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The King is Gonna Make it Big in Cambodia!
Originally posted at http://capitalistexploits.at/
The Colonel has dominated the local scene since he came to Phnom Penh in 2007. Though, I anticipate a sea change with a new player in town, the King, who has the potential to dominate the country.
No I’m not talking about the upcoming elections or political strife, but something much more fulfilling…fast food wars. But before I delve into this further, a bit of history is in order.
Ever since the first KFC branch opened near Tiananmen Square, China in 1987, KFC has become synonymous with America. Whether people actually enjoyed the overpriced and low quality food fare I will never know, but they have flocked in droves to taste that famous blend of 11 herbs and spices ever since. Maybe this is all about experiencing “democracy” and being “American” for a meal. Regardless, 26 years on there are more than 4,000 KFC’s in China, with a growing number in Asia’s frontier markets, including Viet Nam and Mongolia.
While those of us with discretionary income may not think of fast food as a glamorous meal, over a billion others do. For those who can afford fast food, which rarely comes cheap, it is all about eating something exotic. It’s a means not only of feeding oneself, but more so exhibiting a certain social status. It is not uncommon to walk into a McDonald’s or Pizza Hut (The latter being a sit-down restaurant in Asia) and seeing a group of business men on their laptops, and glamorous ladies lunching.
When first coming to these frontier markets I found this bizarre, but now realise that this is something only those with discretionary income can afford. On the opposite end of the spectrum, when I walk into a fast food joint in America it’s just a wee bit different.
In the west fast food is cheap. In frontier markets it is ordinarily priced at multiples the cost of local food, effectively pricing out most of the population. Some meal combos in Cambodian KFC’s run more than $9. That’s expensive for America, let alone in Cambodia where GDP per capita is under $1,000.
New goods and services are priced in tiers, whereby a first mover targets the upper end of the market. Kith Meng’s Royal Group partnered with Malaysia’s QSR brands in 2007 to introduce KFC to Cambodia, and he seems to be doing just this. Setting aside the Swenson’s and Dairy Queens, which were introduced by RMA Group, KFC has had no real competition for nearly 6 years. That is until last month, when Cambodian businessman Sok Hong partnered with Viet Nam’s Imex Pan-Pacific Group Inc. to open the Kingdom’s first Burger King, located at Phnom Penh International Airport. They plan to have at least one more location opened by year’s end.
I don’t like fast food, but that doesn’t mean it should be written off. When I visited Burger King last week on my way to Singapore, I was awe struck as to what I saw. The menu is cheap!
Burger King’s prices are in line with those in Singapore (Where fast food is inexpensive), and I interpret this to mean that they are targeting both the middle and upper class with attractive price points for menu items. Unlike KFC, if Burger King can garner a following with its American brand name and attractive pricing it should be able to turn a profit in short order.
I look at it as a leading indicator. If Burger King succeeds it could set the stage for an influx of foreign brands selling goods and services to the masses. With a reasonable savings rate, Cambodians have the firing power when new opportunities arise for them to spend. Whoever said the number of fryolators in a country isn’t a sound economic indicator was just plain wrong!
- Scott
“In the 21st Century obesity rates will be a sound measure of economic progress.” - Scott Baker
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in other food news, china tries to buy smithfield farms..no more pigs in river.. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/29/us-shuanghui-idUSBRE94S0K920130529
there was a well writ line of literature, something to the effect (perhaps a line from Primo Levi) that in all four corners of the globe you will find a Napolitan making pizza
Pizza is the one world currency. Make no mistake.
One time I, AnAmerican, blobbed-up in Beijing looking for something to eat after 9:00 PM. The only place I could find open where I was was a Pizza Hut, so I went in. The place was nearly empty, but none of the huge on-duty staff wanted to wait on me. After a few minutes, they sent out the youngest girl She didn't look at all happy to deal with me. I ordered a big bottle of Yanjing, which is cheaper than Tsingtao (although they both taste like slightly skunky Heineken-yum). Then I tried to order a pizza. Each option I pointed at, the girl shook her head "no." Finally I just folded up the menu, handed it to her with a smile, and said, "Pizza." That got a little bit of a smile out of her. She came back with a little "personal size" pizza that looked about right. It had some sort of sauce on it, a couple of dots of chicken sausage on one side, squid on the other, and a couple of flecks of cheese which I suspect was non-dairy in origin. The sauce turned out to be some sort of plum-based jelly. It was sweet, and really weird. But I was hungry, so I ate the whole thing, and it actually went well with the bitter beer and by the end, I kind of liked it. I left her a tip, which pissed her off, and blobbed-off to my little hotel room.
