Historically, most Russians found it difficult to leave the country so patronizing an American
company in Russia had the allure of a cheap and easy visit to the USA. McDonald’s was
attractive since consumers were accustomed to poor service, often standing in line for hours
for food at other vendors. Fast food had very little competition because restaurants for the
average citizen were rare. Most traditional restaurants were very fancy and targeted the
exclusively rich. Remarkably, the fast food diet was not an issue either. Due to basic food
scarcity, McDonald’s instead got complaints that the fat content in the mayonnaise was not high
enough. The menu in Russia was augmented with simple foods unique to local tastes such as
cabbage pie and kvass (alcohol from fermented brown bread).