Are you surprised that such an American icon as McDonald’s is so successful in Russia?
Do you agree with the very “disciplined” approach to store openings in Russia?

At lunch time on a recent day, Khamzat Khasbulatov was sitting in the world’s busiest McDonald’s in Pushkin Square in Moscow, and watching the crowd of people lined up at its 26 cash registers. “I have too many customers,” he sighs. But company top management has abandoned the wild rush to open new stores of a few years before. McDonald’s president, Ralph Alvarez said, “We’re going to stay disciplined.” And only 12 new stores were opened in Russia in 2007.
On opening day in January 1990, more than 5,000 customers patiently waited for the Pushkin Square McDonald’s doors to open. To this day, the crowds have scarcely diminished in this huge restaurant with its 900 seats and free wireless Internet access in 24,000 square feet. It seems the Russians really like burgers and fries.
Although attracting customers was never a problem, just about everything else was difficult for Mr. Khasbulatov. He was named to McDonald’s top Russia position in 1999, and then given responsibility for all Eastern European restaurants. A major early problem in Russia was finding reliable suppliers of beef patties, hamburger buns, and other items. Eventually McDonald’s had to spend $45 million to build a facility to produce these items on its own, something it had never done before. And then there was the red tape, often requiring 200 signatures from local officials to open a store. Real-estate prices increased tenfold in a decade. And in Moscow and St. Petersburg, low unemployment rates made it difficult to find qualified personnel. Still, as of late 2007, Russia had 180 restaurants in 40 cities. On average, each location served about 850,000 customers a year, more than twice the store traffic in other markets. Of course, this is a tiny fraction of McDonald’s nearly 32,000 restaurants worldwide.