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NATIONAL

Hanoi Gets
Its First
McDonald’s
But are Hanoians really ‘lovin’ it? And what will be the effect on
the bottom line? Words by Mary Warner.
Photos by Teigue John Blokpoel

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wordvietnam.com | January 2018 Word | 49
A About the same time Vietnam declared its independence in
1945, America began a love affair with the burger. Seventy-
two years later, the burger has made its home in the capital
of Vietnam, with the opening of the city’s first McDonald’s.
Criticism abounds, as it did with the franchise’s arrival in 2014
in Ho Chi Minh City. But how much of the commentary is based
on outdated modes of thinking?
In fact, the first iteration of the burger McDonald, McDonald’s still hums with
can be traced to the Mongols who, as activity. While there are no lines out of the
John T. Edge, New York Times contributing door today, after a busy morning, the staff
writer and author of Hamburger & Fries, scramble to regroup before the lunch rush.
explains, was a result of horsemen storing At half-past eleven, queues form and staff
“raw mutton scraps in the gap between the direct the crowds like air traffic controllers
horse’s flank and the saddle” to eat between as counter crew exchange patrons' receipts
pillaging villages. for goods.
The burger has come a long way since it While the Big Mac, fries, and Happy
has returned to roost in the East, and so has Meals are near carbon copies of their
the sentiment attached to it. Western counterparts, a few items on the
“It’s a food that’s a symbol of capitalism Hanoi franchise’s menu reveals at least one
and food as a literal buy-in to capitalism,” thing McDonald’s excels in — adaptability.
said Edge in a recent telephone interview, “Their product remains the hamburger,”
“and it carries with it all those ideas of says Edge, “but the accoutrements applied to
Americanism.” it and its trappings very much reflect a smart
assimilation and adaptability of a very agile
Condiment Cachet company.”
Part and parcel of the American burger joint Fried chicken and banh my are just a few
of the 1940s was the drive-thru. Whereas in of the things that highlight the Vietnamese
Ho Chi Minh City, motorcycle lanes replace version of the menu. But it’s the condiments
the automobile corral, the new franchise that are the real winners.
location on Hoan Kiem Lake, an area that’s “I love this condiment,” says Kim, 22,
a tourist destination and auto-free on the a Vietnamese woman who’s just finished
weekend, features a walk-up counter. eating, and points to a translucent ochre-
A few weeks following its grand opening coloured dip alongside ketchup, the brand’s
on Dec. 2, which included a requisite ribbon- better-known staple. It’s her first visit to a
cutting and meet-and-greet with Ronald McDonald’s, and she’s joined by her friend,

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wordvietnam.com | January 2018 Word | 51
“
Van Anh, 21, a veteran McDonald’s patron. The brand has a lot to lose financially
“I had a lot of expectations of the by not enforcing strict guidelines. In 2014,
In Vietnam, while it’s experience,” says Kim, who followed her
friend’s lead and ordered a Big Mac meal.
according to a Reuters report: “McDonald’s
increased the number of audits of its
true that McDonald’s “It’s not what I expected. But I love the fries!” suppliers in China” after a food safety scare
hit sales. A year later, Japanese suppliers fell
is a convenience A Domino Effect
Adapting and assimilating are part of
under the same scrutiny. Those years marked
significant financial losses for the brand.
food accessible to a McDonald’s arsenal of marketing tactics, but
where they have become less flexible these
For McDonald’s in Vietnam to maintain
its rapport with patrons, and even more
more affluent socio- days is their approach to supply chain and
food safety standards.
importantly, their bottom line, food safety,
both within their franchises and among their
economic group, McDonald’s, much like another American
behemoth, Wal-Mart, has integrated local
local suppliers, is of utmost importance.
Word of mouth still matters.
there is something buying and organic foods as part of their
business model, as well as adopting the
There’s a golden lining to an emphasis on
food safety in a developing country. In 2016,
else that will limit Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food
Program, a partnership among farmers,
a report co-authored by the World Bank and
partners at the request of the Government
the growth of the farmworkers, and retail food companies of Vietnam concluded that: “International

