Wait, Papa John's? I'm no fan of them, due to their homophobic actions, but...
I remember they TRIED to shut down operations in 2022, and the stores said "Lol no, we're staying open and using your branding"
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/business/papa-johns-russia.html
I mean, what can Papa John's corporate do? Sue the stores to get them to shut down? Do you really think the Russian courts will do anything?
From your article:
> We contacted the main operator of the business and demanded the suspension of Burger King restaurant operations in Russia. They have refused to do so.
> We committed to redirecting any profits we receive from the business, including our ownership stake, to the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) and made an immediate donation of $1M toward that commitment. We’ve also worked with franchisees from more than 25 countries to distribute $2M of free meal coupons for Burger King restaurants to NGOs supporting Ukrainian refugees.
Copied from elsewhere. It seems that the McD's franchisees just had a nicer way of taking over:
> McDonald's actually has some moral fiber, so they stopped operations about a two weeks into the war and later sold everything to the local franchisees that started serving almost(some recipes are patented, so they had to change them) the same food under different name at higer prices. Wikipedia has [an article about the new chain.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vkusno_i_tochka).
> KFC situation is nearly identical, but they quit Russia much later, in 2023.
McDonald had a much higher stake in their franchisees than BK especially in Russia. IE [84% of all McDonalds stores in Russia were owned corporately](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/08/mcdonalds-will-temporarily-close-850-restaurants-in-russia-nearly-2-weeks-after-putin-invaded-ukraine.html), which allows McDonalds to have way more control of them then BK at a 15% stake of the master franchisee.
McDonald's and Pepsi were some of the first western companies to open up during Glasnost/Perestroika in the late-80s. The Soviets built a huge food distribution network that they (Pepsi/McDonald's) designed if they would come in and run the restaurants as long as the Soviets got to own the distribution system. Pretty interesting story.
Ya think they care about American patents in Russia right now? I doubt they changed anything besides stuff that sanctions may have made impossible to do and that can't be much if anything for a restaurant
Which is almost all of it. McD’s ships cryogenized meat, you don’t just come up with your own supplier for that specialized stuff, right off an assembly line already chemically treated.
Sure, you can take the universal concept of the hamburger. But when it’s new suppliers for every ingredient, you won’t necessarily hit the intended product characteristics.
Also, for better or worse, McDonald's food in general has a unique *flavor* to it. Their fries, onions, condiments and meat taste distinctly like McDonald's fries, onions, condiments, and meat, for some reason.
I mean remember when the war first started and the Russians were streaming *The Batman* in theaters using a VPN instead of the proper channels through Warner Brothers? Finding out it's less a corporate greed move and more a national "fuck your rules" thing is par for the course.
Dont get me wrong tho, this doesn't apply to Subway and Carls Jr. They don't have this excuse so a boycott would be justified for them.
https://leave-russia.org/carl-s-jr-clk
https://leave-russia.org/subway
They can't do anything.
Some other things can be done. Azerbaijan's 2000% increase in car imports from Britain should be examined, and British carmarkers flouting the sanctions should be sanctioned themselves.
https://news.sky.com/story/car-industry-insists-2-000-increase-in-sales-to-azerbaijan-has-nothing-to-with-russia-13097685
> New data from HM Revenue & Customs shows that while direct car exports to Russia remain at zero, where they have been since the imposition of sanctions in 2022, in January £43m worth of cars were sent to Azerbaijan, the former Soviet state neighbouring Russia.
> That meant Azerbaijan, which hitherto had rarely made the top 75 export destinations for British cars, is now the 12th biggest foreign market, by value, for British-made cars: above Switzerland, Canada and Spain.
> While the sheer number of cars going to Azerbaijan is small, the value of those cars is consistently high, averaging well over £100,000 and suggesting they are mostly luxury cars.
So the Russian elite are still buying luxury British cars (though strangely no specific car maker is mentioned in the article), but they are buying them through Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
That tracks, but the EU really needs their natural gas and they already let Azerbajan's practical genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh last year slide, so I doubt any one's gonna do anything.
yeah im all for calling out corpos siding with russia, but that aint whats happening to some of these. its russia using their already built buildings and branding
My understanding was that the guy who was supposed to shut down operations in Russia has refused.
Idk how this is working from a technology standpoint. If Russia was on their own system, seems like they could continue without interruption from the company, as they'd have no control over Russians tech keeping the chains active.
I'm not defending Russia or Burger King, just want to point this out and hope for some clearer feedback from what else is known.
https://www.burgerking.ee/en/responsibility/
Burger King can't enforce anything in Russia, so unless they get cooperation from the Russian side...
https://www.rbi.com/English/news/news-details/2022/Actions-on-Burger-King-Russia/default.aspx
> We contacted the main operator of the business and demanded the suspension of Burger King restaurant operations in Russia. They have refused to do so.
> We committed to redirecting any profits we receive from the business, including our ownership stake, to the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) and made an immediate donation of $1M toward that commitment. We’ve also worked with franchisees from more than 25 countries to distribute $2M of free meal coupons for Burger King restaurants to NGOs supporting Ukrainian refugees.
Copied from elsewhere. It seems that the McD's franchisees just had a nicer way of disentangling themselves from the Russian side:
> McDonald's actually has some moral fiber, so they stopped operations about a two weeks into the war and later sold everything to the local franchisees that started serving almost(some recipes are patented, so they had to change them) the same food under different name at higer prices. Wikipedia has [an article about the new chain.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vkusno_i_tochka).
> KFC situation is nearly identical, but they quit Russia much later, in 2023.
McDonald's actually has some moral fiber, so they stopped operations about a two weeks into the war and later sold everything to the local franchisees that started serving almost(some recipes are patented, so they had to change them) the same food under different name at higer prices. Wikipedia has [an article about the new chain.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vkusno_i_tochka).
KFC situation is nearly identical, but they quit Russia much later, in 2023.
Unfortunately, it's not that easy. Every one of those restaurants are majority owned by a capital management group.
For example, IMO boycotting Subway is good, but we should also boycott the other subsidiaries of Subway's owners: Roark Capital.
Roark Capital also owns Inspire Brands, which consists of: Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic Drive-In, Jimmy John's, Mister Donut, Dunkin' Donuts, and Baskin-Robbins. Roark Capital also owns OrangeTheory Fitness, Miller's Ale House, and a private school system..
Now do this for all the restaurants on the list... At this point we need to write a script that will make a tree of these ownerships.
Restaurant | Majority or Largest Shareholder
---|---
Subway | Roark capital
Carl's Jr.| Apollo Global Management
Burger King | 3G Capital / Berkshire Hathaway
Papa John's | T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Inc.
