January 31, 1990 was a sad day for me. The first Soviet McDonald’s opened in Moscow. At the time it was the largest McDonald’s in the world. The Big Mak, kartofel-fries and koktel cost about 5.5 rubles, which was about twice the cost of a meal in a state-run cafeteria at that time. This was approximately half a days wage for most people.
For political reasons, McDonald’s Canada was responsible for the opening, with no clear input from the U.S. company. In fact, a wall display inside the restaurant showed only the Canadian and Soviet flags. At the time the Soviet economy was grinding to a halt, so to solve supply problems, the company created its own supply chain, including farms, within the USSR. This was an incredibly revolutionary thing that would have been unthinkable a decade before. Unlike other foreign investments at the time, the restaurant accepted rubles, not dollars, and was therefore extremely popular with regular Soviet citizens, with waiting lines of several hours common in its early days.
When the McDonald’s Soviet adventure began, it had no way to convert the rubles that customers paid for hamburgers into another currency. The company therefore spent the rubles buying farmland and constructing office towers, a distribution center and a factory in the Moscow suburbs, which became known as McComplex. By 1993, the company had built its first office building, just two blocks from the Kremlin. Tenants like Coca-Cola and Upjohn moved in. The arrival of McDonald’s in Moscow to me symbolized the end of the Cold War. Progress?
Also around the same time, Pepsi Cola started being sold. It was the only foreign soft drink: there were no other cola or other soft drinks of any kind. The number of outlets selling the drink was also limited, because of this there were long lines.
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