It’s the people who own the McDonald’s franchise in Iceland who are closing the stores down. Not McDonald’s themselves. And that’s an important difference.

Admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:41:04 +0000

I almost spat out the mouthful of Tim Horton’s coffee that was in my mouth as my eyes glanced across A1 of Canada’s Globe & Mail newspaper this morning. Iceland on the front page. I kid you not.

Then throughout the day more media began to appear, all regarding the decision of Iceland’s McDonald’s franchise owner to shut up shop. And that’s an important difference. As Alda Sigmundsdóttir writes in the Guardian newspaper:

They are right that the McDonald’s closure is related to the country’s economic meltdown. The rest is a slight misrepresentation. Thing is, McDonald’s isn’t actually packing up and going home. The Icelandic owners of the McDonald’s franchise have decided to drop it. They will still run a burger joint in the same location, but under a different name – and using only domestic ingredients.

The BBC were next up with a video report entitled: No more Happy Meals for Iceland (har har headline writer, would you like a prize for being so witty! It’s almost as good as the Globe’s “The big whack”).

Rhiannon and Sam, two British ex-pats living in the country, chimed in with these anecdotal tidbits to round out the picture:

I have only ever been to McDonald’s once in Iceland; it was the most expensive burger I have ever eaten. The average cost for a MaccyD´s in England is roughly 4 pounds. Here I paid nearly 10 pounds!

I really want to say this is the last post on the issue, but I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this just yet.

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It’s the people who own the McDonald’s franchise in Iceland who are closing the stores down. Not McDonald’s themselves. And that’s an important difference.