Well the Sarajevo “Arches” has some 18,750 likes on their Facebook Fan Page as at 19 July, so the “Games afoot”.

Menu is: BigMac, Royal, Cheeseburger, Nuggets, Pomfrit, McSundae, McFlurry, Happy meal s poklon igračkom, McCafe sa izvanrednom ponudom različitih vrsta kafa i kolača

NO “Turbo-Mac” YET!

My holiday “read” this summer has been “The Dark Tourist” by Dom Joly.

For me it was a book that showed the human, more personal life of Dom, who is famous for his off the wall and cutting comedy on TV. You can get the book and read it for yourself if you are weirdly interested in what a “Dark Tourist” does, but Dom said something that struck me in regards to Bosnia and Hercegovina where I now live.

“Spotting your first Starbucks or McDonald’s in any travel destination is such a depressing experience”.

Well, in the next few weeks McDonald’s will finally arrive in Bosnia. The first store will open in Sarajevo followed by Banja Luka. Banja Luka authorities are still to give planning consent for the outlet.

How successful will the “Golden Arches” be in a business sense?, we’ll have to wait and see.

“Maccy Dees” will be setting up in direct competition with the quintessential Cevapcinica that are plentiful across the country.

Initial reactions from people are:
that its a western fad and wont last long, that the cevap is made from high quality ingredients that McD’s cant deliver, that no one will want to go there at all.

Whilst I am an avid supporter of the small restaurants that sell the culturally incorruptible cevap and šiš, I can’t help but think that the underground “new urbanites” will simply be ecstatic at Bosnia taking another positive step towards both Europe and wider international integration. That they will be able to enjoy a burger (and apparently eating a Big Mac can be enjoyable) in their own country rather than travelling to Croatia, Serbia or Macedonia (where the nearst arches are).

The presence of a McDonald’s seems to be widely associated with “normality”.

McDonald’s do have high standards, everyone knows that and the design of the restaurants will be corporate, the packaging corporate, in fact there won’t be much that’s culturally Bosnian, except the language on printed products.

So can McDonald’s do what the International Representatives here have failed to do?

Can they bring a powerful and successful business model into a country where local politicians and criminals think that they set the commercial agenda?

I mean, you need a bucket load of cash to sue McDonald’s and McDonald’s profits are way way way in excess of the entire GDP of Bosnia and Hercegovina.

No Contest.

My Fear is that McDonald’s allow a concession to Bosnia and launch the “Turbo-Mac” complete with sponsor credits from Jelena Karleuša!