A couple of months ago a McDonald's restaurant opened in a town called Umeå (in the northern-eastern parts of Sweden). They had some problems though. In Umeå there are a lot of vegans and some people threw red paint on the restaurants windows (I guess it was so called "militant vegans"). It was also a lot of protests. At the opening there were guards outside the restaurant. Is it common with this much protests when McDonald's opens new restaurants nowadays? (I know my english isn't very good, but I hope you understood)--
McSpotlight: The network of people opposed to McDonald's becomes stronger as McDonald's opens more restaurants; people who would normally not object feel that McD's already have enough fast-food restaurants in their area already. So they object and find out exactly how good McDonald's are at getting past local councils and planning restrictions.
When the average citizen opposed to a new McDonald's realises that they are officially powerless to stop McDonald's they tend to form local groups, like the East Grinstead or Alexandra Palace or Hinchley Wood campaigns in the UK, or the Blue Mountains campaign in Australia.
We at McSpotlight tend to hear about them because we have become one of the focuses of the anti-McDonald's movement; especially as more people become connected to the Internet, it becomes sensible to co-ordinate anti-McDonald's via the 'net - you can see the Current Campaigns page on McSpotlight (admittedly, it's a bit out of date, we have to do some work on it!). There are a growing number of people opposed to a new McDonald's in their area; they realise that what a new McDonald's means to their area is an increase in traffic, an increase in litter and another uniform McFastfood joint.
Of course, there's also the people who object to McDonald's on the grounds that they're unethical toerags, but that's not entirely relevant to this example!
So yes, it's common and becoming commoner; people are becoming sick of McDonald's; they think there are too many of them.
Rex, McSpotlight.
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