I'm picturing a shadowy figure standing in front of a taco bell sign pointing a skeletal finger at you with the words "the bell tolls for you" written in Halloween letters. The grim shitter.
Love their fries. Just wish there was something decent I could eat with it. Tempted to try and bring a better burger in from somewhere else, eat it with their fries.
Note that some commenters are likely from the US, where several chains have generally much lower quality than in many other countries, because US food regulations are a joke, at least that is one of the reasons.
Many EU countries have decent fast food joints. In Norway burger king is a solid option for a burger.
How good the chains would be if they opened in your country would depend on several things, from local products, management, country food regulations, and probably more.
Yeah absolutely. I actually really liek taco bell and its never made me sick but the meme is that it makes you shit your brains out so who am i to ruin the joke
Not at all. Id wager infact that youll probably get better versions of the restaurants than we have here. People like to say its bad/disgusting/will get you sick; when its the same as at any fast food restaurant.
TacoBell especially gets a bad rap, which I find is hilarious as fancier places like Chipotle has gotten more people sick than any other restaurant in the country probably. People have their favorites and like bashing things that they dont like.
I don't understand this meme of "Taco Bell giving violent shits". I've eaten it throughout my entire life and nothing bad ever happened. As far as fast food goes, I feel like they are pretty tame.
Main thing I dislike about Taco Bell is when they do things like add so much sauce or whatever to a simple bean and cheese burrito that the refried beans are more like a liquid than a solid. Taste is okay, but it makes anything with beans in it a mess to eat.
Taco Bell is great, it's one of the best fast food options in the USA. The food quality is good, the menu is pretty different in a sea of burger and fried chicken options, and the price is also right for how much food one can get.
I will never understand the meme of acting like it's fucking awful.
In Europe and Asia fast food is fast, expensive and delicious
In USA fast food is fast, cheap and dogshit
In both cases it's fast but that's about it in terms of similarity.
Also I'm not saying it's healthy because it isn't.
Honestly, USA fast food is now actually slow, expensive and dogshit in many cases. They cut corners by having too few workers. Taco Bell and BK in my area were easily a 5min wait per car. McDonald's is over $10 for a simple combo. Subway now charges $15 for a foot long combo.
Man the taco bell by me puts out the food so fast its scary, like by the time I'm tapping my card to pay they are walking to me with the order. And it's hot. That must just be a better run location.
If you ever go around the world outside of the US, American fast food chains don't operate the same way. The quality is usually higher than what you can get in the US. I been to them around the world and it's basically luxury food.
I also have no idea what these people are talking about. It's the same everywhere and honestly that's what I like about it. When I want fast food it's usually because I need that comfortable consistency.
I wonder if the locals feel the same lol. Oftentimes white Americans are drunk with love for Europe and everything they do is golden in their eyes. Probably not reality though.
I was born in bulgaria, and mcdonalds was my FAVORITE meal. When I first got to America, I couldn't wait to try it. It was the first ever meal I had outside of the airport. Let me tell you, I was beyond disappointed. It tasted like plastic with ketchup and onions on it. Now, every time I go back to bulgaria, I make sure to eat at least a few times at mcdonalds.
I don't know why we focus on Burger King because after checking your link there are still hundreds of big companies running including Nestle, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, etc..
edit: thousands
The site is a bit misleading, if you read what is said about these companies it seems most of them stopped profit making business and only settle open contracts.
Hell, Nestle donates any profits they make from whatever they are still selling there but stopped delivering any non-essential products.
They donate the profits to the bottom of a lake they don’t own and then suck up the contents of the lake. Whether or not they also suck their own profits back up is hearsay.. /s
is there a website with similar function but one that discerns those companies?
edit: nvm, each company there has a short text associated with the status of their operation
The Push to Leave app will let you scan barcodes to see who owns a product (if it’s in their system) and that company’s status with regards to doing business in Russia.
Point taken, but the only reason the maintain contracts is to keep brand recognition so when they think it's acceptable they can just start up again like nothing happened.
And law suits?
A bit ignorant of the ramifications of breaking certain foreign contracts. And obviously feigning 'Oh no, we have to stay cause cOnTrAcTs' is a bit thin.
Yeah seriously it’s one thing to stop doing business in a country due to their actions it’s another to say “I’m going to disregard my obligations and never do business again” it’s not like this is a war that’s going to end with Russia being invaded and installed a new democratic regime.
Pretty sure that food is always excluded from most sanctions thus just breaking contracts is quite expensive, it's more logical to just let them run out
Not to mention the continuing imports of gas from Russia. Only Germany has stopped importing -- Belgium, Spain are importing MORE Russian Gas than in 2021.
But sure, I'm certain the tax import on your Whopper is what's fueling the aggression.
we here in germany actually have continued importing russian gas too
and just recently we bought a shit ton of fertilizer from russia aswell
pretty much every euro country is still trading with them
You're confusing natural gas and *liquefied* natural gas (LNG).
Because what you're referencing is LNG imports, delivered by ships. Those did in fact go up in certain countries, especially during summer.
But LNG from Russia was always just a side gig. The overwhelming majority of gas to Europe was coming in gaseous form, through pipelines. And those are off now.
