McDonald's enters The Vatican with an outlet near St. Peter's Square

McDonald's, the fast-food chain has gained entry into The Vatican by opening a restaurant around the corner from St. Peter's Square, on the ground floor of a Vatican-owned building. The new location offers WiFi, accommodates birthday parties and serves the "Sweety," a burger bun filled with Nutella.
McDonald's has rented the 1,765-square-foot space from the Vatican for about $31,000 a month, as understood from media reports.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 5 January 2017.

A number of cardinals live in the apartment building where the restaurant is located and, even though most of the 36000 outlets of McDonald's (about 85 percent) are franchises, the one near the Vatican is company-owned. It is located in a popular tourist area outside the Vatican. Already there are many other restaurants, bars and retail shops in the area.
Incidentally, McDonald's is not the only American company to make inroads into the Vatican. Pope Francis rides a Ford Focus, and Hard Rock Cafe, the Orlando-based chain, has recently got approval to open a nearby franchise - this would displace a religious bookstore.


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McDonald's stops adding tomatoes to its burgers in North and East zones

US burger chain McDonald's has stopped adding sliced tomatoes in its products in North and East India - the reason is that the crops being received by them is of poor quality. It came as a surprise to the customers when they found the tomatoes missing from their burgers and wraps.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 15 July 2016.

A notice displayed at the out lets by Connaught Plaza Restaurants, which operates McDonald's stores in northern and eastern regions of the country, has explained the situation. It seems the company was unable to add tomatoes in various products due to temporary unavailability. This is attributed to unpredictable conditions that have impacted the tomato crop, its quality and supply.
In the past few months, tomato prices in the country have gone up in leaps and bounds. The company was not using any substitute for tomato but are making do with lettuce and onions and waiting for proper supplies to resume.


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It is a generally accepted notion that the state of Gujarat is vegetarian. However, two out of every five persons there are non-vegetarians. This is the result of Sample Registration System (SRS) baseline survey 2014 published by the Registrar General of India. It reveals that 61.80% population of the state is vegetarian while 39.05% is non-vegetarian.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 10 June 2016.

Because Gujarat is widely seen as a vegetarian state, the global pizza chain Pizza Hut had made its entry into the state with first vegetarian restaurant in the world. Other global brands like Subway, KFC and McDonalds are not just experimenting with vegetarian food but also offering Jain food.
Incidentally, Gujarat has more people eating non-vegetarian food than in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan!!
As per the SRS survey, 71% population in India is non-vegetarian while 28.85% is vegetarian. Highest number of poultry, meat and fish eaters are in Telangana where 98.7% population is non-vegetarian followed by West Bengal (98.55%), Odisha (97.35%) and Kerala (97%).
Gujarat has the longest 1,600-Km coastline and the population consists of 15% tribal, 7% Dalits, 50% OBS and 12% minorities like Muslims, Christians and Parsis are non-vegetarians. Hence this trend.


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