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Thousands of Icelanders lined up at McDonald’s restaurants to order their last Big Macs before the fast-food chain abandons the cris-hit island at midnight Saturday due to soaring costs.

All three restaurants of the world’s largest fast-food company in Iceland which were operated by franchisee Jon Ogmundsson, would shut down October 31.


Ogmundsson, who will continue running the restaurants under a different name, said he had even run out of Big Macs for a few hours Thursday.


“Sales have not just gone up,” Ogmundsson was quoted saying in the local media. “It’s gone turbo.”


Ogmundsson said he managed to catch up with the surge in demand and had been selling about 10,000 burgers a day — more than ever before.


Iceland has been staggering from the effects of the financial crisis since October 2008, when its banks collapsed in the space of a week under the weight of billions of dollars in debt.


The fall of the banks sapped confidence in Iceland’s economy and sent its currency, the crown, into freefall. McDonald’s said the crown’s weakness was part of the reason for its withdrawal, along with the high cost of importing food from abroad.


Source:
Reuters