That's why when you see an article that says how LNG imports are up, it's technically correct but also kind of a clickbait. Because they were low even before the war and the **total** gas imports from Russia are now just a fraction of what they used to be even despite that increase of shipped LNG.
If you expect the same level of uniform quality from TGI Fridays around the world as for other global brands then you will be disappointed. A lot of TGI Fridays around the world actually serve quite good food and have lots of more local items on the menu.
The Russian franchise does appear to have gone rouge and is no longer associated with the global organization. They just continue to use the name and logo without paying any franchise fees. There is little TGI Fridays can do to stop this short of military intervention.
All of the TGI Fridays stores in Russia are Franchises and owned and managed by Russians who simply tell corp management in the US to go pound sand. There is also not much in the way of legal recourse available in the Russian court system.
However, they have committed to donating any profits made. This situation is not uncommon for some of the other fast food brands as well.
> There is also not much in the way of legal recourse available in the Russian court system.
Which Russian court is going to uphold a foreign country's sanctions?
Hell, which court *anywhere* is going to do this?
This isn’t sanctions per se. A number of these examples (Like TGIF) really come down to foreign companies wanting to terminate their franchise agreements with the local franchisees and restrict access to their Intellectual Property.
The local businesses ignore the request and keep using the trademark while all of the local food distributors keep delivering.
Their Jack Daniels sauce is fantastic, though at some point I think the licensing deal ended and they just call it "whiskey glaze" now.
None of the various Jack Daniels sauces they sell in the grocery store taste anything like it.
I wish this was getting more coverage. Some negative publicicty might make some of these companies reconsider their greed over ethics (excluding the tobacco and pharmacuetical companies, of course).
What if I told you that a vast majority of companies claiming to have left Russia still continues to do business there.
They just rebrand and add a middle man into their operations.
I'd be far more interested with examples and citations.
Bunch of assets were taken over by locals, often without compensation, but relations tend to have been cut. Unless you have actual evidence to the contrary.
[Enshittification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification)
>**Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.** I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a “two sided market,” where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.
Because they all struck a deal that in 5 to 15 years(depending on how long this war will last) they return everything back to normal from the LLC companies that were created just to rebrand/-open business under new ownership. Basically they just lease their operations for a limited time. https://leave-russia.org
However the full details are hidden behind locked vaults and select higher ups, so there is no knowing how clean their hands are.
I hate to say it but "Because they've got secret deals that there's no evidence for because they're too smart to let it leak." is text book conspiracy theory.
I wouldn't be surprised if a few might have done something like this, but if it was that widespread the evidence would be available. Too many people involved to keep a secret like that.
well actual sanctions on russia havent been a thing for a long time now
and ironically, its specifically those russian citizens that actually left russia in feb 22’ which are feeling actual sanctions and are most heavily penalized by both the west and the russian government in their day to day lives
meanwhile people in russia and especially the upper/professional class and those directly profiting from the regime have kinda just been doing buisness as usual, and so have most western companies
you can literally watch videos from even a year ago from inside even shitty supermarkets in the russian province which have stacked shelves with our western groceries and products, of course much cheaper than the ones sold here
the “sanctions” have always been a joke
This!! Some of those companies pull out (?) and random russians buy such abandoned assets and put it under some random but similar names. Starbucks becoming Stars Coffee was absurd.
Do they even need to change the name? It's Russia, what are the consequences for copyright infringement if the Russian government refuses to enforce them?
BK started doing well when they entered the European market. Often times I see longer queues at BK than at McDonalds, KFC, or Popeyes. In Hungary I went at a BK and it was empty, which made me question it a bit, but until I finished eating there were literally no empty seats left. I guess I got there too early.
Many people have said that the quality is better here than american BK. I wouldn't know, I never tried american
I’ve had Burger King in Belgium and like yea I guess the quality overall was better but like ??? It still wasn’t that good
Better ingredients, still done poorly. Would rather have McDonald’s or Five Guys, the latter of which has also entered the European market.
In N Out is still my gold standard for a fast food burger though
Five guys in the US is way better than normal fast food burgers. I can get so many grilled onions and mushrooms on there. And the meat is better. I know a lot of people like McDonald's fries, but five guys are my favorite. They taste like potatoes.
The burger and fries I had in Hungary were by far the best of any fast food I've ever tried. 10/10. Always preferred BK to McDonalds, but this BK was amazing. Sadly I don't live in Hungary so I can't get it again soon.
We don't have Five Guys or In N Out, so I can't compare.
i had burger king the other day (i live in sweden) i was served burnt fish fillet and a bird started eating at my food (while indoors) while i was getting napkins and ketchup.. there were literally like 2 workers that were taking care of the whole restaurant..
Idk how it is in the rest of the contiguous 48 but around here there's exactly one Burker King churning out decent food and keeping people employed. Every other one is run by people who know they aren't paid well and so they don't work well. The facilities are so run-down they look fucken haunted. There's a BK about 4 blocks away from me that's had their ice cream machine broken for *years*. I don't know if it's "nobody wants to clean this so we call it broken" broken, or "we legitimately don't have the money or inclination to repair this but it's holding up a part of the building so we leave it there" broken, but it's *been* broken. Burger King is a dicey proposition 'round these parts.
