Globalisation and Localization

Bun fight over McDonald's move on Barossa Valley | News.com.au

ON one side are the Barossa Valley's wine barons and gourmets - on the other, the golden arches of McDonald's.

At stake is the image of Australia's most famous wine and food region, South Australia's Sunday Mail reports.

Plans by fast-food giant McDonald's to open a restaurant in Nuriootpa have upset some of the Barossa's most high-profile food and wine identities, including celebrity cook and food manufacturer Maggie Beer and wine legend Margaret Lehmann.

"We need to protect the culture of the valley that brings us so many tourists," said Ms Beer, the long-time Barossa champion whose TV show The Cook and the Chef was mostly filmed there. "We have to keep working on the Barossa as a gourmet destination.


"For me, McDonald's would be like a thorn in the valley's side. We would be seen as talking the talk, but not living the life."

McDonald's has its sights on land within view of Penfolds winery, on the corner of Barossa Valley Way and Railway Tce.

The McDonald's would be part of a $4.5 million regional bulk goods centre, called Barossa Hub, with retail space and warehousing.

Ms Lehmann, of Peter Lehmann wines, said the burger joint would just be "out of place". "I think it's sad," she said.

"We have a wonderful, unique food culture but McDonald's is exactly the same everywhere in the world; it irons out all the differences that regions produce."

Another person working to brand the Barossa Valley as a gourmet food region, Jan Angus, the founding chair of Food Barossa, said nearly a decade of work was threatened.

"The only way to keep that and preserve it is to continue to have that as a viable enterprise and that usually doesn't come about through globalisation," she said.

"What we have to look at is what is there about a McDonald's that the community want. If they're about clean toilets, cheap meals, parking and childcare can't we possibly do that and keep the food local?"

However a 763-member Facebook group "Let McDonald's come to the Barossa" wants the area to "get with the times".

Group creator Russell Payne, 19, of Sandy Creek, said Red Rooster and Subway had not dented the area's reputation.

"In a community which is largely dominated by rotating shiftworkers, a local place that is open very early to very late would make it easier on a lot of people," he said.

"The times are changing and the Barossa is expanding. The tourists will come and eat at the slow food places but the locals need the fast food option as these days people have to work harder and longer."

Local developer Ian Mader said his plan was about offering choice. He said other sites had been considered but the development at Nuriootpa was deemed the most appropriate for McDonald's.

"I understand that some members of the community may have reservations about McDonald's in the Barossa and their relationship with Barossa food, however there have been a great number of people who have expressed their support," he said.

Barossa Valley Council planner Paul Mickan said the project was yet to be approved.

A spokeswoman for McDonald's said the restaurant would create between 80 to 100 jobs, and give back to the community.

"Beyond the jobs created, a McDonald's also creates considerable sponsorship opportunities for local sporting or other community teams, clubs and events due to our operating philosophy of giving back to the communities in which we operate, as well as our franchise model," she said.