Restaurant Brands International owns Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeye's Chicken, and Firehouse Subs
Fuck RBI, they are lying war profiteers putting tax revenue in the hand of the Kremlin which it uses to fund it's war of genocide in Ukraine. Do not eat in any of their restaurants
You don’t own franchise partners by definition. They are individually owned restaurants that pay you a fee to use your brand (name, menu, marketing, etc.).
„Shutting down“ here means: Don’t renew these franchise contracts. The restaurants will continue to exist, but they will have to rebrand and be less lucrative.
but they will have to rebrand and be less lucrative.
And what do you do if those Russian franchise owners refuse to rebrand and continue using the BK name, supplies and signage?
Do you stop providing logistical support? Do you cut them off the BK supply chain (shut that down too) and not provide any new menu items / marketing materials?
Edit: At least 10 people didn’t read the fucking article, BK did cut the supply line. This place is just like Reddit, all hurr durr without reading the article.
They are telling you, literally. They should revoke the branding licence, cut every supply lines, and sue them if they continue using the brand (as they would surely do if I just started to have a Burger King without a licence). They don’t do these things. Which is wrong. And that’s what they are doing wrong.
What imaginary supply line are you talking about? Do you think that any food there is not supplied locally? That they import paper wrappings with a logo from the US? Actually the ones probably importing their stuff are sitting in the US, even if it's just plastic trash from China.
It's a name. And if they got told not to use it anymore or they just don't pay anything anymore... what is supposed to happen? Someone goes to Russia and sues them there?
Burger King corporate supplies the wrappers, the branding, the marketing, and the damn product. These franchises don’t “make” anything in house. They reheat par-cooked food that, in this case, BK corporate has delivered to them via truck. BK corporate has had over a year to cut that supply line. They own the branding, and therefore the wrappers.
BK did cut the supply chain logistics. It’s mentioned in the article.
Sue the franchisees? Where? In Russia? In the middle of an economic war with the west? Even if the suit proceeded for some reason, who do you expect the court to rule in favor of?
BK did everything to severe ties. The only thing that remains is to sell their share of the franchise. If they sell now (even if they find a buyer), they likely won’t be paid in anything other than rubles which is useless.
Lol dude, take your own advice. Read the article, about how they’re dragging their feet and didn’t even want to exit in the first place. How much that BK PR team paying you lol.
Also they didn’t say they were cutting supply chain, it says “The spokesperson for RBI said the company was refusing new investment and supply chain support.” Refusing NEW investments is not the same as killing the existing supply chain. Jesus, read.
Nothing, because you just hallucinate supply lines. The franchise pays for the fucking name and that's it. And if they are not allowed to do so anymore, who's going to Russia and sue the owning oligarchs there?
They ARE wrong though. They’re acting like we’re only getting mad about one thing at a time. What kind of smug asshole goes on the internet to peddle moral superiority over strawmen?
It’s moreso that the emphasis on issues is very often skewed by MSM to the stuff that matters a lot less, and then the normies all get in an outrage. Does it really matter if BK is still in Russia? They’re not actively working with the Russian military right? The money is flowing out to the glorious USA BK hq no?
They outrage is such a great example of western exceptionalism. The existence of western consumer businesses in the countries of the non-Aryan jungle is supposed to be an immense benefit to these places and their departure must necessarily be disastrous for them. Nowhere is the idea entertained that Russians are perfectly capable of creating their own shitty burger restaurants to replace those if the west.
You're missing the point. For BK to operate in Russia means dollars flowing into Russia, because BK needs to buy Rubles. Dollars that Russia needs to buy arms on the international market, because nobody is accepting Rubles.
This is true. However, if I owned BK, I’d see this as an amazing business strategy, although a quite unethical one (but as we can see, multi million+ dollar companies aren’t the most ethical either way). I mean, now the literal government has an interest for it to stay in business, they may even start to promote the brand.
Except BK is an American company. They wouldn’t operate in Russia if they weren’t making a profit. So their net effect is to have money flowing out of Russia.
It’s like that 80s news footage of the first McDonald’s opening in Moscow where they’re like so-true ”finally those filthy commies get to enjoy our superior Western treats”
Then they interview someone who says it wasn’t really worth it to stand in line and pay so much lenin-laugh
Man your historical revisionism is almost endless at hexbear.