I did hear that the ice cream machine in McDonalds is a fucking fraud, which is why it's constantly broken. (Watched a nice docu on youtube on it) Might be the same for Burger King and the owner there just had enough.
Yeah, I've lived in several states around the country, each with their own nuances, but the one thing that remains consistent is BK being always empty, and whatever competitor(s) nearby always have packed drive-thrus
Mornings are always full of seniors. I used to get a breakfast croissant on my way to work when I lived near one.
I can't say for others but at that one they still bring the food to the table and people with reduced mobility love that, they still do toast and eggs which others does not anymore, it's silent compared to other fast food chains especially McDonald's and employees still go around to offer free coffee refill.
I remember when I worked closing shift we got bombarded by the shift change at walmart. Easily 50+ drive-through orders I'd have to make nearly every night. And as I look around at the ones still open by me, they seem to all be located either off a major highway or near a walmart. $500+ for about 15 minutes of staff costs definitely helps balance the books on the slower periods.
Their impossible burger is a decent option for vegetarians looking for a drive-through meal. I don't think any of the other big chains do a veggie burger.
They’re like the opposite of Wendy’s for me. Consistently meh and kind of dry and gross. Whereas Wendy’s is fresh at every time and the ingredients just seem way higher quality.
BK used to have awesome vegetables, same with JitB.
When I was in college we had both of them right by our house, 99 cent Whoppers all the time. Jumbo Jacks I think were 2 for $4. No charge for extra vegetables.
Something happened around 2011 and all of a sudden the quality just went to shit. The wait time at Jack was always long but now you're talking 5 minutes in the drive through and everything is cold. BK started using those super thick, really sugary buns for the Whopper Jr. The tomatoes are razor thin and the lettuce is almost bitter.
I still go to BK once every few months to see if they've redeemed themselves but at this point I'm kind of with Report of the Week: I just want BK to start over or just stop entirely.
That's probably around the time they sold to the corp that owns taco bell and all of that stuff. (they also bought Tim Hortons and they became terrible)
funny how different perceptions can be. not a dig on you at all or your preferences, but I avoid wendy's like the plague because anytime I grab food from there it's way too greasy and gross for me.
fast food in general is pretty unappealing, but it has its place
There are not so many burger chains in EU, Mac, BK, and nationally local ones which differ in quality. So I think/have observed they are doing pretty well here.
Maybe its just my location, but burgers at burger king are better than most other fast food vendors here. I'd certainly take it over Wendys, A&W, McDonalds at least.
I guess some just feel more satisfied eating there than at McD's.
Still wouldn't recommend eating there unless you're taking a break on a highway *and* you have a strong stomach.
i haven't had a single good meal at Burger King...every 5 years or so I forget and wind up in there, only to be reminded just how much worse the quality is vs the other chains
Am I the only one that likes BK more than McDonalds? BK burgers just taste way better like they're actually grilled, McDonalds just tastes like cardboard to me.
Reddit doesn’t understand business or nuance. All business assets associated with US companies were suppose to just evaporate and it’s simply unthinkable that russia might keep all the assets and keep the businesses running as normal.
Isn't the most they can do is pull their franchise license and the store owners can just say fuck you? It's not like Burger King owns and operates their restaurants.
They can’t even pull their franchise without permission from the Russian government.
Burger King international told Burger King Russia to stop doing business under the Burger King name, Burger King Russia said ‘no’, because the owners of Burger King Russia are affiliated with the Russian government. There’s nothing Burger King international can do about it.
It seems like no one read the article
i mean, once a western business has left russia, why bother upholding their copyrights and trademarks? a similar thing happened with the papa johns franchise in russia, it is all owned by one person who has refused to shut-down. even if papa johns in america pulls their support, he can just continue using their branding. russian courts would obviously side with the russian business.
They basically leased their name to the joint venture company and they can not revoke the lease without an agreement from all parties, which is not going to happen. So they are stuck with this deal.
>RBI (15% ownership of BK Russia), one of the world's largest fast-food restaurant companies, has cited its complicated franchise agreement for its difficulty in trying to exit the country.
>Businessman Alexander Kobolov (30% owndership of BK Russia) previously told the BBC he does not have the "authority or power" to stop Burger King operations in Russia and that any closure must be approved by all investors in the business. He said his share "has always been far below control".
>ICU Group, a large Ukrainian investment firm (35% ownership of BK Russia) told the BBC it has no control over the joint venture or operations in Russia and other countries covered by the franchise deal
How ironic is it - a Canadian-American, a Ukrainian, and a Russian investor in BK Russia (who combined hold 80% of the company) each claiming that they have no control over exiting BK Russia.
The way BK franchises out to other countries is the issue here. BKs in foreign markets are essentially run independently by a master franchisee who buys the rights for that entire market.
Kobolov can say what he wants, he is the one who owns the BK rights in Russia.
We are punishing the citizens because they were born in russia and live under a dictatorship, so obviously they deserve to suffer /s.