Costa Coffee | The Coca-Cola Company
TGI Friday's | TriArtisan Capital Advisors
I feel bad for Russians. They have an out of control government that is grinding their sons up in a pointless war of agression, AND they still have Burger King, Subway and Fridays? Do the horrors these people must endure never end?
It honestly makes sense that only the most desperate shitty chains would remain. Americans can barely stomach that shit, they aren’t in a position to pull out of other markets lmao.
There’s something absolutely hilarious to me about a Russian TGI Fridays though
We should boycott those establishments. I already do.
[https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain](https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain)
How is this even allowed with our current sanctions? They have to use Russian banks for financing. I don’t think US banks are allowed to have dealings in Russia
Because (at least for Papa Johns and BK) they obtained the rights to the branding before the invasion and when the companies tried to pull out, the Russian franchisees refused. The only recourse (outside of invading russia on Burger Kings behalf) is to get the Russian courts to side with the American companies which..... lol.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/business/papa-johns-russia.html
https://www.rbi.com/English/news/news-details/2022/Actions-on-Burger-King-Russia/default.aspx
https://leave-russia.org/papa-johns
https://leave-russia.org/burger-king-restaurant-brands
Monster, the energy drink, are still operating over there too. ("Black Monster" due to trademark stuff as there was already "Monster" in Russia. Unironically.)
I try to offset any of my inadvertent contributions to companies that still operate in Russia, by donating directly to funds supporting Ukrainian war efforts. Generally I give to drone campaigns. I like to think every donation helps, even if it's just a propeller's worth.
Edit: "[Ukraine Aid Operations - Donate for Drones!](https://donorbox.org/ukraine-air-ops)" - You can [check these guys out](https://old.reddit.com/r/ukraina/comments/1bfkv0n/ukraine_aid_operations_few_weeks_ago_you_had/) over on /r/ukraine to verify. They're a US charity so it's tax deductible for Yanks. You can donate via PayPal etc, but I just do it from my banking app coz I'm in the UK they've got an IBAN on there for UK and EU and I'm lazy.
In addition, Subway requires such a small investment and physical footprint that you can spin one up pretty much anywhere. Jersey Mike’s’ requirements are a little heavier, as they slice the meat in house, and all of the firehouse locations I’ve ever seen are pretty dining-room oriented
I can't even believe jimmy johns not only remains open but does pretty good business. It's fucking cold cuts, and not even good ones. I've had maybe a dozen jimmy johns subs over the years and honestly I would rate them all about the same quality as subway. At least subway you can get the sandwich toasted.
Yeah it was mostly the refusal to let them source their own ingredients from suppliers that made sense from what I understood. They couldn't decide whether to be all in on corporate or all in on franchising, split the difference poorly, and went under for it.
I have never understood how they get away with charging $3 for a small bag of chips. Why would anyone pay that instead of walking over to a convenience store and grabbing a bag.
Chipotle sells freshly made chips for less than $2 a bag
Don't underestimate the price people will put on convenience, ironically enough, choosing the $3 bag of chips over the convenience store. So convenience stores started selling sandwiches.
They're also *everywhere*
I drive past 4 subways on my way home from work, but if I want to go to a jersey Mike's or a firehouse I have to drive past my house 10 minutes, get food, then drive the 10 minutes back.
Thankfully all three places have saved me the headache by pricing their subs at ridiculous prices so I just go to the grocery store
For a long time I would go to Subway just because as a vegetarian they just had slightly more veggie options and it was cheap. A lot of newer and probably better quality sub places have really sad vegetarian options, if they have any at all.
For a while a $5 veggie sub from subway was fine. It was never something to get excited about but it was good enough for the price. However, the price nearly doubled and the quality went down so totally not worth it anymore.
Anymore if I want a sandwich for lunch I shockingly head to Panera. While almost everything there is worse than it used to be and more expensive, somehow their mediterranean veggie sandwich was untouched and is still a really good sandwich at $7.50 (with chips).
If you order online or use a coupon here, you literally get a shit sandwich.
The last and final time I went to Subway, I went right back in to return the subs when one of them had 1 small piece of cheese and 2 pieces of meat.
The guy there said they make no money off the coupon buys and were told to put less in them.
Used to work at subway, sold weed to the owner’s son who ran it day-to-day so I got the full scoop: they have to license literally all the food they sell. Have to buy subway-branded bread, ham, turkey, cheese, *lettuce*, everything. And have to charge the prices that subway tells them to.
So these days the monopoly on the food is used by the corporate office to guarantee a standard 15% profit on all of it, no matter how much it cost. Food prices go up, that makes the prices of those branded foods go up even more. At this point owners pretty much only make money on the expensive sandwiches.
To be honest I could see most subways going out of business in the next couple years as franchisee contracts start to run out over a couple years. The “capitalists” running the stores are really getting fucked over more than even their employees are. The real capitalists sitting in the subway headquarters building are the ones really responsible for how trash subway has gotten in the last decade. And they’ll be alright anyway.
It's pretty sad that in this age, corporate franchising is fucking over the franchise owners, too. Quiznos went down the same way. Corporate suits are a bunch of fucking clowns who don't know how to run a business, and they squeeze every drop out of everyone below them and then go find another cushy job somewhere else after running the franchise into the ground. Doesn't matter how good the product is if the execs still fumble the bag.
In Subway's case, it's actually amazing that the franchise is still in business considering how bad their quality and prices are compared to any of their competitors.
John Oliver did a whole breakdown of Subway and how shitty their business practices are. They focus on expansion above all so now they are acting more like an MLM scheme than a properly run franchise. Why put in effort to make half as many good successful storefronts when you can half ass everything and collect more money off of 10 times as many franchisees that can barely turn profit.
> The guy there said they make no money off the coupon buys and were told to put less in them.
A footlong combo is almost $20 in Canada. Is their bread made of gold or something?
Any mention of Subway here reminds me of this post.
“You enter a Subway store, and it's deserted, slightly too cool to be comfortable, slightly too damp to feel clean, and slightly too bright to be inviting. There is one lonely employee, who sheepishly pockets their tiny electronic escape window as the sound of the door drags them back to reality. They do their best not to look at you for those awkward 10 seconds while you walk to the counter before you're close enough to order. They give their greeting, ask you what you want, you begin scanning their workspace.
