McDonald’s Closes Shop in Bolivia

Bernadine Racoma

June 27, 2013

Thanks to McDonald’s people around the world get by everyday eating easily prepared meals. The very successful chain of stores revolutionized the fast food industry. In the United States, almost every corner of every street has a McDonald’s establishment that provides quick service for hungry people. Their reach is so wide such that this fast food chain company now provides online delivery. However, there is one place in the world where the fast food giant incurred losses instead of profits. In Bolivia, people are not convinced that McDonald’s is the answer to quick, ready meals. For the past decade McDonald’s has been slowly pulling out of the South American country.

No to fast food

The South American country is unlike any of its neighbors. Bolivians do not believe in the process of preparing food for short periods of time. About 60% of Bolivians belong to indigenous populations and are not easily attracted to Western-style promotions and advertisements concerning easily prepared meals. Given this perspective, it is not surprising at all that a fast food chain such as McDonald’s finds it hard to expand the business and maintain sales in Bolivia. The time has come that the company’s losses are too great to regain some of the investments.

Never been inside

Esther Choque, a citizen of Bolivia, openly expressed her opinion about McDonald’s. According to Esther, the closest she ever got to McDonald’s and the only time she stepped in front of its door was when rain suddenly started to pour down. She even got shooed away by a staff telling her she was only dirtying the floor. After that experience, and with the innate notion that eating fast food is not good for the health, she does not even care at all if McDonald’s leaves Bolivia for good.

Taking a chance

Despite the rejection of the people of Bolivia to their means of preparing and presenting food, McDonald’s is still trying to regain its composure by leaving eight shops at certain locations. McDonald’s outlets will still operate in the cities of La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Since these branches opened to serve the populace, it has only become tougher for them to gain profits as the years go by.

The cultural rebuff

What happened to McDonald’s in Bolivia got the attention of marketing specialists and managers. This led to the documentary entitled “Why McDonald’s Left Bolivia” The documentary featured nutritionist, educators, cooks and even historians who broke down the factors leading to McDonald’s failure to dominate the Bolivian market. Included in the documentary are cultural factors which made it quite clear why Bolivians do not want to eat in fast food restaurants.

According to studies, Bolivians do not reject McDonald’s per se. The rejection behind the fast food industry is deeply ingrained in their cultural belief that meals are prepared during a certain amount of time. Bolivians have a lot of respect not only for their body but also for anything that they ingest. For them, a proper every day meal should be prepared with just the right time that it requires to cook. It must also be cooked the right way.

Photo Credit: McDonald’s Big Mac

Comment Below

Anneleen Ophoff

Bolivians not necessarily reject all fast food. They believe meals eaten in a larger company such as friends or family should need a certain amount of preparation – especially lunches. Lunches are sacred, and therefore only students or employees that work or study too far from their homes, eat in street restaurants. But dinner isn’t such a big deal. Most of them just grab a piece of chicken, a burger or a pizza sold on the street corners. And also during the day, Bolivians grow hungry like any one does, after class or in between work hours. La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz de la Sierra… all the big cities have plenty of fast food stands. A bunch of them sell empanadas and salteñas, fast-to-eat things that don’t require a huge amount of time to make nor to eat them. Burgers and hot dogs are eaten, too, and sold for no more then 5 or 6 Bs(including. all the vegetables and sauces you like), while the cost of normal burger in a McDonald’s or Burger King (who still has restaurants in Bolivia) is 4 times higher. In a country where more then half of it’s population lives below the poverty line, choosing between McDo or a normal street burger is no dilemma. Besides, the ones you by on the street corners are bigger, tastier and juicier, according to most Bolivians. Personally, I think anyone who lived in or traveled to Bolivia would agree. I would like to see that study!
Mauricio Vera

McDonald’s left Bolivia years ago; not because bolivians don’t like fast food… There are BurgerKing, Subway and other internacional franchises, some other south american ones and many locals working without any problems.
McDonald’s left Bolivia because bolivians did not like it!
Food in Bolivia tends to be tasty, McDonald’s tastes like cardboard.