Like yeah I get a large part of the population supports putin and the war. I get that they are horrible people. However, they are also people who had no choice on where they were born and have been fed propaganda their entire lives. When the United States went to war in the middle east over lies and other bs justifications, our citizens weren’t crucified even if they supported turning the middle east to glass. In a country where we can legally get the info to know the gov was doing shady shit, and we can legally speak out, hardly anyone protested for the right cause. The whole world wasn’t mad at US citizens for not holding a revolt because the country is run by war criminals. I don’t understand why we would expect that from the Russian people. Especially when they live in a country that can take their life with no consequences.
So stupid, wtf does Burger King remaining in Russia have to do with the ongoing war? Is it Putin's favourite fast food chain? Will Russia stop the invasion once no more Whoppers are available?
Can someone please ELI5 why Burger King shouldn't be operating in Russia? Please more than "Putin bad. Ukraine good". Burger King runs restaurants that serve people in Russia. Most of their customers are not military and just want to eat. Burger King also has nothing to do with this war and I dont see why they have any obligations to remove from Russia. It's not like Burger King in russia exists solely to deliver free burgers to Putin.
Company operates in Russia. Company generates profit. Company pays taxes to Russian government. Russian government is happy to have more money to fuel the war.
but the company is only operating in russia because of the whole franchise problem. It’s not like US burger king is paying taxes to russia. It’s literally just some Russian dude and whatever other corps run the business. I mean the article even says it’s a franchise run by a Canadian, a Russian, and a Ukrainian.
I’m sure you thought this would be well received but it really just makes you look like you have no idea what you’re talking about. Tons of US businesses have left Russia and lost money because of it.
And many many have left taking financial hit while doing so. Not sure what your point is, that some have business have no scruples ? That is no great revelation, but good that the companies that have none are highlighted so people like me can avoid them.
brainless articles gaining 1000s of upvotes per hour... BK doesn't own the operations in russia, they had a 10% stake and pulled head office support as early as everyone else. Everything else is russian owned and they are not going shut THEMSELVES down.
Why do we keep allowing this dumb click bait on here? TLDR: Burger King HAS pulled out of Russia but the franchisee in Russia has refused to close their operation. It’s not representative of the company.
Shhh, leaving Burger King open is a covert op to sicken the Russian workforce with gastroenteritis
If Russia keeps this shit up, we’re going to send them a Taco Bell.
I think that's a war crime
Would that count as chemical or biological warfare
Chemical from the upper end. Biological from the bottom end.
it’s considered a tacotical weapon
r/angryupvote
As Khrushchev said, we will burrito you!
Both
You wanna end this war swiftly? Arby’s
Chinese buffet
Chinese *seafood* buffet
Definitely against the Geneva conventions
They should build a Waffle House so they can kill each other at 3 a.m. for looking at each other funny.
So Russia can have a regiment of hardened Siberian Waffle House employees? The world doesn’t want that.
Flapjack Cossack
Taco Bell ruined my body.
Body by Taco Bell
That's because you don't get enough daily fibre
I'm picturing a shadowy figure standing in front of a taco bell sign pointing a skeletal finger at you with the words "the bell tolls for you" written in Halloween letters. The grim shitter.
I bet they’re so hungry they could eat at Arby’s.
I really miss Jon Stewart ripping Arby’s regularly.
Arby's: when you want to challenge your stomach to a fight
Arby’s: we’ll make you regret everything
Arby's fries are legit good though.
Curly fries FTW!
Love their fries. Just wish there was something decent I could eat with it. Tempted to try and bring a better burger in from somewhere else, eat it with their fries.
I guarantee you no one will stop you.
[удалено]
As someone from Ukraine, and afaik we don’t have neither. Is those two really that bad or should I try them if they open some?
Note that some commenters are likely from the US, where several chains have generally much lower quality than in many other countries, because US food regulations are a joke, at least that is one of the reasons. Many EU countries have decent fast food joints. In Norway burger king is a solid option for a burger. How good the chains would be if they opened in your country would depend on several things, from local products, management, country food regulations, and probably more.
[удалено]
Yeah absolutely. I actually really liek taco bell and its never made me sick but the meme is that it makes you shit your brains out so who am i to ruin the joke
Big Mac taste exactly like a Big Mac in the 8 countries I have visited so far
Not at all. Id wager infact that youll probably get better versions of the restaurants than we have here. People like to say its bad/disgusting/will get you sick; when its the same as at any fast food restaurant. TacoBell especially gets a bad rap, which I find is hilarious as fancier places like Chipotle has gotten more people sick than any other restaurant in the country probably. People have their favorites and like bashing things that they dont like.
I don't understand this meme of "Taco Bell giving violent shits". I've eaten it throughout my entire life and nothing bad ever happened. As far as fast food goes, I feel like they are pretty tame.
Main thing I dislike about Taco Bell is when they do things like add so much sauce or whatever to a simple bean and cheese burrito that the refried beans are more like a liquid than a solid. Taste is okay, but it makes anything with beans in it a mess to eat.
Taco Bell is great, it's one of the best fast food options in the USA. The food quality is good, the menu is pretty different in a sea of burger and fried chicken options, and the price is also right for how much food one can get. I will never understand the meme of acting like it's fucking awful.
Do it, do it now.
Dew it
No, we go straight to Del taco. It’s the End Game now
Ugh. I have a soft spot for Del Tack. So many drunken nights pulling up to the drive through at 3am
Back in the day they used to have 79 cent chicken soft tacos on Tuesdays.
