It’s official – even McDonald’s has pulled out of the nearly bankrupt nation. The fast food giant recently closed its business in Iceland, due to the financial crisis making it too expensive to operate here. Just one year after a financial crash that almost left the island bankrupt, it’s hit with yet another blow.
As the Guardian reports, ‘the closure of the fast-food giant’s three restaurants on Monday means Iceland will become one of the few European countries, including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, without a McDonald’s.’
Big Macs’ Cost Rise
Jon Gardar Ogmundsson who runs the McDonald’s franchise in Iceland said that the restaurants imported the goods from Germany, but that costs had almost doubled, with the falling krona making imports prohibitively expensive.
“We would have to raise our prices by 20 percent to get the margin needed on our products. That would have sent a Big Mac to 780 kronur” ($6.36), compared with the 650 kronur it costs today.”, he said. The increase in price would have made the Icelandic version of the burger the most expensive in the world.
“I’ve sold more hamburgers in the last few months than ever before, but the cost is prohibitive. It just makes no sense,” Ogmundsson said. “For a kilo of onion, imported from Germany, I’m paying the equivalent of a bottle of good whiskey.“
McDonald’s in Iceland has shut down and has no plans to return. Looks like just when the Scandinavian nation needed the world most, we’re turning our backs on him. The next time the Icelandics have a Big Mac craving, they might have to make their way across the frontiers to neighboring Greenland for a bite.
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