EXTORTIONATELY OVERPRICED FAST FOOD IN BOGOTÀ

Something that has been niggling me for the last seven months of travelling really started to get on my nerves today when I started to think about it in more detail:

Why does a McDonalds meal in 'developing' Central American countries and Colombia cost the same (or more) as in the UK?

This thought came to me as I sat in a Golden Arches in North Bogotà this afternoon, celebrating my recent purchase of a pair of slimline, 32 (thirty-two) inch waist jeans with a Big Mac McCombo meal and a cheeky side-order of two cheeseburger, when it suddenly struck me that at 17,900 pesos, my Maccydees lunch here in Bogotà cost the same, if not more, as I have paid for the same meal back in the UK for the last 8+ years of eating it with a 36 inch waist.

How can this be? How can Ronald McDonald justify such a high price for fast food in Colombia, when everything else in the country is about a third of the price of the UK? I worked in McDonalds when I was at University, and so I know that the most expensive outgoings in a McDonalds restaurant are its employee, property and franchise costs. I remember being shocked to discover during my employment that the total internal cost of a medium Coca Cola was only 5 pence (in 1997).

The minimum wage here in Colombia is around GBP 1.1 per hour, and the average price of real estate is about 25% of the current property prices in the UK (and probably even less if I was to compare a McDonalds on Calle 126, North Bogotà with that of 291B Oxford Street, London). Therefore I am left to assume that the shareholders of NYSE: MCD are getting fatter on the profits of its Latin American restaurant franchises, as I sit in North Bogotà getting fatter on my overpriced Big Mac meal (and dos hamburguesas con queso). 

I has better watch out, or I will be back up to a 34 inch waist before I know it.

  

17,900 pesos = an extortionate GBP 5.98