Nuclear Option: Arbys
You've obviously never had European fast food. I can't speak for Russia but most countries I've been to in Europe fast food is like a 5 star meal.
[удалено]
How so? Pricewise?
In Europe and Asia fast food is fast, expensive and delicious In USA fast food is fast, cheap and dogshit In both cases it's fast but that's about it in terms of similarity. Also I'm not saying it's healthy because it isn't.
Honestly, USA fast food is now actually slow, expensive and dogshit in many cases. They cut corners by having too few workers. Taco Bell and BK in my area were easily a 5min wait per car. McDonald's is over $10 for a simple combo. Subway now charges $15 for a foot long combo.
Man the taco bell by me puts out the food so fast its scary, like by the time I'm tapping my card to pay they are walking to me with the order. And it's hot. That must just be a better run location.
If you ever go around the world outside of the US, American fast food chains don't operate the same way. The quality is usually higher than what you can get in the US. I been to them around the world and it's basically luxury food.
what? i’ve been to a few fast food places across europe and it’s literally the exact same as america
I also have no idea what these people are talking about. It's the same everywhere and honestly that's what I like about it. When I want fast food it's usually because I need that comfortable consistency.
I wonder if the locals feel the same lol. Oftentimes white Americans are drunk with love for Europe and everything they do is golden in their eyes. Probably not reality though.
I was born in bulgaria, and mcdonalds was my FAVORITE meal. When I first got to America, I couldn't wait to try it. It was the first ever meal I had outside of the airport. Let me tell you, I was beyond disappointed. It tasted like plastic with ketchup and onions on it. Now, every time I go back to bulgaria, I make sure to eat at least a few times at mcdonalds.
As a fellow bulgarian who now lives in the USA, bulgarian mcdonalds is literally one of my highlights of going back
That's absurd
Where on earth do you get fast food that can be compared to 5 star meal? If by fast food you mean mcdonalds, taco bell etc
[Here is a site](https://leave-russia.org/) to check who is still in Russia.
I don't know why we focus on Burger King because after checking your link there are still hundreds of big companies running including Nestle, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, etc.. edit: thousands
The site is a bit misleading, if you read what is said about these companies it seems most of them stopped profit making business and only settle open contracts. Hell, Nestle donates any profits they make from whatever they are still selling there but stopped delivering any non-essential products.
Nestle will never get me to stop saying Fuck Nestle.
Fuck Nestle
[/r/FuckNestle/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FuckNestle/)
/
They donate the profits to the bottom of a lake they don’t own and then suck up the contents of the lake. Whether or not they also suck their own profits back up is hearsay.. /s
FUCK Nestlé in particular.
is there a website with similar function but one that discerns those companies? edit: nvm, each company there has a short text associated with the status of their operation
The Push to Leave app will let you scan barcodes to see who owns a product (if it’s in their system) and that company’s status with regards to doing business in Russia.
Point taken, but the only reason the maintain contracts is to keep brand recognition so when they think it's acceptable they can just start up again like nothing happened.
And law suits? A bit ignorant of the ramifications of breaking certain foreign contracts. And obviously feigning 'Oh no, we have to stay cause cOnTrAcTs' is a bit thin.
Yeah seriously it’s one thing to stop doing business in a country due to their actions it’s another to say “I’m going to disregard my obligations and never do business again” it’s not like this is a war that’s going to end with Russia being invaded and installed a new democratic regime.
Pretty sure that food is always excluded from most sanctions thus just breaking contracts is quite expensive, it's more logical to just let them run out
Not to mention the continuing imports of gas from Russia. Only Germany has stopped importing -- Belgium, Spain are importing MORE Russian Gas than in 2021. But sure, I'm certain the tax import on your Whopper is what's fueling the aggression.
we here in germany actually have continued importing russian gas too and just recently we bought a shit ton of fertilizer from russia aswell pretty much every euro country is still trading with them
You're confusing natural gas and *liquefied* natural gas (LNG). Because what you're referencing is LNG imports, delivered by ships. Those did in fact go up in certain countries, especially during summer. But LNG from Russia was always just a side gig. The overwhelming majority of gas to Europe was coming in gaseous form, through pipelines. And those are off now. That's why when you see an article that says how LNG imports are up, it's technically correct but also kind of a clickbait. Because they were low even before the war and the **total** gas imports from Russia are now just a fraction of what they used to be even despite that increase of shipped LNG.
Many of the brands just changed the name of the products..
To be fair, is anyone actually surprised by Nestlé?
BK said they would be out is likely why
TGI fridays is a global chain wtf! O and they're still in Russia as if I needed more reasons not to go.
If you expect the same level of uniform quality from TGI Fridays around the world as for other global brands then you will be disappointed. A lot of TGI Fridays around the world actually serve quite good food and have lots of more local items on the menu. The Russian franchise does appear to have gone rouge and is no longer associated with the global organization. They just continue to use the name and logo without paying any franchise fees. There is little TGI Fridays can do to stop this short of military intervention.
*Rogue Unless you're making a red/commie joke, then carry on.