If anyone else needs a Burger King; would you please take ours. I'm pretty sure we don't really need one in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The empty lot could have a couple of trees planted on it and it would be a nice place to sit.
Everyone be reassured those brands will always be unprofitable here!
How many of you would pay a days wages for a pizza?
How many of you would pay 2 days wages for a family pizza?
Bangkok minimum daily wage 300 Baht.
http://www.dominospizza.co.th/
http://www.pizza.co.th/
Regards.
I used to want to travel all around the world. Is there any point any more? Cambodia was on my list as a last bastion of true non-touristy South East Asian countries. Cambodia, you need to boycott this shit. Because, obviously nowhere else has succeeded in doing so. Keep Cambodia free from overweight people, you owe it to yourselves.
Looks like I'm staying home this summer
"On the opposite end of the spectrum, when I walk into a fast food joint in America it’s just a wee bit different"
Wee??? Fucking....wee? They are pit stops for the moo cows going to WalMart to bumper car around all day and but Chinese junk, as well as finding serial over-eaters, and people that lard on the starch en mass.
That, and an octogenarian coffee/prostate/bladder emptier for the senior set.
Heaven to a fat ass? A Mickey D's inside a WalMart.
For the price of a BK meal deal i'd expect a green card giveaway!
And all this time I thought Washington/Wall Street was the home of the whopper.
Put that in your Pol Pot and smoke it!
'The King is Gonna Make it Big in Cambodia!'
darn, i thought the article was about elvis.
:(
Considering the Cambodian king died recently this is post extremely insensitive and disrespectful. Nice touch Tyler. Not.
My condolences for your loss, but BK has been trademarked for decades and this is strickly business.
As I have said before, the Tyler's do not enforce editorial control over posts and it is bettter to leave it that way. Let the readers police the posts.
People who promote this branch of fast food capitalism are not known for their cultural sensitivity are they?
Eating in Burger King and KFC on a trip to Cambodia sums it up.
There's a fucking BK in downtown Negril William. Like a mustache on the Mona Lisa, the fucking sign alone is vomit-inducing, and fucks up the view of Long Bay and blights the little town square.
Now, most Jamaicans love it there - but the tourists? Most frown upon seeing it.They escaped for a week - or thought they did, from corporate motherfuckers.....but no.....
They give out ketchup one packet per serving. Want more? 20 cents USD. 3rd world country.
Mk...I'll bite...what king, the one who supported the Khmer Rouge?
Coming from Zerohedge's very own 9/11 cock 'n bull disassembler, nmewn has no shame.
Oh look, a squirrel!!!
Coming from a "nano-thermite-truther" conspiracist (which must prove you're a demolition expert, somehow) finding iron & aluminum oxide dust in the rubble (ahem, that would be paint & rust) is the equivalent of finding salt in the ocean this must be some sort of compliment in your own twisted way.
Thanks.
Don't you guys ever tire of running down pitch black rabbit holes dug for you and running into a wall of reality?
He wound up being everyone's favoritie political pawn.
At least give him credit for writing My War With the CIA and surviving.
http://worldview.carnegiecouncil.org/archive/worldview/1973/09/2219.html...
Game/set/match to Banzai.
Disclaimer: I have never liked the idea of kings and modern kings especially tend to be softer to the touch than Supima® cotton ;-)
I suppose BK would be a big hit in Ethiopia as well. LMAO. For those that could afford spending 2 weeks pay for a piece of dull grey steamer soaked for hours kangaroo.
