PICTURE OF THE WEEK 15th March 2022
jeanniejeanniejeannie.co.uk BLOG Tuesday 15th March 2022
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
PICTURE OF THE WEEK 15th March 2022
Take a look at our amazing ‘Picture of the Week. What is it?
Ever wanted to eat McDonald’s on a plane? It might not be 38,000 feet up but this McDonald’s in Taupo, on New Zealand’s North Island, has a decommissioned DC3 as part of its restaurant.
The plane previously carried passengers for South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand during the 1960s and was also a crop duster. Climb aboard for a Big Mac with a side of history and excitement.
As we always say a picture is worth a thousand words, but it also creates 1,000s of words.
What do you imagine it is like to dine at that McDonalds? Write a story about dining in that McDonalds and the aeroplane being hi-jacked and flown away. What is the most unusual restaurant you have dined at? If you were given the brief to come up with an unusual, themed restraint what would it be? If you had the brief to find an unusual location for a McDonald’s restaurant, what would it be?
Now, whilst we are talking McDonalds, another McDonalds story…
Why the closure of McDonald’s in Russia should be a cause for concern
|McDonald’s have temporarily closed all 847 restaurants in the country in a “hugely symbolic” move.
McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola halt sales in Russia
The fast-food giant was one of the first Western restaurants to open in Russia back in January 1990, during the final months of the Soviet Union.
Over 30,000 people queued for their meals across 27 cash registers. A further 27,000 people applied for jobs with only 600 positions available. This new Western opening represented the thawing of Cold War tensions and a move towards peace.
This move, largely impacted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, could now undo the last 30 years of peace between the two nations.
In an open letter, McDonald’s president and CEO Chris Kempckinski announced McDonald’s would be closing almost 1,000 stores.
“We understand the impact this will have on our Russian colleagues and partners, which is why we are prepared to support all three legs of the stool in Ukraine and Russia,” he penned.
“Our values mean we cannot ignore the needless human suffering unfolding in Ukraine.”
Kempckinski added that McDonald’s would continue to pay employees’ wages.
BBC’s Moscow correspondent, Steve Rosenberg, turned to Twitter to comment on the “symbolic” decision.
He wrote: “In 1990, I was in the queue when McDonald’s opened its 1st restaurant in Moscow: when iron curtains were crumbling & Russia was embracing the West. Today McDonald’s announced it is temporarily closing its 850 restaurants in Russia. Hugely symbolic.”
Another recalled their personal resonance with the opening: “Oh, the deliciousness of the milkshake, my first taste of America at the Moscow McDonald’s in the early 1990s. While mom waited at the US embassy to submit our refugee papers, grandma & I stood in the snaking McD line,” they said.
Many other leading brands have followed suit, with Coca Cola, Starbucks and Mastercard halting their operations in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Source: Becca Monaghan – INDY100
TOP 48 OF THE DAY
TOP 48 COMPANIES (of 1,000s) STOPPING OPPERATIONS IN RUSSIA
- Ford
- GM
- Toyota
- Volkswagen
- Nissan
- Boeing
- Airbus
- Apple
- Facebook-parent Meta
- Netflix
- Spotify
- YouTube
- Airbnb
- Microsoft
- IBM CEO
- Amazon’s cloud division, Amazon Web Services, said March 8 it would halt new sign-ups for the service in Russia and Ukraine. The company has already had a “long-standing policy of not doing business with the Russian government” and does not have data centers, infrastructure or offices in Russia, the company said in a blog post.
- EY, otherwise known as Ernst & Young
- KPMG has over 4,500 people in Russia and Belarus, and ending our working relationship with them.
- PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
- BP
- Equinor
- Exxon
- General Electric
- Shell
- TotalEnergies
- Mastercard
- Visa
- American Express
- DirecTV is cutting ties with RT.
- Disney
- WarnerMedia
- NetFlix
- Spotify
- H&M
- Heineken will stop producing and selling beer in Russia.
- Ikea,
- Inditex, the parent company of Zara
- German sports company Puma
- Prada
- Procter & Gamble CEO
- Estée Lauder Companies
- Yum Brands, which has 1,000 KFC and Pizza Hut franchises in Russia, said it would suspend all investment and restaurant development in the country.
- McDonald’s is temporarily closing its Russian restaurants. Eighty-four percent of McDonald’s locations in Russia are operated by the company, according to the document. Russia’s restaurants, along with another 108 in Ukraine, all operated by McDonald’s, accounted for 9% of the company’s revenue in 2021.
- Unilever
- UPS
- FedEx
REMEMBER: The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
– Nicolas Chamfort
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE FOR THE DAY
“It is not the length of life, but depth of life.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson.
HAPPINESS IS…
Happiness is…a McDonald’s Restaurant.
GRANDAD’S ONE LINER JOKE OF THE DAY
Why is the leopard not good at hiding? Because he’s always spotted.
LOVE IS…
Love is…weatherproof.
TURN…TURN…TURN!
A time to eat in a standard, boring, run of the mill McDonalds’ restaurant… A time to eat in a brilliant, unusual, state of the art, off the wall McDonalds’ restaurant.
©2022 Phil M Robinson