McDonald’s Returns to Ukraine

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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McDonald’s Returns to Ukraine

© Viacheslav Tykhanskyi / iStock via Getty Images

Often, McDonald’s locations are found in the rough parts of American cities. This does not compare at all to its return to Ukraine, where some cities barely exist any longer because of attacks by the Russian military.
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McDonald’s said several locations in Kyiv will open for onsite ordering and drive-through by October. Wisely, they will be closed during air raids.
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The McDonald’s statement pointed to the desire of its workers. Paul Pomroy, among the vice presidents for international operations at McDonald’s, said “We’ve spoken extensively to our employees, who have expressed a strong desire to return to work and see our restaurants in Ukraine reopen, where it is safe and responsible to do so.” What he could not say is whether they will stay open if the war intensifies again, which is something Vladimir Putin recently indicated will happen.
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McDonald’s is among the first of many American companies that would like to restart their businesses in Ukraine. While these companies have moved out of Russia and shunned the idea they might return, reopening in Ukraine is an example of resistance. The war is not over, but even if it does not end soon, the commitment of individual corporations is that they are willing to take what is not a trivial risk.
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As American companies do return to Ukraine, it may be only a gesture. Retailers have very limited places they can reopen because the war is so widespread. Companies that offer most other products and services would have trouble rebuilding infrastructure and supply chains. Some may decide that even the most modest of “reopenings” will act as a sign of support.

McDonald’s has returned and, hopefully, it will be the first of many American companies that will do the same.

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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