country’s waistline
— mothers. It is the
mother who holds
court over the food
“ that ensures humane wages and working
conditions for the workers who pick fruits
and vegetables on participating farms.
McDonald’s requires its franchises to
follow these and other standards on a
global level, a fact that’s made McDonald’s
expansion within Vietnam more difficult,
though not impossible. Henry Nguyen,
managing partner of IDG Ventures Vietnam,
experience provides many tested ideas
which, in the right combination, should
gradually improve levels of food safety.”
With McDonald’s high standard of
practices for which everyone is held
accountable, there is a domino effect.
Vietnamese workers, many of whom
are unfamiliar with issues such as cross-
contamination, will bring these practices
her family eats which owns the Vietnamese franchises,
called the process a “headache” in an article
home, and if they continue in the food
industry, they will take them to their next job,
published in 2014. The demand for better too. And that’s a win for everybody.
products, however, has had the added benefit
of an increased supply of quality food and Women As “Fry” Keepers
food safety awareness. “Get ready for fat, lazy, unhealthy sick kids,”

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quipped one Twitter user about the arrival of
McDonald’s in Hanoi.
The most damning argument within
Super Size Me, the acclaimed documentary
by Morgan Spurlock, was the argued
correlation between the effect of McDonald’s
advertising to children and their obesity rate.
Obesity rates of American children were at
an all-time high when the film was released
in 2004. According to Children’s Data
Bank, statistical figures suggest that since
then, the number of obese and overweight
children has decreased or at least remained
unchanged.
Following the release of the film,
McDonald’s rolled out the GoActive Happy
Meal, offered the option of replacing fries
with apple slices — and most tellingly
of how the brand responds to consumer
backlash — nixed the “super size” meal
upgrade across the board. McDonald’s
denies that these changes were made
in response to criticism, unsurprisingly,
because a confession could expose them to
legal claims. Regardless, the changes were
made.
While McDonald’s cannot be held solely
responsible for the increase in obesity rates,
its response to criticism should be lauded.
According to a 2013 study by the Yale Rudd
Center for Food Policy & Obesity, with
the exception of some outliers, marketing
fast food to kids has improved. Numerous
companies have done their part to roll out
healthier food options, but ultimately the
responsibility to make better food choices
falls where it should — on the parent.
“I wouldn’t take my kid here,” says Kim,
who, as of yet, doesn’t have children. “I
wouldn’t even want it to be a treat for my
children because they would always want
McDonald’s. I’d want to make them normal
everyday food.”
Kim’s foresight is something that
Americans, in particular, lacked in the
1940s. Driven by a desire to get dinner on
the table in a growing economy, parents
have helped their children become addicted
to the tantalizing allure of golden fries and
a toy that’s quickly relegated to the rubbish
bin.
In Vietnam, while it’s true that
McDonald’s is a convenience food
accessible to a more affluent socio-economic
group, there is something else that will
limit the growth of the country’s waistline
— mothers. It is the mother who holds
court over the food her family eats. If most
Vietnamese women think like Kim and
her friend Van Anh, we can expect that
McDonald’s won’t be a welcome guest at
the everyday table any time soon.
A Golden Future?
While the current American administration
is rolling back government regulation, it’s
no match for the grassroots efforts that
strive for decency like those developed
by programmes such as food coalitions,
farming cooperatives, or organizations
like Southern Foodways Alliance, also
spearheaded by John T. Edge, and which
preserves and researches “foodways”,
defined as “the cultural, social, and
economic practices relating to the
production and consumption of food.”
“I think that there are other measures
of a food that are more telling that are not
about the blunt force of the arrival of a
mega company,” says Edge, whose area
of research focuses on the permeability of
foodways between cultures. “It’s about the
genuine exchange of foods and the like.”
Instead, McDonald’s in Vietnam is a story
about a mega marketing giant’s arrival to
a new landscape, and whose impact will
affect the Vietnamese economy for years to
come, and will shape its food industry. As
long as the country’s matrons remain at the
head of the table, waistlines should remain
unchanged, too.
Also, smaller Vietnamese companies,
such as Naturally Vietnam in Hanoi, which
opened its doors 10 years ago, or Hanoi
Small Goods, a meat delivery service, will
benefit from the arrival of McDonald’s, as
more Vietnamese people become aware of
and concerned with what’s in their food.
Instead of burgers and fries, what we can
expect people to be “lovin’” will be access
to safe, healthy food, and a society that
benefits from eating it.
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