[arista]

[US fast-food giant McDonald's has opened
its first restaurant in communist Vietnam
nearly 40 years after the end of the war
which ended in defeat for America.
The arrival of one of the most
enduring symbols of US capitalism
in Ho Chi Minh City - formerly known
as Saigon from where American troops
dramatically withdrew
in 1975 - is the result of a business
partnership with the son-in-law
of Vietnam's powerful Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung.
McDonald's follows US rivals
Burger King, KFC and coffee
giant Starbucks into Vietnam,
which have all been drawn
by the country's rising affluence.
At the opening on Saturday,
hundreds of people - mostly young
students or families with
children - queued at the McDonald's
store on Dien Bien Phu street,
named after the battle that ended
French colonial rule in Indochina.]


The menu is priced to appeal
to Vietnam's aspirational middle class

Big Mac costs about $2.85 (£1.74) at the Vietnamese outlet,
while a bowl of traditional pho noodle soup
can be bought on most street corners for around $1.50 (90p).

[The higher price of a burger
positions McDonald's as an
aspirational dining option
accessible only to the
middle class, say economists.
For the first time last year,
overall consumption of rice
in Vietnam began to fall
slowly as the country's
newly-wealthy look to alternative foods,
according to a 2013 World Bank report.]


http://news.sky.com/story/1208645/mcdonalds-opens-first-restaurant-in-vietnam


Sign Of The Times