I grew up in a navy/embassy family, so moved around every 3-5 years onto new postings. At an embassy posting in Stockholm, it was common for the attaché-community to pair newly arrived families with someone who had been there for a while. My mum thus got paired with a newly arrived Soviet wife-of-an-attaché to show her the ropes of diplomat life. This lady was on her first posting (it was quite common for Soviet embassy staff to have a LOT of newcomers for fear that they would get to used to western life style and seek asylum) and she was showing this lady where to do shopping in Stockholm. I was joining as I was too small to be left at home on my own.
So we walk into this supermarket and the Soviet lady sort of walks in, stops for a second, then walks through the one-way gates and stops again. And then she bursts into tears.
Diplomat life is hard on partners - so tears in the opening days aren’t that uncommon. My mum pulls her to the side and starts saying the usual (“I remember when we started”, “it’ll get better” bla bla) and the Soviet lady says basically “you don’t understand! I’ve never, ever seen so much choice and food and my life”.
She wasn’t crying because she had left home. She was crying because she was realising how fucked up home was - and remember this is someone who was sent out as a diplomat so reasonably well connected at home.
The West had a reason for its exceptionalism back then. Compared to many places it still does. In others, of course, we need to wake the fuck up - China is a great example, where there is definitely no cause for a feeling of exceptionalism. Russia, oh boy, yes we can still feel exceptional.
Go on then, dismiss me with your hexbear memes and be gone.
if it was so bad why did the CIA report that the average russians diet was better than compartively an americans?
‘I get to have 8 different brands of pepsi-cola im so free’ isnt a compelling arguement lmao, neither are annecdotes from your neo-liberal scum family.
listen up kid my dad worked in a european embasy and he said the people we bombed where poor so think again COMMIE about how many freeDOMS we have as a result of our rape of the third world
What sort of nonsense response is that? Anyone can poop out any anecdote they like to support their position and say “I know it hurts so it’s easy to reject”.
Give me a break. No system is perfect and the discussion isn’t about perfection vs horror. It’s about a series of tradeoffs and the tradeoffs done in the west broadly resulting in better outcomes, on average, for the population there than they did in the Soviet Union. For China nowadays, I’m less certain. Definitely in the big Tier 1 cities, life is on par with Western outcomes, for some better for some worse.
I’m just saying, it’s ironic to use that example of a diplomat as opposed to how many people live paycheck to paycheck barely able to make ends meet or are actually homeless, I doubt those people are crying in joy when they walk into a Walmart
I think you’ve missed my point entirely - that could be my fault.
The example illustrates that even for those well-connected enough in the Soviet Union the sight of a western supermarket was enough to make them weep (this was ‘88).
I brought this example up to address the false belief that people in Russia weren’t all that impressed with western products (like McDonalds) back when the Soviet Union existed.
I don’t know how you’re managing to connect that with how people live today and their experience of walking into Walmart.
Finally, this didn’t take place in Harrods but in ICA in Sweden. Hardly a luxury shop - just an average supermarket.
The idea of communism (extremely simplified) everyone has the means to live and people at “the top” don’t get special privilege on that, obviously almost all actual implementations turn into dictatorships so the point is somewhat moot, however the fact a well connected diplomat in a communist country had to live in the same conditions as other non-well connected people would be a positive, not a negative, they’d see and hopefully be able to improve the lives of everyone as they understand what it’s like.
Compare that to a majority of the rich and powerful in America, they’re so ridiculously disconnected from the average experience that they literally do not understand at all what it’s like for those with less.
Ah, with that I broadly agree. But I do feel the goalposts are shifting.
In the case of “was it right for the west to feel their system was better than the Soviet one” my example simply illustrates that a western supermarket in ‘88 reduced someone from the Soviet Union to tears.
But that’s really misdirecting of the overall issue right? That’s why I brought up homeless or very low income people in America as a counter-example.
Sure capitalism brings us some good things because of the profit incentive driving some to continue pushing the envelope (there’s pros and cons, don’t want to get too in the weeds) but there’s also massive inequality, compared to the ideal of a communist or socialist perspective where sure it might not be as shiny or you don’t have as many options, but you’re definitely housed and fed.
I agree but I wasn’t trying to address the overall issue. Certainly no more me than the people I responded to, who used the example of shitty junk food joints to claim the people of the Soviet Union didn’t look with envy on the choices offered to the western citizens.
In theory the communist system is fantastic, in the same way the society described in The Culture is. There just hasn’t been any implementation that got close to that ideal and certainly the median citizen seems better off in the west.
I guess the main thing they might have been talking about is how a lot of the “west culture” will only trumpet the “good” aspects of capitalism and downplay any/all negatives.