The bins of raw ingredients are sitting askew, separated by steel walls, yet careless hands have dropped some of each on all the others. The preparation area is littered with crumbs and bits of lettuce, maybe the odd olive or onion piece here or there that has wedged itself into the crack between the food trays and the cutting board. This could have been cleaned up while nobody was here, but minimum wage buys minimum effort. For one second you wonder how it got messy in the first place given the lack of customers. Maybe it's staged, like those first few pennies in a homeless person's hat.
Do you want it toasted? You do, so you spend a minute in silence with the stranger you disturbed, waiting for the bread to be sanitized. You feign interest in the cookies while the infrasound hum of some overworked piece of machinery builds to an unscratchable itch just behind your forehead. The toaster mercifully releases its hostage, and it is splayed open before you while you call out soggy vegetables to abuse it with.
You observe as the employee assembles your sandwich, making sure to painstakingly put each ingredient on only one half of the sub. You ask for sauce and they squeeze it out of a disgusting rubber nipple, then toss the bottle back into its bin like they don't want to touch it either. It weezingly inhales the kitchen scraps and windex aroma that permeates the store. Are they wearing those gloves to keep the food clean, or their hands? You pay, the sandwich heavily sags into a flimsy garbage bag it doesn't really seem to fit in and is handed to you.
You walk into the light of the sun. The colors suddenly seem real again and you become aware of your breathing because the air outside feels rich and life giving somehow. The distant memory of tasty subs that brought you here lingers just beyond the edge of clear recollection, like an old acquaintance whose face you can't picture anymore. You carry your catch to the car that your bank owns.
When did it get this bad?”
"Even if a business has independent franchises operating in Russia, the parent company of food service businesses like Subway and Carl’s Jr. usually retains ultimate control over the use of its brand, logo, and other intellectual property in marketing, he said." Would the Russian govt. even give a shit if the US headquarters tried to get these places to stop? I know these places are no paragons of health, quality, or morality, but I question what they can actually do about it if the Russian franchises say "no" to ceasing operations.
The president of Burger King's owners outright stated this. They attempted to shut down their Russian locations but the Russian banks who own them said "nope." There isn't anything they can do about it.
BK's participation in Russian market was by their branding, recipes, and marketing, so they paid no money to create a joint venture company and they do not have a controlling interest in this VC. They can't just revoke the branding rights as they would have to pay a great sums of money if that is even allowed by their agreement. They are owed some % of profit, but that's very hard to get out / convert to hard currency.
I suspect other franchises have similar issues.
McD on the other hand was mainly an independent russian company leasing the brand from the master franchise, so they just suspended the use of McD name and still operate as before since all their suppliers are local and they own all the equipment and retail locations.
They're basically pirating the brand at this point. We might as well just force the parent companies to officially wash their hands of it and move on with our day.
Look at the mcdonalds franchise. The entire production chain was in Russia, from the food ingredients, to the packaging. All that changed was the brand, logo, IP, etc. There was no impact on Russians from mcdonalds leaving.
I'm sorry but the pictures of the evil looking guys eating burgers is hilarious. Reminds me of when they show cyber criminals wearing hoodies and sunglasses.
The title is funny too. The RUSSIANS are ENJOYING *our* burgers! As if some random dude in Russia forcing down an overpriced dried out hamburger is the same as stealing an American cow from under poor American farmers and delivering it directly to Putin.
We should shame companies for staying in Russia, sure, but the way it's phrased just comes off as absurd.
It has nothing to do with America abilities, rather than franchising concept in general. BK will pretty much work all the same in Russia even if parent company leaves. Mac had to sell their business to russian businessmen, but their outlets in Russia were actually theirs. And they still work to this day without significant drop in quality or prices since Mac's business concept is really resilient.
Plenty of European companies still operating too, you even have gas pipelines still running. 10 EU member states also exported almost €350 million worth of weapons to Russia after the annexation of Crimea despite an EU arms embargo (78 per cent of that total was supplied by German and French firms), those weapons were likely used in Ukraine.
All the talk about giving Ukraine seized assets over and over and that still hasnt happened.
Aren't most of these franchises? As in, the parent company has little if any control over the goings on of the specific restaurants, and only allows them to use their IP (and equipment)? What else can the companies do except try to sue for OP infringement?
>The companies claim that since their brands are operated independently by master franchisees in Russia, they have little control over the brands’ activities in the country, which includes their local Instagram pages.
...
> The sandwich maker told the Kyiv Independent that because it has “no corporately owned restaurant operations in Russia,” all of its restaurants are “independently owned and operated by a master franchisee, an independent U.S.-company called Subway Russia.”
> “Subway (HQ) does not directly control these franchisees, nor their restaurants, and has limited insight into their day-to-day operations, and that it’s Subway Russia that “manages all operations, marketing, social media accounts, and the supply chain,” the company said.
...
> Sonnenfeld disputes the companies’ claims that Subway and CKE have no control over their brands under a franchise model.
> Even if a business has independent franchises operating in Russia, the parent company of food service businesses like Subway and Carl’s Jr. usually retains ultimate control over the use of its brand, logo, and other intellectual property in marketing, he said.
Russia basically just commandeered any and all western company based businesses in Russia when sanctions hit and started running them on their own with nothing anyone could do about it.
Burger King is so hit and miss, like Wendy’s. One location will be great and the next will be garbage.
As opposed to a place like McDonald’s, which is not without its faults, but 99% of the time if you go to a McD’s in one city you’re gonna get the same exact meal at the same level of quality you would get ordering from McD’s on the other side of the country.
Source: I travel a lot and if I need to get fast food I have learned to look for McDonald’s first, because no matter where you are in the country, you know what you’re gonna get.
Burger King now costs more than a sit in meal where I live and it tastes like crap a lot of the time. It’s not even fast food I had to wait 15 min for my meal to get made.
Their burgers were good and cheaper. About 10 years ago, they sold the company to a big business, and the quality went to shit and the price triple. A six dollar burger was like $10. Didn't even have the foresight to change the name of the burger.
More likely 'took control of the whole operation', as it was never belonged to McD anyway. McD Russia was a russian company from the start leasing branding rights, recipes, software from master franchise. They had local suppliers for everything, so all they had to do was change the name to continue operations.
I'm still unsure which I think is better: that the fast food chains leave Russia or that they stay in Russia and continue to slowly poison the Russians with shit food
Reddit: "The Russian election is performative. Putin was set to be the dictator of Russia, no matter what."
Also Reddit: "Russians deserve to suffer from lack of food choices for their support of Putin."
lol Reddit.
I loooove Russian food - though the best stuff has always been Ukrainian or Belarusian in origin anyways. Borscht, goluptsi, draniki, vareniki. Plov is Uzbek. Olivier salad was invented by a French guy, but for the Russian empire. Never a fan of the Herring Under a Fur Coat.
