Serving more than 58 million customers every day, McDonald’s Corporation is the world’s major chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. The name as well as the hamburgers is “digested” easily by celebrities or common man. To pursue its endeavors in emerging markets, McDonald’s stalled its growth in developed nations and leaped in Russia which had emerged as a major economic force in the world.
It was George Cohen, head of McDonald’s Canada, who started an almost impossible dream of introducing a McDonald’s hamburger in Russia. It took 12 years of efforts and finally in April 1988, he convinced the officials of Moscow that McDonald’s can be set up in Russian culture. After 14 years of intense negotiations; McDonald’s finally entered into the Soviet Union on January 31, 1990. This flagship store located in Moscow’s Pushkin Square, was the world’s largest McDonald’s boasting of 28 cash registers and seating capacity for around 700 customers. The first day of McDonald’s in Russia broke the record for inaugural sales in McDonald’s history serving more than 30,000 customers on the first day itself.
The Pushkin Square McDonald’s is the world’s busiest McDonald’s restaurant serving more than 20,000 customers daily. As the fast food market in Russia is growing rapidly, McDonald’s is trying to expand its presence throughout the country.