McDonalds recently won a land mark case in Russia, forever changing an aspect of the fast food market and its profitability. Here is one in the eye of all those who scream, ignorantly, about the Russian judicial system.
McDonalds sued the Moscow Oblast Federal Tax Authority over the 18% restaurant tax. In a suit that went straight to the top, McDonalds won by convincing the court that it indeed is not a restaurant (here's to all the Americans that see it as fine dining) and is actually a grocery store.
What?, you say.
Yes, the reason is: they provide no restaurant service and indeed give preprepared and packaged food, when customers ask for it. That is the truth, since much of their "food" is made hours and maybe even a day before and sits under heat lamps waiting for its victims, er customers.
Well, why does this matter? Simple, a huge cost savings to McDonalds, McPick, KFC, McBlin, BurgerKing, Wendies and the army of other smaller establishments of like mind. Simply put, a grocery store pays 10% tax rates while a restaurant pays 18%.
Be careful what you wish for.
It would seem, McDonalds officials either did not read the laws guiding grocery store produce or figured that no one would notice, but some one did. Actually, quite a few someones, that is the customer rights and protection civil agencies. Yes, Anglo-world, be in shock, we Russians are civilized enough to have customer protection organizations founded by citizens.
Anyways, these groups have taken McDonalds to court and also won. They are not demanding money, all they are demanding is an exact listing of all contents: edible and chemical, that go into each and every one of McDonalds (and all other such places) "food". This of course, is a disaster for the industry.
In America, land of the
One of the things that came to light in their suit against McDonalds is that by Russian consumer law, McDonalds can not legally call their milk-shakes, milk-shakes but instead milk-containing shakes, since they put large amounts of vegetable oil in the shake instead of milk fat.
This is going to get very interesting, as McDonalds has over 1,400 stores in Russia, and are not going to cut and run and will be forced to disclose on each and every product's container, what is in it, in very specific terms. Customers will finally get to know what poison the executives of McDonalds are feeding them and their children.
This should be interesting. Americans can thank Russians (not for a second am I under the delusion that they will) that we have once again led and won the fight against a new world evil: chemical crap called food.
8 comments:
Bwahahahahha!!!
Die, McDonald's! DIE!
If the food served by McDonald's Russian outlets is anything like what's served in the US, they sure aint restaurants.
McDonald's "cuisine" is vile. It saddens me that so many of my fellow citizens, I mean consumers, can tolerate it.
Maybe - just maybe, if you are on the dismal freeway in the middle of nowhere and need a cup of coffee and something to avoid hunger pangs, it is edible.
But as most of the world can see from our rates of obesity and diabetes, this diet ain't good for one's survival rate.
The question does occur to me, however: why do Russians and even the French eat this stuff in increasing quantities?
@Publius
When it first came out, people ate it because it was new and American. Now they eat it for the same reasons as in America: convenience and your kids go nuts and want tasteless food with a toy...exactly what it offers. Same reason that knock offs like McPick prosper, offering the same crap.
They all got away with it because as restaurants they were not bound by law to disclose what is inside their "food", but now, as produce stores, they have to. Hope it was worth the money saved....hahaaa. As it is, though, some of the things they put in the food in America is illegal in Russia and Europe.
For example: most of the meat they have to buy from Russia as Russia (and Europe for that matter) bans the use of bleach to clean the chicken and ammonia to clean the ground beef....both poisons and both allowed in the US.
As an American, I want to say "Thank You" to the Russians who forced the issue. Now we hope to find out what's really inside their food products. GREAT article, Stas!
"McDonalds, McPick, KFC, McBlin, BurgerKing, Wendies and the army of other smaller establishments of like mind."
I can tell my Russian brothers what I tell my American brothers this "fast food" is designed to slowly kill us. Take for example all that processed vegetable oil in the "milk shakes" and just about every other item on the menu. Processed vegetable oil is one of the LARGEST factors in both Heart Disease and Cancer.
“Animal fats contain many nutrients that protect against cancer and heart disease; elevated rates of cancer and heart disease are associated with consumption of large amounts of vegetable oils.” Fed Proc July 1978 37:2215, Note folks can it be any clearer?
“Total fat content of traditional diets varies from 30% to 80% but only about 4% of calories come from polyunsaturated oils naturally occurring in grains, pulses, nuts, fish, animal fats and vegetables. The balance of fat calories is in the form of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. Traditional diets contain nearly equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids.” Weston A. Price Foundation
“Polyunsaturates in more than small amounts contribute to cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, learning disabilities, intestinal problems and premature aging. Large amounts of polyunsaturated fats are new to the human diet, due to the modern use of commercial liquid vegetable oils.” Weston A. Price Foundation
“When vegetable oils are heated they form a compound called HNE which attacks your arteries, nerves and eye tissue like sulfuric acid etches glass. It’s been implicated in hardening of the arteries, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Huntington’s and liver disease as well as age related macular degeneration.” Doctor David G. Williams
“Dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids of the omega 6 class found in corn oil and safflower oil may be involved in the development of breast cancer, where as long chain omega 3 PUFAs found in fish oil can inhibit breast cancer.” Bagga et al
http://healthyprotocols.com/2_fat.htm
Can't wait to see the results :) Please post them all and photos with translation if you can.. its about time the world learns about food and what goes into it :(
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