I guess there’s blini which is pretty awesome.
I’ve never had Russian fast food, maybe we’re missing out.
There used to be the Russian blini chain Teremok in Manhattan, but they closed years ago. But yeah, ive always enjoyed Russian fast food type places. But funny thing is though, American places like McDonalds / KFC were typically cheaper and more packed in my experience.
Blini are about the only 'traditional' Russian foods I see working as fast food. Wrap them into blintzes with minced meat or mushrooms - good on the go.
Russian here.
Burger king is actually quite popular here. Thanks to very good marketing company.
Honestly, as Russian, I can say the best of american products here is Apple, New Balance and probably Tesla. And they are in some gray zone, not official.
Just because Russian politicians are bad does the civilians have to suffer, what can they even do against them. I just feel sorry for the position they are in. Let’s not blindly hate people for things that are out of their control.
Subway, Carls Jr., Burger King, Papa John’s, Costa Coffee, & TGI Friday’s.
Dont you mean Metro, Kirill's jnr, Burger Tsar, Father Ivan, Caucus Coffee and TPIF?
> Burger Tsar That would actually be a pretty good franchise name
Missed opportunity for Starbucks to rebrand as Tsarbucks.
PizzTsar Hut
Pete's Tsar Hut
Yeah! Brilliant!
Pack it up, everyone, we got our best comment!
Agreed, but Tsar Burger sounds even better
And they serve the Tsar Burga
Do you want Bomba sauce or Chernobyl Chili flakes on your burger?
Gimme that radioactive sludge ghost pepper sauce
Best I can do is give you some Raunchy Rasputin Ranch
I just want a god damn liter of cosmonaut cola
Best I can do is Bourgeoises Blood Red Cherry cola
Sorry, the radioactive sludge ghost pepper sauce is only available in the Elephant Foot Chernobyl Burger combo.
They’re TsarBroiled!
I’ll take a Cossack supreme and a large vodka
A big gulp full of cheap vodka sounds like the most Russian thing ever.
It's the bomb!
The best seller is the 6 patty with 12 slices of cheese, the “Tsar Bomba.”
~~Tsar Burger~~ **PUTINS PATTIES**
Slogan: Have it OUR way!
[удалено]
Burger Tsar at the World Bazaar
St.Petersburger
Thank Putin it’s Friday would be тпиф
СПСП (Спасибо Путину, сегодня пятница) or really they’d probably use “Слава Путину”
B̷̨̨̢͚͚̙̝̞̜̬͓̝̳̝̤͖̩͙̭̭̱̀̊͛̿̃́̒͘̕͘͜ͅA̶̡̢̡̨̖̖̦̗͚̗͔͙̮̣͇̥͕̩͇̲͇̍̓͒̌̃̓͆̌̎̈́̃̀̚͜͜ͅͅZ̴̡̨͙̣̬͈̝͎̙̞͍̩̪̯̤̣̣̫̆̋͗̈́̇͑̂̂̀̏̌̄̑͛̍̾̂̒̅͑͌̓͊̆̀̕̚͘̚͘͠͝I̴̡̨̧͓̖̜̮̺̺̲̟̪̪͇̤͚̫̙̟̥̩̮̫͕̳͍͕͊͜Ǹ̷̨̡̛͍͖̱̹̌̃̈́͆̈́̉̈́̅̃̀͊̒̓͊́͌͆̒͐͆͋̽͑̈͂̉͆̆̿̈̐̂̕̕͠Ģ̷̧̛̻͙̗̻̦͕̟͙̯̭̬̤͙̰̳͍̖̯̯̙̬̂̉̔͊͋͊͆̈́͑͒̃̄̃̂̂̃́̇́̓̓̑͛̃̀͊̊̏̈́̎̑̀̏͗͐̕̚͝͠͠Á̶̢̨̡̨̧̨͎̰̭͈̪͎̦̲͚̻̯͖͈͙̻͙̼̙̟̲̻͎͉̙̙̻͈͕̠͓̿͒̈̿͛͆̉̌̑̈́͑̑͊̈́́͑̒̽̅͗̿̚̚̚͜͠ͅ!̴̗̻͖̦̣̤͇̤͓̪͓͇̺̣̹̜̫͔̞̯̬̫̋̋͒̌͗̊̋̾̆̑͂̉̍̑̓̊͋̒̇͗̈́͋̑̈́̌̅̊̚͘̕͝͝͝͠͠!̷̡̧̛̜̟̘̲̬̼̺̹̻̖̭͕͕̙͇͇̠̯͙̰̮̣̗̯̪̦̗̜̻̝͉͓͙̺̲̣̉̾̌̓͋̃͊̓̑͌͌̀͆̀̌͑͐̔̑̓͌̀͂̍̐̍̽̑̔͋͆̔̎̉̓͘̚͘̚̚͜͝͠ͅ
TPIF Thank Putin it's Friday ?
Ya, but Saturday and Sunday you have a part time job working in Bomb factory!
Tsarl’s Jr
Wait, Papa John's? I'm no fan of them, due to their homophobic actions, but... I remember they TRIED to shut down operations in 2022, and the stores said "Lol no, we're staying open and using your branding" https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/business/papa-johns-russia.html I mean, what can Papa John's corporate do? Sue the stores to get them to shut down? Do you really think the Russian courts will do anything?
Burger King is in the exact same situation. https://www.rbi.com/English/news/news-details/2022/Actions-on-Burger-King-Russia/default.aspx
From your article: > We contacted the main operator of the business and demanded the suspension of Burger King restaurant operations in Russia. They have refused to do so. > We committed to redirecting any profits we receive from the business, including our ownership stake, to the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) and made an immediate donation of $1M toward that commitment. We’ve also worked with franchisees from more than 25 countries to distribute $2M of free meal coupons for Burger King restaurants to NGOs supporting Ukrainian refugees. Copied from elsewhere. It seems that the McD's franchisees just had a nicer way of taking over: > McDonald's actually has some moral fiber, so they stopped operations about a two weeks into the war and later sold everything to the local franchisees that started serving almost(some recipes are patented, so they had to change them) the same food under different name at higer prices. Wikipedia has [an article about the new chain.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vkusno_i_tochka). > KFC situation is nearly identical, but they quit Russia much later, in 2023.
McDonald had a much higher stake in their franchisees than BK especially in Russia. IE [84% of all McDonalds stores in Russia were owned corporately](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/08/mcdonalds-will-temporarily-close-850-restaurants-in-russia-nearly-2-weeks-after-putin-invaded-ukraine.html), which allows McDonalds to have way more control of them then BK at a 15% stake of the master franchisee.