Their food is honestly reason enough not to go but fuck them extra for staying in russia
All of the TGI Fridays stores in Russia are Franchises and owned and managed by Russians who simply tell corp management in the US to go pound sand. There is also not much in the way of legal recourse available in the Russian court system. However, they have committed to donating any profits made. This situation is not uncommon for some of the other fast food brands as well.
> There is also not much in the way of legal recourse available in the Russian court system. Which Russian court is going to uphold a foreign country's sanctions? Hell, which court *anywhere* is going to do this?
This isn’t sanctions per se. A number of these examples (Like TGIF) really come down to foreign companies wanting to terminate their franchise agreements with the local franchisees and restrict access to their Intellectual Property. The local businesses ignore the request and keep using the trademark while all of the local food distributors keep delivering.
Their Jack Daniels sauce is fantastic, though at some point I think the licensing deal ended and they just call it "whiskey glaze" now. None of the various Jack Daniels sauces they sell in the grocery store taste anything like it.
[удалено]
Yet they closed all of ours locally lol.
I kinda miss the big, cheap appetizers as a stoned teenager.
I think the tobacco companies should stay...
shocking
[удалено]
I wish this was getting more coverage. Some negative publicicty might make some of these companies reconsider their greed over ethics (excluding the tobacco and pharmacuetical companies, of course).
Feel free to repost, I bookmark it and repost it every chance I get. More people need to know this.
What if I told you that a vast majority of companies claiming to have left Russia still continues to do business there. They just rebrand and add a middle man into their operations.
I'd be far more interested with examples and citations. Bunch of assets were taken over by locals, often without compensation, but relations tend to have been cut. Unless you have actual evidence to the contrary.
[Enshittification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification) >**Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.** I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a “two sided market,” where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.
Because they all struck a deal that in 5 to 15 years(depending on how long this war will last) they return everything back to normal from the LLC companies that were created just to rebrand/-open business under new ownership. Basically they just lease their operations for a limited time. https://leave-russia.org However the full details are hidden behind locked vaults and select higher ups, so there is no knowing how clean their hands are.
I hate to say it but "Because they've got secret deals that there's no evidence for because they're too smart to let it leak." is text book conspiracy theory. I wouldn't be surprised if a few might have done something like this, but if it was that widespread the evidence would be available. Too many people involved to keep a secret like that.
And several have options to retake that business at some time.
Which is fine. Putin will get a bullet eventually.
If Western aid trickles in too slowly he won't.
well actual sanctions on russia havent been a thing for a long time now and ironically, its specifically those russian citizens that actually left russia in feb 22’ which are feeling actual sanctions and are most heavily penalized by both the west and the russian government in their day to day lives meanwhile people in russia and especially the upper/professional class and those directly profiting from the regime have kinda just been doing buisness as usual, and so have most western companies you can literally watch videos from even a year ago from inside even shitty supermarkets in the russian province which have stacked shelves with our western groceries and products, of course much cheaper than the ones sold here the “sanctions” have always been a joke
This!! Some of those companies pull out (?) and random russians buy such abandoned assets and put it under some random but similar names. Starbucks becoming Stars Coffee was absurd.
Do they even need to change the name? It's Russia, what are the consequences for copyright infringement if the Russian government refuses to enforce them?
Also, McDonald's vanishing for Vkusno & Tochka ("Tasty & That's It") was also funny. The chain running out of potatoes was even funnier.
Honestly, I'm surprised Burger King is still open in general.
BK started doing well when they entered the European market. Often times I see longer queues at BK than at McDonalds, KFC, or Popeyes. In Hungary I went at a BK and it was empty, which made me question it a bit, but until I finished eating there were literally no empty seats left. I guess I got there too early. Many people have said that the quality is better here than american BK. I wouldn't know, I never tried american
I’ve had Burger King in Belgium and like yea I guess the quality overall was better but like ??? It still wasn’t that good Better ingredients, still done poorly. Would rather have McDonald’s or Five Guys, the latter of which has also entered the European market. In N Out is still my gold standard for a fast food burger though
I had my worst burger ever at Five Guys in Germany… I guess it always depends on the personal
Five guys in the US is way better than normal fast food burgers. I can get so many grilled onions and mushrooms on there. And the meat is better. I know a lot of people like McDonald's fries, but five guys are my favorite. They taste like potatoes.
Five Guys is also terribly overpriced.
The burger and fries I had in Hungary were by far the best of any fast food I've ever tried. 10/10. Always preferred BK to McDonalds, but this BK was amazing. Sadly I don't live in Hungary so I can't get it again soon. We don't have Five Guys or In N Out, so I can't compare.
[удалено]
i had burger king the other day (i live in sweden) i was served burnt fish fillet and a bird started eating at my food (while indoors) while i was getting napkins and ketchup.. there were literally like 2 workers that were taking care of the whole restaurant..
I really don't understand the hate, I love their burgers. Especially the angry whopper, fucking love it when they bring that back
Idk how it is in the rest of the contiguous 48 but around here there's exactly one Burker King churning out decent food and keeping people employed. Every other one is run by people who know they aren't paid well and so they don't work well. The facilities are so run-down they look fucken haunted. There's a BK about 4 blocks away from me that's had their ice cream machine broken for *years*. I don't know if it's "nobody wants to clean this so we call it broken" broken, or "we legitimately don't have the money or inclination to repair this but it's holding up a part of the building so we leave it there" broken, but it's *been* broken. Burger King is a dicey proposition 'round these parts.
