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My personal experience in France

In Reply to: McDonald's in Foregin Country's- creating economic growth or cultural assimilation posted by CHRIS BEHARRY on February 15, 1997 at 02:10:45:

This is just personal experience. I spent a year in Lille, France and there are three McDonald's located in the center of town.
At the time that I was there McD's was introducing some kind of new
breakfast meal kind of like the egg mcmuffin. So controversial was
this item that a major French newspaper (le Monde) wrote an article
stating how once again McD's is homogenizing the culture of France
with its sword of fast food, now stealing away the traditional
French breakfast of bread and chocolate and replacing it with a
greasy slab of meat on an English Muffin. The French are very protective of their culture, and especially touchy when it comes to
McD's. They see it as another American company forcing our crappy
diet on them, and quite frankly i agree with them, although nobody
is 'forcing' them to eat there. To answer your question, I really
don't think that McD's is worried about cultural assimilation,
they just want to sell Burgers. As far as economic activity is concerned, I read an article in Le Monde about how the price of the Big Mac is used as some kind of a measure for purchasing power in different countries around the world, although my ex-girlfriend who is an economist disagreed totally with the article. The date of the paper
I believe was sometime in May, 97 good luck
l

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