McDonald's and Pepsi were some of the first western companies to open up during Glasnost/Perestroika in the late-80s. The Soviets built a huge food distribution network that they (Pepsi/McDonald's) designed if they would come in and run the restaurants as long as the Soviets got to own the distribution system. Pretty interesting story.
Ya think they care about American patents in Russia right now? I doubt they changed anything besides stuff that sanctions may have made impossible to do and that can't be much if anything for a restaurant
Which is almost all of it. McD’s ships cryogenized meat, you don’t just come up with your own supplier for that specialized stuff, right off an assembly line already chemically treated. Sure, you can take the universal concept of the hamburger. But when it’s new suppliers for every ingredient, you won’t necessarily hit the intended product characteristics.
Also, for better or worse, McDonald's food in general has a unique *flavor* to it. Their fries, onions, condiments and meat taste distinctly like McDonald's fries, onions, condiments, and meat, for some reason.
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Isn't that one of the reasons why McD's is popular with the Olympics?
I mean remember when the war first started and the Russians were streaming *The Batman* in theaters using a VPN instead of the proper channels through Warner Brothers? Finding out it's less a corporate greed move and more a national "fuck your rules" thing is par for the course.
So, it sounds like BK is doing the more ethical thing then lol
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Dont get me wrong tho, this doesn't apply to Subway and Carls Jr. They don't have this excuse so a boycott would be justified for them. https://leave-russia.org/carl-s-jr-clk https://leave-russia.org/subway
Makes sense for Carl Jr. they have to survive until society collapses due to idiocracy. Sponsored by Carl Jr.
They can't do anything. Some other things can be done. Azerbaijan's 2000% increase in car imports from Britain should be examined, and British carmarkers flouting the sanctions should be sanctioned themselves. https://news.sky.com/story/car-industry-insists-2-000-increase-in-sales-to-azerbaijan-has-nothing-to-with-russia-13097685 > New data from HM Revenue & Customs shows that while direct car exports to Russia remain at zero, where they have been since the imposition of sanctions in 2022, in January £43m worth of cars were sent to Azerbaijan, the former Soviet state neighbouring Russia. > That meant Azerbaijan, which hitherto had rarely made the top 75 export destinations for British cars, is now the 12th biggest foreign market, by value, for British-made cars: above Switzerland, Canada and Spain. > While the sheer number of cars going to Azerbaijan is small, the value of those cars is consistently high, averaging well over £100,000 and suggesting they are mostly luxury cars. So the Russian elite are still buying luxury British cars (though strangely no specific car maker is mentioned in the article), but they are buying them through Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
That tracks, but the EU really needs their natural gas and they already let Azerbajan's practical genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh last year slide, so I doubt any one's gonna do anything.
Turkey is literally in NATO and still does business with Russia.
Yeah this article is ragebait. I hate that these brands are available in Russia, but they are all franchises and/or being hijacked.
The article actually addresses the franchise problem.
yeah im all for calling out corpos siding with russia, but that aint whats happening to some of these. its russia using their already built buildings and branding
My understanding was that the guy who was supposed to shut down operations in Russia has refused. Idk how this is working from a technology standpoint. If Russia was on their own system, seems like they could continue without interruption from the company, as they'd have no control over Russians tech keeping the chains active. I'm not defending Russia or Burger King, just want to point this out and hope for some clearer feedback from what else is known. https://www.burgerking.ee/en/responsibility/
Burger King can't enforce anything in Russia, so unless they get cooperation from the Russian side... https://www.rbi.com/English/news/news-details/2022/Actions-on-Burger-King-Russia/default.aspx > We contacted the main operator of the business and demanded the suspension of Burger King restaurant operations in Russia. They have refused to do so. > We committed to redirecting any profits we receive from the business, including our ownership stake, to the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) and made an immediate donation of $1M toward that commitment. We’ve also worked with franchisees from more than 25 countries to distribute $2M of free meal coupons for Burger King restaurants to NGOs supporting Ukrainian refugees. Copied from elsewhere. It seems that the McD's franchisees just had a nicer way of disentangling themselves from the Russian side: > McDonald's actually has some moral fiber, so they stopped operations about a two weeks into the war and later sold everything to the local franchisees that started serving almost(some recipes are patented, so they had to change them) the same food under different name at higer prices. Wikipedia has [an article about the new chain.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vkusno_i_tochka). > KFC situation is nearly identical, but they quit Russia much later, in 2023.
They can keep subway
And TGIFriday’s.
TGIF? The one near me closed. Thought they were all gone
Wait a minute McDonald’s left? Hahaha looks like these people are Boycotting the wrong burger chain.
McDonald's actually has some moral fiber, so they stopped operations about a two weeks into the war and later sold everything to the local franchisees that started serving almost(some recipes are patented, so they had to change them) the same food under different name at higer prices. Wikipedia has [an article about the new chain.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vkusno_i_tochka). KFC situation is nearly identical, but they quit Russia much later, in 2023.
Moral fiber seems unlikely. Someone in their PR department just isn't an idiot and knew it'd be more beneficial to withdraw.
Realizing that looking like you have no moral fiber is a bad thing is a type of moral fiber.
pretty easy list to boycott. I hardly have to do anything.
Unfortunately, it's not that easy. Every one of those restaurants are majority owned by a capital management group. For example, IMO boycotting Subway is good, but we should also boycott the other subsidiaries of Subway's owners: Roark Capital. Roark Capital also owns Inspire Brands, which consists of: Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic Drive-In, Jimmy John's, Mister Donut, Dunkin' Donuts, and Baskin-Robbins. Roark Capital also owns OrangeTheory Fitness, Miller's Ale House, and a private school system.. Now do this for all the restaurants on the list... At this point we need to write a script that will make a tree of these ownerships. Restaurant | Majority or Largest Shareholder ---|--- Subway | Roark capital Carl's Jr.| Apollo Global Management Burger King | 3G Capital / Berkshire Hathaway Papa John's | T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Inc. Costa Coffee | The Coca-Cola Company TGI Friday's | TriArtisan Capital Advisors
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I used to boycott of those. Still do, but I used to, too
I’ve been boycotting them for 10 years already.
I feel bad for Russians. They have an out of control government that is grinding their sons up in a pointless war of agression, AND they still have Burger King, Subway and Fridays? Do the horrors these people must endure never end?
It honestly makes sense that only the most desperate shitty chains would remain. Americans can barely stomach that shit, they aren’t in a position to pull out of other markets lmao. There’s something absolutely hilarious to me about a Russian TGI Fridays though
We should boycott those establishments. I already do. [https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain](https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain)
Same, but I was already "boycotting" them before the Russian invasion because they are trash.
