McDonald’s Stops Selling Big Mac in Venezuela Due to Bread Shortage

By Jose Orozco Fabiola Zerpa of Bloomberg.

"McDonald’s Corp.’s largest franchisee has had to stop selling the Big Mac in Venezuela as it can’t source the bread it needs to make the famous sandwich.

Buenos Aires-based Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc., which operates more than 2,000 McDonald’s restaurants throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, said on Thursday that the problem was temporary and that other menu options were available.

“McDonald’s Venezuela is working to resolve this temporary situation,” Daniel Schleiniger, a spokesman for Arcos Dorados, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “Together with our supplier, we are evaluating the best options that will allow us to continue serving high quality food to our customers.”

Shortages of everything from rice to toilet paper have worsened over the past several months in Venezuela, with reports of looting and protests on the rise. Venezuela’s economy will contract 10 percent in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund, with inflation accelerating to around 700 percent.

Gabriel Perales arrived in Caracas looking for a Big Mac because the McDonald’s in his town of Zaraza in Guarico state is always closed. “This is wrong, like everything in Venezuela, because of shortages,” Perales, 36, said at the McDonald’s in the Ciudad Tamanaco shopping mall. “I just found out there are no Big Macs. They gave me the other burger. Now McDonald’s has problems with flour shortages. Who would have thought?”

Agence France-Presse first reported the sales suspension on July 20."