McDonalds Goes Vegetarian

OK, slightly exaggerated headline.

No, McDonalds is not eliminating meat. Put the epinephrine away and tell the ambulance dispatcher it was all a misunderstanding.

But they are opening their first all vegetarian restaurants. In India.

What's really interesting about this is not that they are opening these two locations in a country where eating meat is a religious taboo for many. Acknowledging local tastes is just common sense when you are a global corporation.

The mind-blowing aspect of this decision is how it may juice their business in the US, Europe and other carnivorously inclined markets. Organics are one of the fastest growing categories in food. As the population ages in most developed countries, the urge to prolong life becomes fiercer. So eating healthier has become a movement, which helps explains the exponential growth of locavore, greens-oriented cuisine.

In addition, businesses have noticed that when they offer products or services for one market, particularly when advertised online, demand emerges in markets for which the items were not intended and in which they are not available. At first.

Levis, among others, noticed this when it created smaller, tighter, less expensive jeans for what it thought was the Chinese market - until orders from other parts of the world starting pouring in.

So Mickey D's may be experimenting in a safe place where they know demand is present. But they have their eye on the prize, which is all those consumers who think the company's offerings have been too fatty and unhealthy. Until now.

And PS, yo. French fries are potatoes. Which are vegetables. So dont be questioning their street cred in this market. JL

The Associated Press reports in the Chicago Tribune:

McDonald's Corp., the fast food chain that brought the hamburger to the world, is opening what may be its first vegetarian-only restaurants. The world's biggest hamburger chain said Tuesday that the locations in India will serve only vegetarian food because of customer preferences in the region. The company could not immediately say when the restaurants would open or how many there would be.

McDonald's restaurants in India do not sell beef or pork and its kitchens are separated into sections for cooking vegetarian and non-vegetarian food.

They have menu items that cater to local tastes, such as the Maharaja Mac, a Big Mac made with chicken patties instead of beef. It also offers a McAloo Tikki, a burger made with a spicy breaded potato patty, red onions, tomatoes and a "special vegetable sauce."

The chain offers such localized options in countries around the world.

The opening of the vegetarian-only restaurants "further speaks to McDonald's efforts to cater to local tastes," the Oak Brook-based company said. Without providing details, it said the restaurants will be in areas that are popular pilgrimage destinations.

McDonald's said the new restaurants are the only ones it's aware of that will serve only vegetarian food. However, local franchises in India and other regions may have meatless menus.

As McDonald's faces rising competition and a volatile world economy, it has said it will focus on offering more food options that cater to local tastes in order to grow sales. Last month, the company said a key revenue measure came in flat for July, which was its worst showing in more than nine years. The figure had grown every month since April 2003.

In 2002, McDonald's agreed to donate $10 million to Hindu and other groups in the U.S. to settle lawsuits that accused the chain of mislabeling French fries and hash browns as vegetarian. The vegetable oil used to prepare the fries and hash browns had contained traces of beef for flavoring purposes.