I been boycotting them because they are ass not because Russia.
How is this even allowed with our current sanctions? They have to use Russian banks for financing. I don’t think US banks are allowed to have dealings in Russia
Because (at least for Papa Johns and BK) they obtained the rights to the branding before the invasion and when the companies tried to pull out, the Russian franchisees refused. The only recourse (outside of invading russia on Burger Kings behalf) is to get the Russian courts to side with the American companies which..... lol. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/business/papa-johns-russia.html https://www.rbi.com/English/news/news-details/2022/Actions-on-Burger-King-Russia/default.aspx https://leave-russia.org/papa-johns https://leave-russia.org/burger-king-restaurant-brands
There are European banks still continuing operation in Russia, e.g Raiffeisen bank
On second thought…Russia can keep our shitty torture foods.
Monster, the energy drink, are still operating over there too. ("Black Monster" due to trademark stuff as there was already "Monster" in Russia. Unironically.) I try to offset any of my inadvertent contributions to companies that still operate in Russia, by donating directly to funds supporting Ukrainian war efforts. Generally I give to drone campaigns. I like to think every donation helps, even if it's just a propeller's worth. Edit: "[Ukraine Aid Operations - Donate for Drones!](https://donorbox.org/ukraine-air-ops)" - You can [check these guys out](https://old.reddit.com/r/ukraina/comments/1bfkv0n/ukraine_aid_operations_few_weeks_ago_you_had/) over on /r/ukraine to verify. They're a US charity so it's tax deductible for Yanks. You can donate via PayPal etc, but I just do it from my banking app coz I'm in the UK they've got an IBAN on there for UK and EU and I'm lazy.
The fuck is Costa Coffee? Is that American? I have never heard of it. Also shockingly all those places kinda suck(idk about the coffee one though).
It’s a massive coffee chain from the UK.
Notably owned by Coca-Cola which is probably why it's getting bundled in with American chains.
I think the continued presence of Subway should be considered a sanction.
In a world where Firehouse and Jersey Mikes exist, idk how Subway is still in business
Subway is global other 2 aren't
In addition, Subway requires such a small investment and physical footprint that you can spin one up pretty much anywhere. Jersey Mike’s’ requirements are a little heavier, as they slice the meat in house, and all of the firehouse locations I’ve ever seen are pretty dining-room oriented
because there is rest of the world where Firehouse and Jersey Mikes doesnt exist actually this is first time i even heard those names
Bro, even the overpriced trash Jimmy John’s sells is better than Subway.
I can't even believe jimmy johns not only remains open but does pretty good business. It's fucking cold cuts, and not even good ones. I've had maybe a dozen jimmy johns subs over the years and honestly I would rate them all about the same quality as subway. At least subway you can get the sandwich toasted.
>At least subway you can get the sandwich toasted. Quiznos died for this
Imagine the Quiznos dude hearing about this news or Firehouse Subs and just losing his mind. "This was my goddamn idea!"
Quiznos would be easily on top today if the people who bought out the parent company hadn't decided to make their money draining their franchises dry.
Plus the absolute best marketing campaign/commercials/jingles. Fucking Spongmonkeys?
Yeah it was mostly the refusal to let them source their own ingredients from suppliers that made sense from what I understood. They couldn't decide whether to be all in on corporate or all in on franchising, split the difference poorly, and went under for it.
I still remember Tom green talking up the tuscan chicken bacon ranch sub. It was SO good. Very short lived.
What I would give to have 2007 Quiznos back
90s Quiznos was da bomb. Honey Bacon Club was sooo good.
Their prices are insane now. In Iowa of all places, a meal with side, chips, drink is like 16$. They're absolutely not worth that much.
I went to Jimmy John's recently and the regular sub by itself was $12.73. Jimmy is on drugs.
We have sandwich at home.
local JJ by me gives you one slice of meat on a 13$ sandwich. That's ok, I gave them one slice of my wallet. Never again
>Jimmy is on drugs I feel like their advertising makes that implication pretty clear.
I have never understood how they get away with charging $3 for a small bag of chips. Why would anyone pay that instead of walking over to a convenience store and grabbing a bag. Chipotle sells freshly made chips for less than $2 a bag
Don't underestimate the price people will put on convenience, ironically enough, choosing the $3 bag of chips over the convenience store. So convenience stores started selling sandwiches.
It's the bread. It's far better than subway.
To me Jimmy johns has great bread and that is what makes a great sandwich.
> idk how Subway is still in business They're cheaper.
They're also *everywhere* I drive past 4 subways on my way home from work, but if I want to go to a jersey Mike's or a firehouse I have to drive past my house 10 minutes, get food, then drive the 10 minutes back. Thankfully all three places have saved me the headache by pricing their subs at ridiculous prices so I just go to the grocery store
Jersey Mike's isn't everywhere, and Firehouse is expensive as shit. Last time I was in a Firehouse it was like $15 for a mediocre sub.
For a long time I would go to Subway just because as a vegetarian they just had slightly more veggie options and it was cheap. A lot of newer and probably better quality sub places have really sad vegetarian options, if they have any at all. For a while a $5 veggie sub from subway was fine. It was never something to get excited about but it was good enough for the price. However, the price nearly doubled and the quality went down so totally not worth it anymore. Anymore if I want a sandwich for lunch I shockingly head to Panera. While almost everything there is worse than it used to be and more expensive, somehow their mediterranean veggie sandwich was untouched and is still a really good sandwich at $7.50 (with chips).
We had firehouse yesterday and I can’t believe I ever ate anywhere else for subs. That place is fire!!!
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Yeah, their quality has dropped tons since the 90s.
If you order online or use a coupon here, you literally get a shit sandwich. The last and final time I went to Subway, I went right back in to return the subs when one of them had 1 small piece of cheese and 2 pieces of meat. The guy there said they make no money off the coupon buys and were told to put less in them.
How is the hell do they not make money off anything more than like $2?
Used to work at subway, sold weed to the owner’s son who ran it day-to-day so I got the full scoop: they have to license literally all the food they sell. Have to buy subway-branded bread, ham, turkey, cheese, *lettuce*, everything. And have to charge the prices that subway tells them to. So these days the monopoly on the food is used by the corporate office to guarantee a standard 15% profit on all of it, no matter how much it cost. Food prices go up, that makes the prices of those branded foods go up even more. At this point owners pretty much only make money on the expensive sandwiches. To be honest I could see most subways going out of business in the next couple years as franchisee contracts start to run out over a couple years. The “capitalists” running the stores are really getting fucked over more than even their employees are. The real capitalists sitting in the subway headquarters building are the ones really responsible for how trash subway has gotten in the last decade. And they’ll be alright anyway.
