Post by Jaga on Nov 3, 2019 5:44:08 GMT -7
I am not sure you have heard the story - but when last McDonald closed one guy kept his last burger to test his theory that it would not go rotten... and it did not. His burger was even displayed in the museum and some of the fries went missing.
here is more:
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/11/02/tale-icelands-last-mcdonalds-burger-that-simply-wont-rot-even-years-after-company-pulled-out-country/
Operating in Iceland had become too costly for McDonald’s in the aftermath of the crisis: The currency collapsed, and inflation skyrocketed. McDonald’s was far from the only company to abandon the embattled country, but to some, it felt like being thrown out of the international community they had worked so hard to be part of, Loftsdóttir said.
For her book “Crisis and Coloniality at Europe’s Margins: Creating Exotic Iceland,” Loftsdóttir interviewed a number of individuals who witnessed the 2008 crisis. To many of them, the closure of the restaurants was not so much a story about a company laying off its employees, but rather of the collective failure of a nation.
“We cannot even operate a McDonald’s,” Loftsdóttir recalled one exasperated source summarizing a widely shared sentiment at the time.
A burger forgotten on a garage shelf
On Oct. 31, 2009, marketing consultant Hjörtur Smárason was among the last customers at the McDonald’s in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik. He waited in line in front of the restaurant with other Icelanders who wanted to purchase their last McDonald’s meal.
But Smárason had not come to eat. He had read about online rumors of never-rotting McDonald’s burgers and wanted to put the myth to the test. He bought a cheeseburger with fries, drove home and left the box on a shelf in his garage.
Three years went by, in which Smárason forgot about the souvenir of a bygone era. He had other problems to worry about.
The financial crisis had hit him hard. “I lost all my savings,” he recalled. “My clients were going bankrupt. I was trying to hang on to my house.”
Three years on, as he was preparing to move to Copenhagen, he came across the McDonald’s meal in his garage.
“I was worried about what I would find,” Smarason said.
When he opened the box, he was shocked — but not for the reason he expected. Contrary to the rotten remnants he was prepared for, he found what appeared to be a fully intact meal.
Smarason sensed he was holding a historical artifact. He reached out to Iceland’s National Museum, where the meal was put on prominent display soon after.
Iceland’s national broadcasting service picked up the story, which soon circulated around the world.
In the years since, some visitors appear to have mistaken it for a fresh meal. Some fries are missing.
The remnants are now on display in a small hotel in southern Iceland, where they continue to attract tourists, Smarason said.
here is more:
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/11/02/tale-icelands-last-mcdonalds-burger-that-simply-wont-rot-even-years-after-company-pulled-out-country/
Operating in Iceland had become too costly for McDonald’s in the aftermath of the crisis: The currency collapsed, and inflation skyrocketed. McDonald’s was far from the only company to abandon the embattled country, but to some, it felt like being thrown out of the international community they had worked so hard to be part of, Loftsdóttir said.
For her book “Crisis and Coloniality at Europe’s Margins: Creating Exotic Iceland,” Loftsdóttir interviewed a number of individuals who witnessed the 2008 crisis. To many of them, the closure of the restaurants was not so much a story about a company laying off its employees, but rather of the collective failure of a nation.
“We cannot even operate a McDonald’s,” Loftsdóttir recalled one exasperated source summarizing a widely shared sentiment at the time.
A burger forgotten on a garage shelf
On Oct. 31, 2009, marketing consultant Hjörtur Smárason was among the last customers at the McDonald’s in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik. He waited in line in front of the restaurant with other Icelanders who wanted to purchase their last McDonald’s meal.
But Smárason had not come to eat. He had read about online rumors of never-rotting McDonald’s burgers and wanted to put the myth to the test. He bought a cheeseburger with fries, drove home and left the box on a shelf in his garage.
Three years went by, in which Smárason forgot about the souvenir of a bygone era. He had other problems to worry about.
The financial crisis had hit him hard. “I lost all my savings,” he recalled. “My clients were going bankrupt. I was trying to hang on to my house.”
Three years on, as he was preparing to move to Copenhagen, he came across the McDonald’s meal in his garage.
“I was worried about what I would find,” Smarason said.
When he opened the box, he was shocked — but not for the reason he expected. Contrary to the rotten remnants he was prepared for, he found what appeared to be a fully intact meal.
Smarason sensed he was holding a historical artifact. He reached out to Iceland’s National Museum, where the meal was put on prominent display soon after.
Iceland’s national broadcasting service picked up the story, which soon circulated around the world.
In the years since, some visitors appear to have mistaken it for a fresh meal. Some fries are missing.
The remnants are now on display in a small hotel in southern Iceland, where they continue to attract tourists, Smarason said.
