the reasons the Bolivians had.... They are so much better off, seeing that McDonalds uses processed and refined ingredients, GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms,such as corn,wheat, etc)and also petrochemical products and a product which is equivalent to putty for their preservatives, all of which can be confirmed if you go to their nutritional values website.....

    These are toxic burgers... so, Good for you! Viva la Bolivia!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a sensible country,now lets stop their disgusting existance in Australia....lets start when them trying to invade national park sreas and go from there...poor excuse for food...no responsibility on a corporate or community level either. Will be glad to see the back of them

    ReplyDelete