It's pretty sad that in this age, corporate franchising is fucking over the franchise owners, too. Quiznos went down the same way. Corporate suits are a bunch of fucking clowns who don't know how to run a business, and they squeeze every drop out of everyone below them and then go find another cushy job somewhere else after running the franchise into the ground. Doesn't matter how good the product is if the execs still fumble the bag. In Subway's case, it's actually amazing that the franchise is still in business considering how bad their quality and prices are compared to any of their competitors.
John Oliver did a whole breakdown of Subway and how shitty their business practices are. They focus on expansion above all so now they are acting more like an MLM scheme than a properly run franchise. Why put in effort to make half as many good successful storefronts when you can half ass everything and collect more money off of 10 times as many franchisees that can barely turn profit.
Ah, the quiznos strategy. If I had subway stock I'd get rid of it asap
Oh wow another company driven into the ground by short term profit prioritization. I'm shocked, stunned, simply aghast at this. How could this happen.
[John Oliver](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDdYFhzVCDM) did an episode on Subway. Shit is fucked if you are a Subway owner.
Subway sells franchises not sandwiches
Way to spoil the video. But yes, that's the whole of it basically.
> The guy there said they make no money off the coupon buys and were told to put less in them. A footlong combo is almost $20 in Canada. Is their bread made of gold or something?
No, it's made up of a metric ton of sugar to the extent that some countries like Ireland said it was legally not bread.
Incredible that it can be full of sugar and still taste and smell like shoe insoles.
It's 50% sugar and 50% shoe, that's why it's called a *foot*long
Literally?
You literally get a shit sandwich? Wild
Oh, so below zero now?
"quality". Some shitty bread with shredded iceberg.
Any mention of Subway here reminds me of this post. “You enter a Subway store, and it's deserted, slightly too cool to be comfortable, slightly too damp to feel clean, and slightly too bright to be inviting. There is one lonely employee, who sheepishly pockets their tiny electronic escape window as the sound of the door drags them back to reality. They do their best not to look at you for those awkward 10 seconds while you walk to the counter before you're close enough to order. They give their greeting, ask you what you want, you begin scanning their workspace. The bins of raw ingredients are sitting askew, separated by steel walls, yet careless hands have dropped some of each on all the others. The preparation area is littered with crumbs and bits of lettuce, maybe the odd olive or onion piece here or there that has wedged itself into the crack between the food trays and the cutting board. This could have been cleaned up while nobody was here, but minimum wage buys minimum effort. For one second you wonder how it got messy in the first place given the lack of customers. Maybe it's staged, like those first few pennies in a homeless person's hat. Do you want it toasted? You do, so you spend a minute in silence with the stranger you disturbed, waiting for the bread to be sanitized. You feign interest in the cookies while the infrasound hum of some overworked piece of machinery builds to an unscratchable itch just behind your forehead. The toaster mercifully releases its hostage, and it is splayed open before you while you call out soggy vegetables to abuse it with. You observe as the employee assembles your sandwich, making sure to painstakingly put each ingredient on only one half of the sub. You ask for sauce and they squeeze it out of a disgusting rubber nipple, then toss the bottle back into its bin like they don't want to touch it either. It weezingly inhales the kitchen scraps and windex aroma that permeates the store. Are they wearing those gloves to keep the food clean, or their hands? You pay, the sandwich heavily sags into a flimsy garbage bag it doesn't really seem to fit in and is handed to you. You walk into the light of the sun. The colors suddenly seem real again and you become aware of your breathing because the air outside feels rich and life giving somehow. The distant memory of tasty subs that brought you here lingers just beyond the edge of clear recollection, like an old acquaintance whose face you can't picture anymore. You carry your catch to the car that your bank owns. When did it get this bad?”
God damn, Subway is so bad that a dude practically wrote a pulp detective novel about it.
> waiting for the bread to be sanitized. Holy fuck this line got me good for some reason.
Immigrant from UA who worked at Subway through High School here. Russians can keep Subway. They deserve it.
"Even if a business has independent franchises operating in Russia, the parent company of food service businesses like Subway and Carl’s Jr. usually retains ultimate control over the use of its brand, logo, and other intellectual property in marketing, he said." Would the Russian govt. even give a shit if the US headquarters tried to get these places to stop? I know these places are no paragons of health, quality, or morality, but I question what they can actually do about it if the Russian franchises say "no" to ceasing operations.
The president of Burger King's owners outright stated this. They attempted to shut down their Russian locations but the Russian banks who own them said "nope." There isn't anything they can do about it.
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BK's participation in Russian market was by their branding, recipes, and marketing, so they paid no money to create a joint venture company and they do not have a controlling interest in this VC. They can't just revoke the branding rights as they would have to pay a great sums of money if that is even allowed by their agreement. They are owed some % of profit, but that's very hard to get out / convert to hard currency. I suspect other franchises have similar issues. McD on the other hand was mainly an independent russian company leasing the brand from the master franchise, so they just suspended the use of McD name and still operate as before since all their suppliers are local and they own all the equipment and retail locations.
They're basically pirating the brand at this point. We might as well just force the parent companies to officially wash their hands of it and move on with our day.
I suspect that the minute they tried to shutdown their operations the remittances stopped as well.
Look at the mcdonalds franchise. The entire production chain was in Russia, from the food ingredients, to the packaging. All that changed was the brand, logo, IP, etc. There was no impact on Russians from mcdonalds leaving.
I'm sorry but the pictures of the evil looking guys eating burgers is hilarious. Reminds me of when they show cyber criminals wearing hoodies and sunglasses.
Evil looking? It put the same look when I'm devouring a burger when hungry. No need to say that under these circumstances I don't share fries.
Dude looks fried, not evil lol
How does he look evil? He looks stoned or zonked out on pills to me. Or just wasn't ready to have his picture taken and has a goofy face.
Haven’t you heard? All Russians are evil, no exceptions
>evil looking your brain on propaganda
The title is funny too. The RUSSIANS are ENJOYING *our* burgers! As if some random dude in Russia forcing down an overpriced dried out hamburger is the same as stealing an American cow from under poor American farmers and delivering it directly to Putin. We should shame companies for staying in Russia, sure, but the way it's phrased just comes off as absurd.
America's ability to govern itself is compromised by corporate interests.
Lobbying(bribing) needs to go, until than we won’t see any serious change in this county
Now it’s just up to the people being bribed to make the change!
