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by Hugh Morris, The Daily Telegraph, November 10, 2016
McDonald’s is without a doubt one of the world’s most powerful, ubiquitous brands, able to offer peckish customers a Big Mac or Happy Meal beneath its golden arches in every corner of the globe.
But the fast-food giant does not always have such an easy time setting up shop.
Its latest battleground is Florence, where McDonald’s this week announced it was suing the Italian city for €18million (£16.4m) after it was blocked from opening a restaurant in the historic Piazza del Duomo.
While last month the potential arrival of Ronald McDonald at Saint Peter’s Square was said to anger cardinals at the Vatican in Rome.
But where else in the world has McDonald’s suffered the ignominious fate of struggling to find a footing in a nation? In more places than you think.
1. Bermuda
Foreign fast-food franchises are banned from the British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, with the only McDonald’s to have existed on the island now shut. It opened in 1985 on the US Naval Air Station in St George’s Parish - technically American soil - but when the base closed in 1995, the restaurant went too, and has not been able to return since thanks to the Prohibited Restaurants Act 1977.
2. Iran
There was once a McDonald’s in the Islamic Republic - but before it became the Islamic Republic. The branch shut in 1979 after the revolution and has not returned since. However, after relations between the West and Iran began to thaw last year, as evidenced by the lifting of sanctions on the country in January, there were rumblings that Ronald McDonald might yet open up again in Tehran. However, there is already a knock-off operation called... Mash Donald's. Brilliant.
3. Macedonia
McDonald’s once had seven restaurants in the eastern European country, mostly in the capital, Skopje. But in 2013 they all shut after the group that ran the franchises lost its licence. It is understood the head of the fast-food company’s European office and the Macedonian outfit running the franchises fell out and the agreement allowing the fast-food joints to operate was terminated. No more McDonald’s.
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4. Iceland
The rise of McDonald’s on the island went hand in hand with the economic boom Iceland experienced before the financial crash. And so, when the country was hit particularly hard by the credit crunch, the fast-food operation pulled out. But it was not for the lack of love. When the first outlet opened in 1993, photos of then-prime minster David Oddsson gorging on a burger were run by every national newspaper in the country, while the same media estimated that some 15,000 Icelanders flocked to the golden arches each day for its last week of operation. Today, the last ever McDonald’s burger served in the country sits preserved behind glass at Reykjavik’s Bus Hostel, a homage to a by-gone age.
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The last McDonalds-made burger in Iceland is now 2323 days old! #PSUIceland@PSUCollegeCommpic.twitter.com/f2PRsDjIgp — Ryan Stryker (@Ryan__Stryker) March 10, 2016 |
5. North Korea
This is perhaps the least surprising entry on the list. The communist, totalitarian state is opposed to anything carrying even the faintest whiff of the capitalist West, so it is unlikely that as long as power remains in the hands of a chain of dictators there will ever be a Big Mac in Pyongyang. That said, it was reported in 2011 that the regime’s elite were using its national carrier, Air Koryo, to smuggle in McDonald’s meals from South Korea .
6. Bolivia
McDonald’s exiled itself from the South American country in 2002 after poor sales at its branches (it turned out that Bolivians, though fond of burgers, did not want to buy them from a global corporation). There appeared to exist a general disdain for the company around the country. Former president Evo Morales once said: “[McDonald's is] not interested in the health of human beings, only in earnings and corporate profits.” Nevertheless, there were rumours last year that the golden arches were planning a return.
7. Jamaica
In 2005, on October 14 at 8pm local time, all McDonald’s branches on the island closed their doors for the last time. The reasons for the brand’s failure to succeed in the country range from the burgers not being big enough to sate the appetite of hungry Jamaicans to lack of investment. The Happy Meal has not returned to the island since.
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8. Montenegro
The eastern European country was reported to have banned McDonald’s from setting up shop in the capital, Podgorica, in an effort to push back against the forces of globalisation. However, the news prompted the Montenegro government to issue a press release assuring that “no company, not even McDonald’s, is forbidden to do business in Montengro”. Still, no sign of Ronald there yet.
9. Barbados
The only McDonald’s restaurant to have operated on the Caribbean island is now a financial services office. The branch opened in 1996 but was shut within the year after struggling to get off the ground. A hostile market, more used to fish, chicken and pork, was blamed for its short-lived existence. Maccy Ds has not returned.
10. Ghana
The West African country has welcomed a number of other fast-food joints to its capital, Accra, in recent years, including KFC and Chicken Republic, but there is as-yet no sign of a McDonald’s. Other countries that McDonald's has not made an approach to include Cambodia and Yemen. Kazakhstan, previously, the biggest country in the world not to host the company, opened its first restaurant in the capital, Astana, earlier this year.
This article was written by Hugh Morris from The Daily Telegraph and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