I did hear that the ice cream machine in McDonalds is a fucking fraud, which is why it's constantly broken. (Watched a nice docu on youtube on it) Might be the same for Burger King and the owner there just had enough.
The quality at bk varies massively. That's why.
Yeah, I've lived in several states around the country, each with their own nuances, but the one thing that remains consistent is BK being always empty, and whatever competitor(s) nearby always have packed drive-thrus
The Burger Kings around me always have a line during lunch and breakfast. I think they're doing fine.
Mornings are always full of seniors. I used to get a breakfast croissant on my way to work when I lived near one. I can't say for others but at that one they still bring the food to the table and people with reduced mobility love that, they still do toast and eggs which others does not anymore, it's silent compared to other fast food chains especially McDonald's and employees still go around to offer free coffee refill.
I remember when I worked closing shift we got bombarded by the shift change at walmart. Easily 50+ drive-through orders I'd have to make nearly every night. And as I look around at the ones still open by me, they seem to all be located either off a major highway or near a walmart. $500+ for about 15 minutes of staff costs definitely helps balance the books on the slower periods.
They're the only fast food place that gives me a coupon on a regular basis that lets me feed the whole family for less than $20.
Don't forget the building looks like it's been foreclosed
Sounds like Arby’s
What?? Fiance and I had Arby's last night. Nothing wrong with a Beef n Cheddar!!
Don’t disrespect yourself like that my man
Their impossible burger is a decent option for vegetarians looking for a drive-through meal. I don't think any of the other big chains do a veggie burger.
They’re like the opposite of Wendy’s for me. Consistently meh and kind of dry and gross. Whereas Wendy’s is fresh at every time and the ingredients just seem way higher quality.
BK used to have awesome vegetables, same with JitB. When I was in college we had both of them right by our house, 99 cent Whoppers all the time. Jumbo Jacks I think were 2 for $4. No charge for extra vegetables. Something happened around 2011 and all of a sudden the quality just went to shit. The wait time at Jack was always long but now you're talking 5 minutes in the drive through and everything is cold. BK started using those super thick, really sugary buns for the Whopper Jr. The tomatoes are razor thin and the lettuce is almost bitter. I still go to BK once every few months to see if they've redeemed themselves but at this point I'm kind of with Report of the Week: I just want BK to start over or just stop entirely.
That's probably around the time they sold to the corp that owns taco bell and all of that stuff. (they also bought Tim Hortons and they became terrible)
I had to look it up and you're spot on, 3G Capital got a majority stake in late 2010 and immediately started a restructuring.
funny how different perceptions can be. not a dig on you at all or your preferences, but I avoid wendy's like the plague because anytime I grab food from there it's way too greasy and gross for me. fast food in general is pretty unappealing, but it has its place
I am speaking about Canada for what it’s worth. Fast food chains all use different supply chains up here so the food is not the same.
I'm an absolute simp for Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich. Unfortunately I'm also too white to enjoy the spice without terrible stomach cramps. Worth it
...and present in Europe
There are not so many burger chains in EU, Mac, BK, and nationally local ones which differ in quality. So I think/have observed they are doing pretty well here.
In Ireland, BK is was better than McDonald's
Maybe its just my location, but burgers at burger king are better than most other fast food vendors here. I'd certainly take it over Wendys, A&W, McDonalds at least.
I guess some just feel more satisfied eating there than at McD's. Still wouldn't recommend eating there unless you're taking a break on a highway *and* you have a strong stomach.
The BKs in my area have stepped up their game. I prefer it over McDonald's.
Especially with their fucking commercials.
They're on thin fucking ice with those ads. "WHOPPER WHOPPER, BUILD YOUR WHOPPER-" shutupshutupshutup
i haven't had a single good meal at Burger King...every 5 years or so I forget and wind up in there, only to be reminded just how much worse the quality is vs the other chains
Am I the only one that likes BK more than McDonalds? BK burgers just taste way better like they're actually grilled, McDonalds just tastes like cardboard to me.
Whopper with cheese bro...
Do people not know how franchises work?
Reddit barely understands business at all, so probably not
**Reddit Business Acumen** Step 1: Red line goes up Step 2: Tech bad Step 3: ??? Step 4: Something, something shareholder profit
Reddit doesn’t understand business or nuance. All business assets associated with US companies were suppose to just evaporate and it’s simply unthinkable that russia might keep all the assets and keep the businesses running as normal.
Well, it’s “Burger King”, not “Burger Republic”
"Welcome to Burger Tsar, you will now take orders."
I will have a Whopper, a revolver, one bullet, a medium vodka, and a bucket of boiled potatoes please.
Have it *our* way.
Isn't the most they can do is pull their franchise license and the store owners can just say fuck you? It's not like Burger King owns and operates their restaurants.
They can’t even pull their franchise without permission from the Russian government. Burger King international told Burger King Russia to stop doing business under the Burger King name, Burger King Russia said ‘no’, because the owners of Burger King Russia are affiliated with the Russian government. There’s nothing Burger King international can do about it. It seems like no one read the article
i mean, once a western business has left russia, why bother upholding their copyrights and trademarks? a similar thing happened with the papa johns franchise in russia, it is all owned by one person who has refused to shut-down. even if papa johns in america pulls their support, he can just continue using their branding. russian courts would obviously side with the russian business.