You need to change your blog name to: Fast Food Capitalist Blog
http://capitalistexploits.at/2013/04/mcdonalds-could-do-a-better-job/
"williambanzai"
At no point have we EVER recommended eating junk food. Nor have we condoned McDonalds, KFC or BK. In fact we made the point that we don't eat it. We are simply cognizant of the trends taking place in countries and identifying opportunities to profit. Furthermore we've never considered the world we live in to be one which resembles true capitalism...that would be folly and akin to believing in the easter bunny and fairy tales.
With respect to Mcdonalds, I made the comment that as horrible as Maccie D's is they in fact
probably do a better job of promoting the ideals the UN so fervently
states is its objective. Lets face it, the world is corrupt, promotes crap food and many rape and pillage.
...or Run Don't Wok.
Wok on the Wild Side
I like how the menu from Singapore has Whoppers listed separately from the "beef" items. That will be running around my mind tomorrow, as it's Whopper Wednesday (In Canada at least)
Neigh, pay it no mind.
I saw a great shirt a few weeks ago that purported to be from Holiday Inn Cambodia.
"You'll work harder with a gun in your back
For a bowl of rice a day.
Slave for soldiers til you starve,
then your head is skewered on a stake.
Now you can go where people are one
Now you can go where they get things done.
What you need my son ... what you need my son
Is a holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll do what you're told.
A holiday in Cambodia,
Where the slums got so much soul!
[Pol Pot Chant]
Ah, yes class stuff.
I took a trip down memory lane yesterday. Doing the ironing listening to Plastic Surgery Disasters loud with headphones on.
Funny, I am actually quite grateful to bands like the DK's
Ah, ah, you liking Jello dessert to go with Blooming Lotus Kitten Crispy?
Must not to be forgetting official JKC slogan:
"It's dunghand-licking good!"
ROFR!
Rolling on the Floor Rauphing??
Armost. You very crose.
Raughing Out Fucking Roud
In other news...
The Mighty Quinn Gets Egg On Her Face After Pulling Out On Weiner
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/05/quinn-wont-face-weiner-in-debate-tomorrow?page=0%2C3
Then that debate is a wrap for Weiner, Jissbon® style.
Apparently it was too much a strain on the vein or a premature ejaculation leaving only one party satisfied at the outcum ;-)
LOL nmewn...+50
exporting poison once again, the people will get fat and sick like us. They should restrict it to tourist :)
Uh Oh --- looks like AnAnonymystic's JKC (Just Killed Cat) Asian franchise is in for some competition!
Make me laugh.
Eternal nature of Americanism is blobbing up Herro Kitty franchise.
Wokking Kitty must fight.
Stalking Kitty-Frying Dragon.
To avoid wokking, kitty must run swiftly, then pouncing with Flying Dragon Four-Claws Style prodigiously.
Even when wokking, JKC will run circles around Burger King.
The perfidious eternal nature of blobbing-up US 'cambodian' citizenism seeks to devour all in an orgy of stray animal consumptionalizing.
Alas, alas, three orders of crispy kittens alas, just have to wok the bear with it.
Hmmm, less & less small matterings of feline refuse, of course shorting kitty litter has always been a crowded trade.
Too bad PETA isn't publicly traded ;-)
"PHNOM PENH — Baffled police broke up animal rights group PETA's first protest in Cambodia on Aug. 13, saying activists who sat in a cage outside a KFC outlet had disturbed "public order" with their "strange" actions."
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/police-end-first-peta-protest-in-cambodia
In other news:
"ANANONYMOUS' HOME VILLAGE — Baffled police broke up pro-public-hygiene group CRAPP's (Citizenism Robbying Against Public Pooping) first protest in China on Aug. 13, saying activists who defecated in toilets, and wiped themselves afterward, had disturbed the "public odor" with their "strange" TP blobbing-up actions."
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/police-end-first-CRAPP-anti-roadside-crapping-protest
police-end-first-CRAPP-anti-roadside-crapping-protest...RORFL!!!
Baffled Chinese police also confiscated bizarre and confusing signs and placards from the CRAPP protesters which featured some sort of talking porcelain demon:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wlz_4fQ17vw/TWGn0Ecbd9I/AAAAAAAACy4/XHepwev6iV...