Value Meal - De

It's slathered in the same special sauce and comes with the same golden fries, but McDonald's Patacombo meal is one that many Argentines wish they didn't have to digest.

The fast food chain's new combo meal was inspired by Buenos Aires province's issuance of one-year negotiable bonds--patacones--to pay its bills and its 180,000 employees. For US$5 worth of the peso-looking script, McDonald's diners receive two cheeseburgers, medium fries and a soft drink--but it's no deal. Officially each patacon is worth a dollar, but the value of the Patacombo--compared against other McDonald's meal deals-works out to only 67 to 78 cents-per-patacon. "Any way you slice it, people are getting short changed," says Merrill Lynch strategist Pablo Goldberg.

The patacon's appearance has also sparked comparison between McDonald's McBurglar character and Peronist governor Carlos Ruckauf, who is using patacones to service the province's $4.5 billion debt.

"The government must think we're really stupid. I'm spending mine as fast as possible," says public school teacher Mariana Rodriguez, who receives a quarter of her $1,000-a-month salary in the new currency. "My family will be eating at McDonald's a lot more from now on."

COPYRIGHT 2001 Freedom Magazines, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group