Sarajevo’s First McDonald’s: How Many Served?

The well-heeled guests looked better suited for a symphony performance than to dining at a greasy spoon, but they had indeed gotten all gussied up for Bosnia’s first McDining experience. The crowd was already lining up at 8.30 for the official 10am grand opening.

My home country boasts over 13,000 McDonald’s, so I can’t really complain about having two in my adopted city of Sarajevo, but I have to say I am not personally “Lovin’ it.”  

I’m not looking forward to the scent of fries wafting down Titova as I make my nightly promenade towards Bascarsija, and I do not plan to lounge in the McCafe gossiping for hours with my friends. I don’t like what McDonald’s represents in the world: globalization, consumerism, and a total lack of culinary creativity.

However, I recognize what a Bosnian McDonald’s signifies—both good and bad.

Sarajevans have forever pointed to the invisible hand of the omnipotent “Cevapi Lobby’”in preventing McDonald’s advance into Bosnia; proudly saying that Ronald McDonald knew he could never compete with Mrkva, Zeljo, Ferhatovic, and other family-owned purveyors of Bosnia’s wonderful and affordable “minced meat fingers”.  

Rumors abounded that McDonald’s had conducted market research and run with its tail between its legs from a market that it could never penetrate.

These stories are much more colorful than the reality: it was red tape and political obstacles to licensing and registering that kept the corporation’s attempts to open up a burger joint at bay for 15 years.  The owners of McDonald’s have finally waded through the legal muck and made it happen.

So, whether people are thrilled or aghast that the Big Mac has arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the fact that BiH can now be added to the Big Mac Index, The Economist’s global measure of a currency’s value, is arguably more important.  

That McDonald’s has opened at long last indicates to other potential investors that this country has a business climate worth investing in, and will hopefully bring much-needed foreign direct investment into the economy.

I do think Bosnian detractors of McDonald’s should do something about it by demanding healthy options and use of local products.  Selling water from an Illidza-based company is a good start, but McDonald’s should do more to ensure that as many ingredients as possible have their origins in Bosnia.

I also hope Bosnian health officials, practitioners, and families will be more successful at combating the obesity brought on by fast food than they have done in my country. 

Official statistics from the World Health Organization suggest that obesity is climbing in Bosnia: according to 2008 statistics, over 60 per cent of the population is overweight, putting BiH within the top ten most overweight countries in the world.  

In a country where healthy foods are much more affordable, local, and organic than they are in America and much of Western Europe, this trend should be easy to reverse, given the right policies.
After the grand McOpening, I encountered two men decked out in red-and-yellow McD’s apparel scarfing down two large portions of cevapi in Bascarsija.  They gladly posed for a picture.

“Nothing could ever compete with cevapi!” they grinned, licking their fingers.  We’ll see in the next few months if they are right.

Valerie Hopkins is an American freelance journalist based in Sarajevo.