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McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

corporate.mcdonalds.com

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Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#131

Post by dunkelheit »

jcranmer wrote: post #103
logifail wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obviously they'd want to keep the trademark, otherwise they have no way to prevent those sold restaurants from "re-Arching" after the "de-Arching" :) If a country has gone sufficiently rogue to invade a neighbour, respect for property[0][1] - and by extension trademarks - appears to matter very little, at least for now? [0] https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/16/business/russia-aircraft-... [1] https://www.bbc.com/news…

Russia is party to several international treaties that allow it to be sued outside of Russian courts if it doesn't uphold intellectual property law, and if those suits do not go Russia's way, then it is now possible that Russian assets can be seized as compensation. Or, to oversimplify it, if Russia decides that anyone can use McDonald's trademark, then maybe Gazprom's pipelines won't be Russian anymore.

You are a bit late to the party. Many Russian assets have already been seized, among them the Gazprom subsidiary in Germany.

We are in a weird spot where Russia is very much interested in economic relationships continuing more or less as is (exemplified by the conciliatory rhetoric from the Russian government, essentially they are saying "no hard feelings, return any time" to the departing companies) so will mostly respect property rights. OTOH the West sees financial and economic relationships as their main weapon in this war so most funky moves related to property rights will be initiated by the Western governments (e.g. many "sanctions" essentially are extrajudiciary property seizures).

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#132

Post by Feriti »

vondro wrote: post #29

Something that has been bugging me for some time (genuine question, please forgive me lack of geopolitics/economy understanding) is this: Supposing we want to hurt Russian economy - how are we hurting it by stopping selling them licenses/branding/machines to make and sell burgers and fries? Are we not ripping them off money if we sell to them? As in: we gain, they lose? I understand we don't want to sell advanced tec…

I would not underestimate how critical influence is.

Influence / knowledge how to operate big chains,.how to organize supplier how to do marketing etc.

If you are a smart modern person speaking English also makes it easier for you to stay in your country when you have appropriate job opportunities and a ecosystem which feels adequate.

It's not that I would miss McDonald's if it would disappear were I live bit if a lot more does, I would probably want to migrate away.

I think this is a bad sign for Russia. And IF they are able to recreate what they already had, it will take time and be costly.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#135

Post by nerdjon »

I don't really have much to add to the topic that hasn't already been said here. It will be interesting to see if this continues and what it does to Russia.

But on a tech side of things, why is the corporate section of McDonalds trying to request my location?!? Glad Safari prompted me and I blocked it but this is ridiculous.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#136

Post by andystep »

ushakov wrote: post #33

Russian propaganda will use this news as a tool they already say “we don’t need McDonalds”

actually Russian propaganda interpreted this exact news as "McDonalds will be re-opened in mid June" [1] focusing on keeping jobs and suppliers and mentioning the rebranding

[1] https://tass.ru/ekonomika/14634951

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#137

Post by chupasaurus »

boole1854 wrote: post #80
jnorthrop wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure who downvoted you. It is a good question. McDonald's and other consumer goods type companies are not sanctioned, so the company can sell its assets. For that matter they could continue to operate as normal in Russia if they choose.

I'm not sure they really could easily continue to operate as normal. Their business units in Russia get paid by consumers in rubles, but due to the financial sanctions, they can no longer convert rubles to US dollars [1]. From the point of view of their non-Russian shareholders, this effectively means all that money is inaccessible. This would result in complications in reporting the revenue on their income statement…

You're right, currently you can't get your revenue outside unless you're down to use a scheme involving exchange for trades inside Russia, move them outside and turn back to money. I've diagonally read the article linked and it depicts everything correctly.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#138

Post by josefx »

jcranmer wrote: post #103
logifail wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obviously they'd want to keep the trademark, otherwise they have no way to prevent those sold restaurants from "re-Arching" after the "de-Arching" :) If a country has gone sufficiently rogue to invade a neighbour, respect for property[0][1] - and by extension trademarks - appears to matter very little, at least for now? [0] https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/16/business/russia-aircraft-... [1] https://www.bbc.com/news…

Russia is party to several international treaties that allow it to be sued outside of Russian courts if it doesn't uphold intellectual property law, and if those suits do not go Russia's way, then it is now possible that Russian assets can be seized as compensation. Or, to oversimplify it, if Russia decides that anyone can use McDonald's trademark, then maybe Gazprom's pipelines won't be Russian anymore.

The problem with that is that Putin doesn't seem to care about the damage to Russias economy and hijacking the gas pipelines is likely to do just as much damage to the countries downstream. One of Gazproms local off shots managing gas reserves was recently seized in Germany, however without Gazprom delivering gas its tanks will just stay empty and they represent a not insignificant amount of our winter reserves.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#139

Post by adventured »

ushakov wrote: post #107
jquery wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but not everyone is convinced by the propaganda. Some people are just plain mad they don’t have something they used to have. We’ve tried appeasing a mad expansionist dictator in the past, didn’t go so well. This is especially keen with apple products.

Apple products can be brought from overseas with McDonalds they would just make a clone which uses same formulas and suppliers

It's about removing sanction: denying the Russians - particularly the urban Russians - their veneer of civilization, affluence, westernization. The notion that they had accomplished something material positive in regards to moving forward in the world among nations after the Soviet collapse.

Sure they can clone brands, and sometimes they can clone products and services, you can also go to Walmart and buy Great Value brand products that are 85% as good as the brand goods. Most people still don't want to do that if they can afford not to.

People buy brands primarily (not exclusively) for social reasons of status, not because they're vastly superior to all alternatives (off brands, generics, house brands, etc). They don't need that Chanel or Louis Vuitton bag, or iPhone, they want it to show off.

Removing sanction is about the West no longer pretending Russia is a civilized nation, no longer pretending their culture is a civilized one (rather than a barbarous relic of the conquest-obsessed primitive past of the European great powers conflicts).

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