McDonald's Russian restaurants have just reopened. Photos show thousands of people queueing for their first Big Mac when the chain arrived in Moscow in 1990.
McDonald's Russian restaurants have just reopened – but they're not owned by McDonald's anymore.
When the chain opened its first restaurant in Moscow in 1990, hundreds lined up to try its burgers.
McDonald's is synonymous with capitalism - its arrival symbolized Soviet Union's impending demise.
Russia's McDonald's restaurants reopened Sunday with a new name, logo, and menu.
Source: Insider
Vkusno & tochka, which translates as "tasty and that's it," opened 15 stores in and around Moscow, including what was formerly McDonald's flagship Russian restaurant in the city's Pushkin Square.
Alexander Govor, a Russian businessperson, bought Russia's McDonald's restaurants after the burger giant said that continued ownership was "no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald's values" following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Source: Insider
This came just over two months after it first announced it would temporarily close its restaurants in the market. Other Western companies were quick to pull out of Russia after the attack started, but McDonald's was the first major fast-food chain to make the move.
Source: Insider
McDonald's opened its first outlet in Russia — then part of the Soviet Union — in Moscow's Pushkin Square on January 31, 1990. Despite the harsh weather, hundreds of people lined up to try its food.
Source: The Washington Post
For Russians, the opening of a McDonald's restaurant, synonymous with capitalism and American culture, was a very tangible symbol of the impending collapse of the Soviet Union. After more than 80 years of socialism, people in Russia were awakening to new Western ways of eating, passing time, and spending money.
McDonald's advertised the restaurant's opening using the slogan: "If you can't go to America, come to McDonald's in Moscow."
Source: The Washington Post
Opening the first McDonald's in Russia wasn't easy. It took some 14 years of negotiations, led by George Cohon, then-chairman of McDonald's Canada.
Source: The Washington Post
"On the Soviet side, there was very little real understanding of what was involved in establishing or operating a chain of McDonald's restaurants," George Cohon wrote in his book "To Russia With Fries".
Sources: CNN
"It will all go downhill," a customer who visited the Pushkin Square restaurant on its opening day told The Washington Post. "We don't know how to run a restaurant like this."
Source: The Washington Post
People started lining up outside the restaurant at 4 a.m., CBC reported. When the restaurant opened at 10 a.m., there was already a 500-yard line of customers waiting to get in, per The Washington Post.
Sources: CBC, The Washington Post
Members of the military, TV crews, and costumed actors all crowded the square, too.
Source: The Washington Post
It was then the world's biggest McDonald's restaurant, with 900 seats, and it got 27,000 applications for 630 jobs, The Washington Post reported. Around 30,000 customers were served on its first day, CBC reported.
Sources: CBC, The Washington Post
Though its food was expensive when compared to wages in Russia, McDonald's proved very popular.
Source: The Washington Post
So McDonald's massively expanded its presence in Russia.
By March 2022, McDonald's had 847 restaurants in the country with around 62,000 staff.
Source: Insider
In March, McDonald's announced it was closing its Russian restaurants in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine. After the announcement, Russians flocked to McDonald's outlets for a final Big Mac, echoing the huge queues that formed when the chain arrived in the country.
Source: Insider
This wasn't the first time the chain had closed restaurants in the region because of geopolitical tensions. In 2014, McDonald's temporarily shut three locations in Crimea after it was annexed by Russia.
Source: Insider
McDonald's said in late April that it had already lost $127 million from closing its Russian and Ukrainian restaurants.
The CEO of Vkusno & tochka said that the new chain planned to reopen all McDonald's former Russian restaurants by the end of the summer, with 200 reopening by the end of June.
Source: Insider
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