Interesting and fun fact that will blow your mind!
Fact: McDonald’s once made bubblegum-flavored broccoli
This interesting fact will have your taste buds crawling. Unsurprisingly, the attempt to get kids to eat healthier didn’t go over well with the child testers, who were “confused by the taste.”
Do you know which countries have banned McDonald’s?
1 - Bermuda
Until 1995, there was only one McDonald’s restaurant on this Caribbean island. Now, there are zero. The country has a law banning foreign fast-food joints that has been in place since the 1970s. McDonald’s, however, managed to find a loophole in 1985 by building a Mickey D’s on a U.S. Naval Air Station. That station closed in 1995, however, and the McDonald’s closed with it.
2 - Iran
In recent years, relations between this Middle Eastern country and the United States have been tense to say the least, and Western franchises like McDonald’s have been collateral damage. There hasn’t been a set of Golden Arches in Iran since 1979. However, that hasn’t stopped people from wondering whether the chain could eventually make a comeback.
3 - Macedonia
This small European nation, located in the Balkans, used to have a few McDonald’s restaurants; seven, to be exact, with several of them in the nation’s capital, Skopje. In 2013, the person running the Macedonian McDonald’s lost their license, causing all seven stores to permanently close. Rumor has it that the Macedonian franchisee and the European CEO of McDonald’s had a falling-out.
4 - Yemen
On one hand, this Middle Eastern nation’s economy is a little shaky, so McDonald’s doesn’t believe that opening restaurants there would be “economically viable.” On the other, extremists in Yemen have threatened militant action against any McDonald’s that dares show its arches in the country.
5 - Montenegro
In 2003, McDonald’s bought a tiny store in this tiny nation; it was just a “mobile McDonald’s,” opened with the hope that it could lead to something more permanent. Though many people embraced Mickey D’s food in all its greasiness, the government teamed up with local businesses to prevent Ronald McDonald from making a permanent home in Montenegro.
6 - North Korea
According to the Telegraph, some elite members of the North Korean government have had McGoodies smuggled into the country from South Korea for their own personal consumption.
7 - Zimbabwe
In 2000, McDonald’s was in the midst of an attempt to introduce itself to this African nation when it suffered a massive economic collapse. (Zimbabwe, not McDonald’s.) The McDonald’s folks promptly backpedaled, and Zimbabwe has remained Mickey-D-Free. There is buzz that it may try again in the near future, but McDonald’s International Franchising claims that there’s no concrete plan
8 - Bolivia
While McDonald’s isn’t outright banned in this South American nation, the last Mickey D’s in Bolivia closed in 2002, ending a tense relationship between the fast-food giant and the nation’s government and citizens. According to the Daily Meal, McDonald’s failed there because the people of Bolivia didn’t want to flock to a massive corporation to buy burgers. And the current Bolivian president made his feelings about the franchise very clear, claiming that it is “not interested in the health of human beings, only in earnings and corporate profits.”
9 - Iceland
Like Zimbabwe, Iceland suffered a major economic crash that crushed McDonald’s prospects in this island country. Unlike Zimbabwe, though, Iceland had McDonald’s before the 2009 crash, in its capital city. Rumor has it, though, that the government of Iceland wasn’t that happy to have Happy Meals in the first place, since Iceland is an incredibly health-conscious nation.
Are you from some of those countries?