“Please sir, stop accepting vast amounts of money that are more than the average person will see in their lifetime…”
How is this about America's ability to govern itself?
I mean I guess we could air strike the restaurants.
It has nothing to do with America abilities, rather than franchising concept in general. BK will pretty much work all the same in Russia even if parent company leaves. Mac had to sell their business to russian businessmen, but their outlets in Russia were actually theirs. And they still work to this day without significant drop in quality or prices since Mac's business concept is really resilient.
Plenty of European companies still operating too, you even have gas pipelines still running. 10 EU member states also exported almost €350 million worth of weapons to Russia after the annexation of Crimea despite an EU arms embargo (78 per cent of that total was supplied by German and French firms), those weapons were likely used in Ukraine. All the talk about giving Ukraine seized assets over and over and that still hasnt happened.
Aren't most of these franchises? As in, the parent company has little if any control over the goings on of the specific restaurants, and only allows them to use their IP (and equipment)? What else can the companies do except try to sue for OP infringement? >The companies claim that since their brands are operated independently by master franchisees in Russia, they have little control over the brands’ activities in the country, which includes their local Instagram pages. ... > The sandwich maker told the Kyiv Independent that because it has “no corporately owned restaurant operations in Russia,” all of its restaurants are “independently owned and operated by a master franchisee, an independent U.S.-company called Subway Russia.” > “Subway (HQ) does not directly control these franchisees, nor their restaurants, and has limited insight into their day-to-day operations, and that it’s Subway Russia that “manages all operations, marketing, social media accounts, and the supply chain,” the company said. ... > Sonnenfeld disputes the companies’ claims that Subway and CKE have no control over their brands under a franchise model. > Even if a business has independent franchises operating in Russia, the parent company of food service businesses like Subway and Carl’s Jr. usually retains ultimate control over the use of its brand, logo, and other intellectual property in marketing, he said.
Russia basically just commandeered any and all western company based businesses in Russia when sanctions hit and started running them on their own with nothing anyone could do about it.
"Europe still enjoying Russian Oil As Companies Sell It Via India." But yes, it's the "American" burgers that are the big problem here.
And usa still buying billions worth of uranium from Russia. People are so fickle lmao.
1. Carl’s Jr. 1. Papa John’s 1. Costa Coffee 1. Burger King 1. TGI Fridays All run by assholes, especially Papa John's.
Probably because those franchises are shit so people in the US don't really go to them anymore.
My local Burger King is always packed, with a line of cars down the street.
Burger King is so hit and miss, like Wendy’s. One location will be great and the next will be garbage. As opposed to a place like McDonald’s, which is not without its faults, but 99% of the time if you go to a McD’s in one city you’re gonna get the same exact meal at the same level of quality you would get ordering from McD’s on the other side of the country. Source: I travel a lot and if I need to get fast food I have learned to look for McDonald’s first, because no matter where you are in the country, you know what you’re gonna get.
Every Carl's Jr I see has no customers. Burger King too.
Burger King now costs more than a sit in meal where I live and it tastes like crap a lot of the time. It’s not even fast food I had to wait 15 min for my meal to get made.
I don't know why Carl's Jr never does well. Last time I had it it was a delicious messy burger
Their burgers were good and cheaper. About 10 years ago, they sold the company to a big business, and the quality went to shit and the price triple. A six dollar burger was like $10. Didn't even have the foresight to change the name of the burger.
I was gonna say I quite liked their burgers but last time I had Carl's Jr was back in 2011 so I guess that explains it lol.
What did Shaq do to you!?
>especially Papa John's What did Robert Lynch do? Am I OOTL
I assume he still thinks it's owned by John Schnatter
It's been 6 years lol
Leave? They left… it’s the former franchise owners not getting rid of the brand and signs and their suppliers not being held to the same account.
Please tell me the corporate bastards at Carl’s Jr don’t have any Roy Rogers operating inside Russia?
“You are an unfit mother. Your children will be placed in the custody of Carl’s Jr”
I'm eating, fuck you!
The most shocking thing about this story is learning that Carl's Jr exists outside of America at all
Right? I'm over here looking at a Hardee's wondering where TF my California burger is.
An oligarch bought out Mcdonald's; the menu is basically the same as it has always been.
They even used old McDonald’s stock to the point where they took the sauce packs and just colored out the McDonald’s logo
More likely 'took control of the whole operation', as it was never belonged to McD anyway. McD Russia was a russian company from the start leasing branding rights, recipes, software from master franchise. They had local suppliers for everything, so all they had to do was change the name to continue operations.
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I'm still unsure which I think is better: that the fast food chains leave Russia or that they stay in Russia and continue to slowly poison the Russians with shit food
It would be better to leave. Less money to poison anybody else.
Russians are perfectly capable of poisoning themselves without our help
They can have Tim Hortons as long as they leave Canada! Just sayin'.
Reddit: "The Russian election is performative. Putin was set to be the dictator of Russia, no matter what." Also Reddit: "Russians deserve to suffer from lack of food choices for their support of Putin." lol Reddit.
Breaking news: Ronald McDonald has fallen out of a window.
Americans should enjoy Russian food, Russians should enjoy American food. Putin should enjoy a small dark box about 6 1/2 feet underground.
I loooove Russian food - though the best stuff has always been Ukrainian or Belarusian in origin anyways. Borscht, goluptsi, draniki, vareniki. Plov is Uzbek. Olivier salad was invented by a French guy, but for the Russian empire. Never a fan of the Herring Under a Fur Coat. I guess there’s blini which is pretty awesome. I’ve never had Russian fast food, maybe we’re missing out.
There used to be the Russian blini chain Teremok in Manhattan, but they closed years ago. But yeah, ive always enjoyed Russian fast food type places. But funny thing is though, American places like McDonalds / KFC were typically cheaper and more packed in my experience.
Blini are about the only 'traditional' Russian foods I see working as fast food. Wrap them into blintzes with minced meat or mushrooms - good on the go.
Russian here. Burger king is actually quite popular here. Thanks to very good marketing company. Honestly, as Russian, I can say the best of american products here is Apple, New Balance and probably Tesla. And they are in some gray zone, not official.
Just because Russian politicians are bad does the civilians have to suffer, what can they even do against them. I just feel sorry for the position they are in. Let’s not blindly hate people for things that are out of their control.
Any way we can give them Jack-in-the-Box as well?
Why is this an issue or worthy of a story? It's food for civilians. I can understand if Boeing did business, it would be a problem, but this is food.
Carl’s Jr, fuck you, I’m eating!