McDonald's fans attending this year's summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have been disappointed to find that the McDonald's at the Olympic Park isn't selling burgers. As it turns out, this location only serves ice cream and dessert options. For those who were looking for familiar tastes, they will find it only in a McDonald's sundae.
After an interview with McDonald's Senior Director for Global Relations, David Zlotnik, USA Today reports that this is actually normal for Brazil locations. Now that I think about it, it actually makes perfect sense.
Locations in other countries cater to different cultures, and therefore serve more locally appealing foods. For example, this particular McDonald's serves variations of the McFlurry that include chocolate candy balls or banana with muesli. We should have known!
Fans shouldn't be too upset, though, there are 33 locations in Rio de Janeiro that serve the Big Macs and McNuggets that they are undoubtedly craving. They can even try some of the localized foods offered, like the cheese bread for breakfast.
McDonald's has been a long-time sponsor of the Olympics, and so it's available at all of the games, but it has never been so limited in the Park locations. Zlotnik said that it wouldn't make sense to build something different this year, since the games are so spread out. Fans will probably be ready to forgive once they've had their Big Mac fix at one of the other locations.