this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
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Putin isn't chowing down on BK, neither are the oligarchs, or the heads of the army, the FSB, or so on.
What's the point of making sure BK leaves the market except and ineffectual attempt to hurt ordinary Russians?
Honestly, BK should just leave. Russians or as a matter of fact no one deserves to eat that "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."
Mfw when no pizza hut
Then they just kept the same fast food joints but changed the names after the franchise exits
I don't even understand how the hell burger King is alive to this day. There's 2 burger kings in my city, both on the same road and I've never seen anyone in line at either of them.
Like are we even sure burger King isint some psy op or something? Does anyone even remember the last time they were in one?
BK staying is the punishment
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
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)
The main purpose is to create a sentiment of dissatisfaction for the current government
Edit: I am just pointing out their purpose, it doesn't mean that I share their view boyz
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?
I point to things like Aunt Jemima or something and tell you I can see how this might seem like it works to the US
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
Russians are going to be so angry about no Burger King they'll do a 1917 on Putin for sure.
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.
Like the time I overthrew my government when my favorite pizza joint closed.
I'm just going to point out here the lockdown protests
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
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.
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.
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.
I don't see any purpose beyond moral posturing.
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.
they wouldn't even have to stop calling it burger king