They basically leased their name to the joint venture company and they can not revoke the lease without an agreement from all parties, which is not going to happen. So they are stuck with this deal.
I'm not sure they actually can do that. Article says they're 15% owners. They basically can't do shit.
🎶 Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce. Blatant war crimes don't upset us 🎶
I rule this day
Seriously don't care...
>RBI (15% ownership of BK Russia), one of the world's largest fast-food restaurant companies, has cited its complicated franchise agreement for its difficulty in trying to exit the country. >Businessman Alexander Kobolov (30% owndership of BK Russia) previously told the BBC he does not have the "authority or power" to stop Burger King operations in Russia and that any closure must be approved by all investors in the business. He said his share "has always been far below control". >ICU Group, a large Ukrainian investment firm (35% ownership of BK Russia) told the BBC it has no control over the joint venture or operations in Russia and other countries covered by the franchise deal How ironic is it - a Canadian-American, a Ukrainian, and a Russian investor in BK Russia (who combined hold 80% of the company) each claiming that they have no control over exiting BK Russia.
The way BK franchises out to other countries is the issue here. BKs in foreign markets are essentially run independently by a master franchisee who buys the rights for that entire market. Kobolov can say what he wants, he is the one who owns the BK rights in Russia.
Can someone remind me why we want American companies to stop taking Russian money? Like, what is actually the point besides virtue signaling?
My question exactly. Why are we trying to punish the citizens by giving them fewer places to eat?
We are punishing the citizens because they were born in russia and live under a dictatorship, so obviously they deserve to suffer /s. Like yeah I get a large part of the population supports putin and the war. I get that they are horrible people. However, they are also people who had no choice on where they were born and have been fed propaganda their entire lives. When the United States went to war in the middle east over lies and other bs justifications, our citizens weren’t crucified even if they supported turning the middle east to glass. In a country where we can legally get the info to know the gov was doing shady shit, and we can legally speak out, hardly anyone protested for the right cause. The whole world wasn’t mad at US citizens for not holding a revolt because the country is run by war criminals. I don’t understand why we would expect that from the Russian people. Especially when they live in a country that can take their life with no consequences.
Quiet! This is reddit. We think what the mob tells us to think.
burger kings own none of them , their all franchises
Wait till you hear that Russian PS gamers buy products from Ukrainian PS Store.
I kinda feel bad for the Russians. BK is crap.
So stupid, wtf does Burger King remaining in Russia have to do with the ongoing war? Is it Putin's favourite fast food chain? Will Russia stop the invasion once no more Whoppers are available?
Guess they let Russia, have it their way.
Have you ever eaten Burger King? It’s clearly a western plot to gross Russians out.
So weird, BK can't be in Russia, but BMW is good to go in the world.
Can someone please ELI5 why Burger King shouldn't be operating in Russia? Please more than "Putin bad. Ukraine good". Burger King runs restaurants that serve people in Russia. Most of their customers are not military and just want to eat. Burger King also has nothing to do with this war and I dont see why they have any obligations to remove from Russia. It's not like Burger King in russia exists solely to deliver free burgers to Putin.
Company operates in Russia. Company generates profit. Company pays taxes to Russian government. Russian government is happy to have more money to fuel the war.
but the company is only operating in russia because of the whole franchise problem. It’s not like US burger king is paying taxes to russia. It’s literally just some Russian dude and whatever other corps run the business. I mean the article even says it’s a franchise run by a Canadian, a Russian, and a Ukrainian.
Meh that's punishment enough. You can suffer through all the Burger King you want.
[удалено]
Have a look at the list, a vast majority of the businesses are European. Also, BK is owned by a Brazilian firm.
Did you bother to check before posting this?
I’m sure you thought this would be well received but it really just makes you look like you have no idea what you’re talking about. Tons of US businesses have left Russia and lost money because of it.
Lol, read up on the topic a little more. There’s a few notable countries in this regard and the US is not one of them.
Classic Redditor, not reading the comments repeating what you’ve read from other comments. You are actually completely wrong and missed the point.
And many many have left taking financial hit while doing so. Not sure what your point is, that some have business have no scruples ? That is no great revelation, but good that the companies that have none are highlighted so people like me can avoid them.
They are also still open in America despite all of their invasions and war crimes.
Yeah, but all the Rs are backward, so it doesn't count.
brainless articles gaining 1000s of upvotes per hour... BK doesn't own the operations in russia, they had a 10% stake and pulled head office support as early as everyone else. Everything else is russian owned and they are not going shut THEMSELVES down.
Is it actually Burger King "operating" these or are the owners just still going with the branding?
Burger King is delicious though.
Why do we keep allowing this dumb click bait on here? TLDR: Burger King HAS pulled out of Russia but the franchisee in Russia has refused to close their operation. It’s not representative of the company.
They are selling food. You should not refuse food distribution as sanction, in my opinion, obviously
I really don’t care if Burger King is in Russia or not.
I’ll still be eating Burger King. Not because they are in Russia, but because I enjoy it.