If you’ve eaten at McDonald’s outside the US, you’ll know that the American chain can be pretty creative with localizing its menu. This month, McDonald’s announced perhaps its most impressive effort to make sure everyone can eat its burgers. Starting in India, Mcdee’s will launch 100 percent vegetarian restaurants.
“The issue in India is, a vegetarian is a strict vegetarian,” said Rajesh Kumar Maini, head of communications for McDonald’s in India. “There have been instances that I’ve seen where a person who’s vegetarian would not even sit with a person who’s eating non-vegetarian food.”
And so the restaurant is taking the strictest of vegetarians head on. Apparently, the prime locations for Mickey D’s veggie venture are religious sites. For example, the chain plans to open at Vaishno Devi, a famous Hindu cave shrine that attracts millions of pilgrims each year. Nothing like digging into a juicy McAloo Tikki burger after a day of prayer.
In all seriousness, while I realize it’s all in the fast food chain’s plan to dominate every corner of the world, I gotta give the corporate giant credit for its creativity and market research…even if it means my favorite Aloo Tikki (spicy fried potato) has been transformed into a McDonald’s burger.
