{"id":192,"date":"2011-12-26T11:22:08","date_gmt":"2011-12-26T16:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/mcdonalds-failure-in-bolivia-two-different-takes.html"},"modified":"2011-12-26T11:22:08","modified_gmt":"2011-12-26T16:22:08","slug":"mcdonalds-failure-in-bolivia-two-different-takes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/mcdonalds-failure-in-bolivia-two-different-takes.html","title":{"rendered":"McDonald&#8217;s failure in Bolivia: two different takes"},"content":{"rendered":"So, what Bolivia ejecting McDonalds a blow against capitalism,\nor was it capitalism in action?\n<p>\nStephanie Garlow wrote for Global Post 1 November 2011,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalpost.com\/dispatches\/globalpost-blogs\/que-pasa\/mcdonald\u2019s-failure-bolivia-fail\">\nMcDonald\u2019s failure in Bolivia:\nThe country closed its stores and left Bolivia in 2002.\nWhy couldn&#8217;t it succeed there?<\/a>\n<blockquote>\nIt&#8217;s the country that turned its back on McDonald&#8217;s.\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=I12mS0lHHNI\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" align=\"right\" border=0 src=\"http:\/\/i4.ytimg.com\/vi\/S9rUce9mfNY\/hqdefault.jpg\"><\/a>\nThe fast food giant added the traditional llajwa sauce to its\nclassic patties, but still Bolivians weren&#8217;t conviced.\n<p>\nSo after five years, McDonald&#8217;s closed its eight branches and left\nthe country in 2002.\n<p>\nNow a new documentary, &#8220;\u00bfPor qu\u00e9 quebr\u00f3 McDonald&#8217;s en Bolivia?&#8221;,\nexplores why McDonald&#8217;s failed. Filmmaker Fernando Martinez focuses\non social and cultural aspects to explain the company&#8217;s lack of\nsuccess. &#8220;Culture beat a transnational, globalized world,&#8221; he said.\n<\/blockquote>\nHere&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/ffmUnP2yTsg\">the movie trailer.<\/a>\nYes, it&#8217;s in Spanish, but I think you&#8217;ll get the general idea\nfrom the pictures without needing to follow the dialog.\nOr here&#8217;s\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=I12mS0lHHNI\">\nanother version<\/a> with even less dialog and some English subtitles.\n\n<!--more-->\n<p align=\"center\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I12mS0lHHNI\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>\nAnd here&#8217;s take 2:\nKristian Niemietz wrote for Institute for Economic Affairs (iea)\n22 November 2011,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.iea.org.uk\/blog\/mcdonald\u2019s-withdrawal-from-bolivia-capitalism-in-action\">\nMcDonald\u2019s withdrawal from Bolivia: capitalism in action<\/a>\n<blockquote>\nIt is a strange topic for a documentary, if you keep in mind what\nthe basic storyline is:\n<ol>\n<li>\nA company offers a product.\n<li>\nConsumers don&#8217;t want it.\n<li>\nThe company leaves the market. End of story.\n<\/ol>\nDoes this sound vaguely familiar? That&#8217;s because it is the most\nordinary and mundane occurrence in a market economy. While you&#8217;re\nreading this, several pubs in London are closing, even though there\nwon&#8217;t be a documentary celebrating the people who brought down the\nmighty pub.\n<\/blockquote>\nYeah, good try.\nEjecting one of the world&#8217;s most pervasive transnational companies\nfrom and entire country is not quite the same as a few pubs closing\nin one city.\n<p>\nBut of course iea is right that it&#8217;s capitalism in action.\n<p>\nYet iea neglects to mention that in most countries (maybe in Bolivia, too)\nMcDs is supported by the corporate press (many ads, few truthful stories),\nand the press is overly consolidated\n(5 companies own most of it in the U.S.), which makes pulling off a customer\nfeat like that quite difficult.\n<p>\nAlso, note iea&#8217;s keyword.\nIt&#8217;s not &#8220;capitalism&#8221;.\nIt&#8217;s &#8220;consumers&#8221;.\nThe only purpose of consumers is to eat what producers like McDs sell them.\nCustomers, on the other hand, are actual people who have motivations other\nthan buying cheap and convenient.\n<p>\nSo, both spins are right, I think.\nYes, it was capitalism in action.\nNot academic capitalism in which consumers act only according to\nnarrow rational and efficient concerns.\nNot Chicago School privatize and globalize everything crony capitalism.\n<p>\nReal capitalism with real people, customers, not consumers.\nAnd the customers voted at the checkout and ejected mighty McDs from their\ncountry.\n<p>\nBravo!\n<p>\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So, what Bolivia ejecting McDonalds a blow against capitalism, or was it capitalism in action? Stephanie Garlow wrote for Global Post 1 November 2011, McDonald\u2019s failure in Bolivia: The country closed its stores and left Bolivia in 2002. Why couldn&#8217;t it succeed there? It&#8217;s the country that turned its back on McDonald&#8217;s. The fast food [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[39,40,42],"tags":[656,653,2773,654,292,655,659,2774,658,2775,657],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-economy","category-food-and-drink","tag-bolivia","tag-capitalism","tag-community","tag-consumer","tag-culture","tag-customer","tag-drink","tag-economy","tag-fast-food","tag-food","tag-mcdonalds"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Gj0O-36","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}