MOSCOW, 12 Jun (AP) \u2014 Three months after McDonald\u2019s suspended operations in Russia, hundreds of people streamed into its famous former outlet on Moscow\u2019s Pushkin Square as the restaurant reopened Sunday under a Russian owner and a new name.<\/p>\n
In March, McDonald\u2019s halted operations of its company-run restaurants in Russia. Although some run by franchisees stayed open, the action by the multinational fast-food chain was among the most visible responses by foreign companies to Russia sending troops into Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Two months later, McDonald\u2019s decided to leave Russia altogether and sold its 850 restaurants to Alexander Govor, who held licenses for 25 franchises in Siberia.<\/p>\n
Govor is moving fast to reopen the shuttered outlets. It wasn\u2019t until a couple of hours before the Pushkin Square restaurant opened that the Russian chain\u2019s new name was announced: Vkusno-i Tochka (Tasty-period).<\/p>\n
The logo is different, but still evokes the golden arches: a circle and two yellow oblongs \u2014 representing a beef patty and french fries \u2014 configured into a stylized M.<\/p>\n
Fifteen of the former McDonald\u2019s were set to reopen in Moscow on Sunday. Oleg Paroev, the chain\u2019s general director, said he aims to have 200 open by the end of the month.<\/p>\n
As part of the sales deal, whose monetary terms were not announced, the new operation agreed to retain all 62,000 people employed by McDonald\u2019s prior to its exit.<\/p>\n
The crowd at the Pushkin Square outlet, however sizable and lively, was no match for the turnout for the McDonald\u2019s opening in 1990, when people waited in line for hours. At that time, McDonald\u2019s had psychological and political resonance beyond hamburgers.<\/p>\n
The opening was the first taste most Muscovites had of Western consumerism and service efficiency, as well as a sign the Soviet Union was slowly dropping its guard and allowing foreign culture into the country.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, that earlier symbolism echoed through Sunday\u2019s reopening with a note of nostalgia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a historic place \u2014 the flagship of McDonald\u2019s,\u201d Govor told reporters. \u201cI\u2019m sure it will be the flagship for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inside, the restaurant resembled a fraternal twin of its former self. There were touchscreens for placing orders and counter workers wearing familiar polo-shirt uniforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sure that our customers won\u2019t notice a difference between us,\u201d Paroev said. However, he said, the company will seek a new soft drinks supplier as it has limited stocks of Coca-Cola.<\/p>\n
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MOSCOW, 12 Jun (AP) \u2014 Three months after McDonald\u2019s suspended operations in Russia, hundreds of people streamed into its famous former outlet on Moscow\u2019s Pushkin Square as the restaurant reopened Sunday under a Russian owner and a new name. In March, McDonald\u2019s halted operations of its company-run restaurants in Russia. Although some run by franchisees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-192911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}