“What could replace the iconic golden ‘M’ arches at McDonald’s?” asks the American radio NPR, before continuing: “The channel’s Russian replacement opted for two orange slashes.” On Sunday June 12, 15 former McDonald’s restaurants reopened under a new logo – representing a hamburger and two fries – and a new name: “Vkusno & tochka”, or “Delicious, full stop”.
“We had chosen this name a long time ago”, explains the Siberian businessman Alexander Govor, who bought the franchise, quoted by Al-Jazeera English. A designation that is intended “simple and easy to remember”, to encourage Russian customers to visit the 850 stores acquired from McDonald’s.
On March 16, the American fast food chain announced its departure from Russia, in reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This decision was part of a “exodus of Western companies, against the backdrop of economic sanctions and severe shortages in various sectors”, remember The Guardian.
McDo sauces with erased logo
“During the inauguration ceremony [du nouveau fast-food russe] on Pushkin Square in Moscow, comments the British daily, the restaurant appeared to be an intentional copy of the American chain”. Oleg Paroev, general director of Vkusno & tochka, said:
“Our goal is for our customers to notice no difference in quality or ambiance.”
Although the Big Mac, the American chain’s emblematic hamburger, is absent from the menu as well as a few other products, the bet seems to have been successful, according to Stepan, a customer interviewed in the video.Al-Jazeera, below : “I ordered all my favorite dishes: the Filet-O-fish, the chicken burger… There are also the sauces.”
The restaurant also served “old packets of McDonald’s hot mustard sauce, whose logo had been covered up to erase any reference to the fast food chain”, precise The Guardian. The slogan of the new Russian channel sums up its objective well: “The name changes, the love remains.”
A symbol of East-West divisions
The Russian correspondent of the BBC recalls the opening of the first McDonald’s in Russia in the 1990s, at the end of the Cold War: “I had to stand in line for three hours to be served. I remember the excitement. The arrival of McDonald’s was a symbol of Soviet Russia’s embrace of Western ideas, culture and food.
What is happening today, concludes the journalist, “is also a symbol: that of the separation which takes place between Russia and the West”.