Would you believe that there are 72 McDonald’s restaurants in Norway?  I’m not sure why I was thinking about the presence of fast food kjeder (chains) in Norway.  I rarely eat fast food in the U.S. and when I do, I stick to Subway, Chipotle, Potbelly’s, Panera-mostly sandwich style kjeder.  I can’t remember the last time I went to McDonald’s.  I’m not going to lie and pretend that the food doesn’t taste good, but I avoid it because I will inevitably feel very ill and uncomfortable after I consume an item on the McDonald’s meny (menu).

I will come back to my initial question-can you believe there are 72 of them in Norway?  Norway and Minnesota are roughly the same size as far as physical space and number of statsborger (citizens).  Norway has more than half of the number of McDonald’s restaurants that Minnesota has.  I find this surprising for several reasons.  The majority of the Norwegian population is very healthy and as a result take their lunches to school or work and then cook dinner at home (or go out, but not often to McDonald’s).  Clearly a lot of people are going to McDonald’s if 72 of them can survive.

I have identified several forskjeller (differences) between McDonald’s in the U.S. and McDonald’s in Norway.  The first major difference  can be seen in the above picture.  This is a picture of a McDonald’s in Norway.  As you can see, it is much nicer than any McDonald’s in the U.S.  In 2011, McDonald’s was rated the 7th best arbeidsplass (place to work) among store bedrifter (large companies) in Norway.  There are about 2,000 medarbeidere (employees) the work for McDonald’s in Norway.  McDonald’s locations in Norway are staffed by mostly unge mennesker (young people) who represent over 70 cultures!  Again, for the size of country Norway is, I find this very impressive.

In Norway, over 80% of McDonald’s restaurants are franchises, like the one shown in the above picture.  The franchise owner can påvirke (influence) a great deal about the atmosphere.

Another great thing that sets Norwegian McDonald´s apart from other McDonald´s is that 75% of the products on the meny come from Norway.  The kjøtt (meat), kylling (chicken), fisk (fish), brød (bread), poteter (potatoes), and salat (salad) of høy kvalietet (high quality)!

McDonald´s in Norway is also tries to be as green as possible regarding energy used in transport and operational costs, as well as in how they manage waste.

I have to say it is much more appealing for me to go to McDonald´s in Norway than here at home!

Maybe I´ll have my next bursdagsfest (birthday party) there….see here for details.