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The Bolshoi Mac
| Article
# : |
19084 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1991 |
2,173 Words |
| Author
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Donna McDaniel
Donna McDaniel writes for the Southborough Villager and
resides in Southborough, Massachusetts. She recently returned
from Moscow. |
There is something paradoxical about standing in line for a couple of hours to eat fast food. Unless, that is, you are in the Soviet Union, where waiting in line is a way of life, and unless you are in line at the McDonald's in Moscow, where thousands of Soviets believe there is actually something worth waiting for.
It's clear the fifty thousand customers a day at the world's largest and most successful McDonald's have no qualms about joining the queue that often wends its way around Pushkin Park. The lines haven't grown any shorter since the restaurant's much-heralded opening on January 31, 1990, even after the prices doubled last October (the increase was prompted by shortages that caused the price of beef to jump from two rubles per kilogram-about 2.2 pounds-to fourteen). Nothing seems to slow the stream of burgers with a special sauce on a sesame seed bun served up just blocks from the Bolshoi Theatre, Red Square and the Kremlin. The golden arches just off Gorky Street have joined those spots on the official city tour of Moscow.
While we in the West do not expect anything like the ultimate dining experience from a fast-food restaurant, it behooves us to realize that McDonald's looks a whole lot different to people who have few choices in dining out and who may in fact have to make an appointment to do so. And after everything's been arranged, a Muscovite's dining experience will likely include menus filled with phantom dishes and waiters strong on smirk but weak on service.
I was a little embarrassed to tell friends that I planned to go to McDonald's on my trip to Moscow. After all, it is de rigueur in the United States to put down those ubiquitous "fast food joints," to fret that McDonald's now has restaurants in fifty-two other countries, to decry the spread of American pop culture throughout the world. But that was before I knew that McDonald's may be the only place where a Soviet citizen can actually get what's printed on the menu and have it served with a smile.
Shattering all Projections
Fittingly in a huge city of massive buildings, massive hotels, and massive monuments, Moscow's McDonald's has shattered all projections. The numbers are staggering:
* At the six-month mark, seven million people (about two-thirds of Moscow's population) had been welcomed at one door and thanked with a smile as they exited the
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