As razões do McDonald's ter saído da Bolívia
por A-24, em 27.12.11
A Bolívia foi o primeiro país latino americano a ficar sem uma única loja McDonald’s e o primeiro país do mundo a ver esta cadeia encerrar por ter os seus números no vermelho durante mais de uma década. O documentário "Porque faliu o McDonald´s na Bolívia" tenta avançar com explicações para este fenómeno.
Depois de 14 anos de presença na Bolívia, a McDonald’s encerrou, em 2002, todos os seus estabelecimentos neste país, localizados nas cidades La Paz, Cochabamba e Santa Cruz de La Sierra.
Apesar de ter promovido inúmeras iniciativas no sentido de contrariar os maus resultados obtidos, entre as quais campanhas publicitárias, espetáculos ao vivo, confeção de iguarias locais, a McDonald’s acabou por não resistir e fechou as oito lojas que detinha no país.
Encarado como um acontecimento inédito, o encerramento da McDonald’s na Bolívia já deu origem a um documentário no qual cozinheiros, sociólogos, educadores, historiadores e nutricionistas tentam explicar este fenómeno.
A mentalidade dos bolivianos aparece como justificação. A “fast-food” será a antítese da conceção que um boliviano tem de como se deve preparar uma refeição.
Esquerda.net
I'm a Bolivian living in the US, and I clearly remember when McDonald's opened up in Cochabamba (my hometown in Bolivia). I was eleven then and still lived down there. I couldn't wait for my dad to take us there, it was an attraction for quite a while. It actually was a luxury to eat at McDonald's, even for my middle class family. For way less than it would cost for my five member family to have a meal each at McDonald's we could pretty much have a banquet of incredibly tasty traditional Bolivian food (even fast food if we wanted). Bolivian's often say that we live to eat, not the other way around, and the size of our meals reflects that.
McDonald's failed in Bolivia not because of the idealistic standards the article describes (High hygiene standards? In a third world country? Sure doesn't sound like my Bolivia.What about us being against fast food? Sounds alien to my people. You can find plenty of little mobile food stations all over the city, all of them with fast food or pre-prepared food ready to be served.) but because it was simply way too expensive for the majority of the population. A couple of dollars sure sounds cheap up here, but Bolivians had to pay exactly the same amount they would pay if they lived in the US; the prices were not adjusted to be affordable for the Bolivian people. With a nominal GDP of about $2000, in a country where the distribution of wealth is more than evidently unequal, what else did they expect? We would much rather pay a fraction for a flavorful feast than empty our pockets for an unsatisfying cardboard burger. link
McDonald's failed in Bolivia not because of the idealistic standards the article describes (High hygiene standards? In a third world country? Sure doesn't sound like my Bolivia.What about us being against fast food? Sounds alien to my people. You can find plenty of little mobile food stations all over the city, all of them with fast food or pre-prepared food ready to be served.) but because it was simply way too expensive for the majority of the population. A couple of dollars sure sounds cheap up here, but Bolivians had to pay exactly the same amount they would pay if they lived in the US; the prices were not adjusted to be affordable for the Bolivian people. With a nominal GDP of about $2000, in a country where the distribution of wealth is more than evidently unequal, what else did they expect? We would much rather pay a fraction for a flavorful feast than empty our pockets for an unsatisfying cardboard burger. link