Like it’s cool we have McDonalds and many other fast food places available, but so many of them are bottom of the barrel quality/health wise and therefore it’s really not like it adds a ton of value to our lives over if we didn’t have to worry about having healthy food provided to us, even if we don’t have the choice.
Mostly splitting hairs at this point, I think we broadly agree :p
Better outcome is when everyone is homeless and dies from preventable diseases due to unaccessible healthcare, BUT they have a choice of 50 different shampoos.
And the horror is when everyone has a roof, is educated, in good health, but has to munch on the disgusting government provided nutritious food. 😡
I remember when the sanctions started and Western fast food, media, and social media were all pulling out. Someome quipped “oh no, Russians will be the healthiest and happiest people on the planet. How awful.”
Well, it’s about economics, not hurting ordinary russians. Doing business in russia gives them money, which helps them pay for the war. It’s as simple as that.
But Burger King sells to Russians and repatriates some of its profits back to the US. If BK leaves Russia then Russians will spend their money on other restaurants, presumably ones which do not send profits overseas (due to the sanctions) which paradoxically means more money staying in Russia.
If the restaurants close then there will be some momentary unemployment but there’s a war going on so unemployment helps smooth over manpower issues. That’s also ignoring the possibility of a Russian entity stepping into BK’s shoes like they did with McD’s and just running the place without the trademarks.
They don’t even have to respect trademarks anymore because of how much Russia is sanctioned. They can just keep running their own Burger King with the only difference being that the real BK won’t see any profits and the money will stay inside Russia.
Worst case scenario for the west is that the Russians just rename the chain “Burger Tsar” or something and continue as normal. Russians still get their treats, BK gets no money.
It is about economics. If Burger King leaves Russia, they’re still leaving the restaurants, distribution networks and the employees behind. They’re not going to sit idle just because the brand left, rather they’re going to keep going under a new name, just like how McDonald’s did.
What effect does that have on the Russian war effort? None.
Is it effective? Especially since McD’s leaving the country has just resulted in the Russian suppliers and restaurant owners running the place on their own with the same recipes.
Are the Russian people going to be angry at the lack of clown/king related branding?
that’s because Americans just want to be angry at each other about something. Ultimately the American obsession with culture war stupid bullshit comes from the fact that the American constitution is an objectively stupid foundation for a country and its checks and balances prevent any actual politics from getting done so to differentiate themselves politicians have to focus on nonsense
this has also effected other countries that have too much american news
I don’t really know a way forward other than just getting rid of the United states as a legal framework and starting a new country entirely from scratch there is really nothing salvageable about the way american democracy is structured and it needs a redesign from the ground up
Without American fast food, Russians will have to resort to eating rotten maggot-infested meat. It will be like a million Battleship Potemkins all at once.
IDK I would be pretty happy if shitty body-ruining fast food and proprietary Spyware like Microsoft left my country, I would like my shitty neofascist government sliiiightly more (I am Italian, sadly) if instead of sucking on uncle Sam’s hairy balls they would kick harmful corpos out
I think the narrative these people are trying to push is that these companies get dollars flowing into Russia, they buy roubles, and Russia uses the dollars on the international weaponry market. I don’t get why this would be a problem, since Microsoft still does the same shit I assume (most Russians definitely use Windows)
also if they left then the burger kings in russia would just stay open. It is not a complicated business to copy when you already have the equipment and staff. It’s as simple as continuing to sell burgers
Burger king could end it’s francisee relationships but the burger shop is already in russia
There has been a lot of debate on this. Is it cruel and unusaul punishments. Have the russiand done things so bad to deserve burger king. only time will tell.
Say anything remotely negative about Dictatorship 1 and Dictatorship 2, and they come scrambling out of the woodwork with a long rant full of lies, stupidity, and revisionism and a couple of those cringe ass, unnecessarily large emojis to go with it. Honestly sick of them. Individual instance filtering can’t come fast enough.
when mcdonalds pulled out they just didn’t close the mcdonalds. The buildings and people who work in the mcdonalds were already in Russia there is literally no reason they can’t just stay open
Renamed to McBlyat, serving Big Pickle with Coca Vodka now.
I am almost aure they just nationalized the building and it keeps operating, although with a different menu as McDonald’s no longer imports the ingredients. At least they don’t make money out of it.
If I go to my local McD’s anything I buy there will be made right here in Norway, and I assume it’s the same in Russia and basically any other country they’re in.