Wendy’s comes to Russia

The capitalist pigs continue their march on Moscow – Wendy’s opened its first branch here today! (Yes, I’m excited, everyone has their faults and when you live abroad a longing for American fast food quickly becomes one of them.)

“I consider Russia probably the best and most important market for us to enter,” Andy Skehan, senior vice president of Wendy’s/Arby’s, said at the opening, according to Reuters. “It's a vibrant country with a growing economy and…people who like to eat meat.” Ain’t that the truth.

The plan for Russia is to open a minimum of 180 “restaurants” over the next decade, via local operator Wenrus Restaurant Group. He said he expected sales at each one to reach $1.5 million – $1.6 million within five years (compared to an average $1.2 million in the US).

Out of the 10,000 Wendy’s and Arby’s around the world, only currently 300 exist outside North America, according to Reuters.

Skehan said Brazil and China were next. “We consider them along with Russia to be the highest-potential and most important markets in the world,” he said, adding that India was more challenging.

Last January, I made a pilgrimage to the city’s first ever Burger King, in a shopping mall in northern Moscow, just a few days after it opened. It was, like all fast food, sort of disgusting and sort of awesome. I had, of course, the Big Vopper.
 

UPDATE (CORRECTED): Thanks to superstar photographer Max Avdeev for asking the key question: Where is it? Muscovites, head to thе Kapitoly mall near metro Universitet to stuff your face. head to Arbat to stuff your face.