POSTING #60

Chance Encounter at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport

In the spring of 1996, Pat and I were sitting in the British Airways departure lounge in Moscow waiting for a flight to London. Pat had been in Moscow for one of her periodic visits and I was returning to Canada for a short holiday.

I noticed that the man sitting on my left had a Maple Leaf tag on his carry-on case, and I saw him see that I had a similar tag on my bag.

We then began the usual "Where-are-you-from-in-Canada?" conversation.

The man, who was in his early 60's, slim, with an open, friendly face, said that he was from Toronto.

I told him we were from Ottawa and that I was working on a technical aid project in Russia.

He leaned toward us and peppered Pat and me with questions about the project and how we liked working in Russia.

It was clear that he approved of the work we were doing, and that he was envious of the chance it gave us to travel all over Russia.

When I had a chance, I asked him what he did.

"I'm in the food service business", he replied cryptically and then returned to questions about our project.

As we chatted I tried to connect some dots---a man from Toronto, in the food service business, visiting Russia....

Could he be connected to the hugely successful restaurants that McDonald's Canada had been opening in the Moscow and elsewhere?

Finally I hazarded, "Are you with McDonald's,"

He said he was George Cohon and that he was head of McDonald's Canada and McDonald's Russia.

I quietly kicked myself.

All Canadians in Russia were proud of McDonald's success in the terribly challenging business environment in Russia at the time.

When our Canadian consultants came to Russia to work on the project they all wanted to see three things: Red Square, the Bolshoi--- and the Russian McDonald's.

But the man behind the McDonald's invasion was not well known in 1996.

As we waited for the flight he told us fascinating stories about how his company had fought both the Canadian and Russian bureaucracies to realize his dream of opening restaurants in Russia.

The story I liked best was his approach to Soviet officials at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

The Department of External Affairs in Ottawa wanted to entertain a group of Russian officials who were responsible for the organization of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow but couldn't find a place to meet. One of the diplomats heard that McDonald's had a custom coach on the Olympic site and asked Cohon if they could borrow it for a meeting with the Russians.

Cohon agreed.

The Cohons---George and his wife and two sons---were finishing a day of touring Olympic events when they noticed that the Russians were just getting out of the coach.

George said that they should go over and meet the Russians. His wife protested that they weren't dressed to meet international visitors.

Cohon just said, "C'mon" and started to push through a cordon of RCMP, KGB and Canadian diplomats with his hand out, saying, 'Hello, I'm George Cohon, head of McDonald's Restaurants."

A Canadian diplomat said he couldn't meet with the Russians without the approval of Protocol in Ottawa. George pointed at the coach and said, "That's my bus", and continued moving ahead, giving out his business card as he went.

Now, his card is not like a normal card but is in the shape of a Big Mac. It entitles the holder to a free Big Mac.

He somehow managed to get through to the officials and soon---he's a very engaging fellow---was laughing and joking with the Russians.

After a jolly time, the Russians invited the Cohon family to have dinner with them.

George had been to Russia and understood that when a Russian invites you to dinner, you don't decline. So he agreed to the invitation but suggested that they take a few minutes before dinner to visit one of his restaurants---the McDonald's on Montreal's St. Catherine Street.

Despite protests from diplomats and security people from both countries, George led the officials to the McDonald's.

According to Cohon, they were totally amazed by the brightness and cleanliness of the restaurant, and by the price and quality of the burgers, fries and drinks.

When he asked the officials if they would like to have a McDonald's in Moscow, they all agreed wholeheartedly.

The meeting inspired George to begin a long fight to open some McDonald's in Russia but it wasn't until 1990 that he finally succeeded.

It required real chutzpah to imagine that it would be possible to create a chain of Western restaurants in the Soviet Union in the middle of the Cold War.

Having received permission to open a McDonald's, Cohon faced a huge problem in finding Russian suppliers who could provide high quality items---potatoes, beef, milk etc.---on a consistent basis. He told us that the Russian produce just didn't measure up and (in 1996) McDonald's was importing almost all of the food and materials they needed.

This didn't surprise us.

We had tried local products and except for bread (which was excellent, especially if you could persuade a surly clerk to sell you a fresh loaf) had opted for products from Western Europe.

I was reminded of our 1996 meeting with George Cohon by a recent newspaper article that said that McDonald's was now buying virtually all of its raw materials in Russia.

What progress this represents for Russia's agricultural and manufacturing industries!!

When our flight was called, George Cohon gave each of us a Big Mac business card, and ---with what I sensed was a little bit of uncharacteristic embarrassment---reminded us that the cards could be exchanged at any McDonald's in Canada or Russia for a Big Mac.

Of course, we didn't cash in the cards.

They are tucked away with the other memorabilia from our Russian adventure.

The stories Cohon told us and many more are included in his highly entertaining autobiography, "To Russia with Fries", which was published in 1997, the year after we met him at Sheremetyevo Airport.

The book, which has a warm and gracious introduction by Mikhail Gorbachev, was written with the help of David Macfarlane, a writer I have long admired.

It's a good read, and I highly recommend it.

Some More Stories from our Trip South

Here are some road signs we saw in Pennsylvania that were new to us:

---"High Accident Area"

---"Beware of Aggressive Drivers"

---"Aggressive Driver Zone Next 5 Miles"

---"Beware of DUI Drivers"

As we drove along we tried to figure out what could be the thinking behind the signs.

Was it, "There isn't enough money to provide adequate policing so we'll just stick up some signs."

Or, "We (the state officials) are practicing CYA. If anything nasty happens to the motorists, they can't say they weren't warned."

Or, "We are moving to a new policy of greater transparency and thus we are publicizing the risks."

Or whatever....

We also wondered---as we continued our drive---whether this new posting of risks would carry over into the towns and cities of Pennsylvania. For example, will we see signs saying:

---"High Break and Enter Area"

---"Beware of Muggers"

---"Aggressive Hookers for next 5 Blocks"

---"High Arson Zone"

Just asking....

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Virginia seems to be taking a leaf from Pennsylvania's book, with this sign:

---"Beware of Abandoned Cars"

We decided that we hoped the abandoned cars were on the shoulder, and not on the road itself.

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There was one new Pennsylvania sign that made us smile and nod in agreement:

---"Buckle Up for the Next Million Miles"

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Finally, here is the absolutely last story we will tell about Emporia VA.

As we packed the car to continue our trip home, the skies had cleared but there was a lot of ice by the front door of the hotel.

After nearly falling, I went to the check-in counter and suggested to the clerk that they should put some salt on the ice.

Pointing to an assistant who was bent over the desk doing something, she said, "We are already working on it."

I looked more closely at the assistant.

She had beside her a pile of the small sachets of salt that one gets at a fast food outlet and was busy tearing off the tops and emptying the contents into a cereal bowl.

She had about a third of a cup of salt.

We left shaking our heads.

It is clear that it will take all of us---including the good folks in southern Virginia---some time to adjust to what Thomas Friedman called in a recent New York Times column, 'Global Weirding". He argued that this is a more appropriate description of what is happening than 'global warming'.

"The weather gets weird. The hots are expected to get hotter, the wets wetter, the dries drier and the most violent storms more numerous."


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See you next Sunday for Posting #61 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting, or email me at johnpathunter@cs.com.