BTS Meal Causes 15+ McDonald’s Stores to Close in Indonesia

McDonald’s has been one of the most popular fast-food chains in Indonesia over these years. With the arrival of the BTS Meal, its selling number skyrocketing within hours. Unfortunately, the crazy enthusiasm of the Indonesian ARMY has not been anticipated by some McDonald’s stores in Indonesia.

Indonesian ARMY enthusiasm for ‘BTS Meal’ arrival in McDonald’s Indonesia

On the first day of ‘BTS Meal’ arrival in Indonesia, Twitter has been very active with tweets from Indonesian ARMY. Lucky ARMY has got and enjoyed their more-than-expected BTS Meal. Yet, some should wait a little longer as some McDonald’s stores stop their service.

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A post shared by McDonald’s Indonesia⁷ (@mcdonaldsid)

Indonesian Kpop fans are the most active fans

According to data, BTS is indeed the most popular Kpop group in Indonesia. The data also shows that Indonesian Kpop fans, comparing to other countries, spend more time on Kpop content. Therefore, it’s not unpredictable that ‘BTS Meal’ has drawn excitement across Indonesia.

McDonald’s stores closed their online services within hours

Amid partial lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kpop fans used online services, like McDelivery and other online services (GoJek, Grab, and Shopee Food) to purchase BTS Meal. With the drivers of the online service packed up at the stores, McDonald’s decided to close their online order services on the applications.

McDonald’s offline stores were forced to close

Packed with online drivers and leaving no room for social distancing, local authorities temporarily close the stores to avoid COVID-19 from spreading.

So far, at least 6 McDonald’s stores in Jakarta have stopped serving the ‘BTS Meal.’ However, Jakarta authorities have not issued an official statement yet.

Meanwhile, there are at least 5 McDonald’s stores in Bandung that are forced to close, and 11 stores get fined. The 11 McDonald’s stores have to pay the fine as much as IDR 500,000 (approximately USD 35 or KRW 39,125).

“According to the law, they (McDonald’s stores) have to pay the administrative fine (IDR 500,000) for violating the health protocols. Doing such promotion is okay, but they (McDonald’s stores) have to follow the rules and estimate the outcomes. They (McDonald’s stores) admitted that the crowd was beyond their expectations.”

Idris Uswandi, Bandung public order agency

Another big city in Indonesia, Semarang, has closed 4 out of 6 McDonald’s stores that served ‘BTS Meal.’

“We temporarily closed four of six McDonald’s stores here in Semarang for a couple of days. I don’t want Semarang to be in the COVID-19 red zone again.”

Fajar Purwoto, the head of Semarang public order agency

Until this article is published, it’s still uncertain whether McDonald’s stores will open again or more will need to close in the coming days if demand increases. Hope it will open soon so McDonald’s Indonesia staff have the mood to dance again.

Mood banget. ??????#BTSMEAL#McDonaldsXBTS #BTS_Butter pic.twitter.com/dSmXR2EvMe

— P. (@__PIJE) June 9, 2021

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