Russians no longer regret the departure of Western brands from the Russian market, unlike in 2022, when this caused negative emotions.
“There is life without McDonald's, there is life without IKEA“, said the general director of the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research (VTsIOM) Valery Fedorov., answering the question of whether Russians miss foreign brands. “We have “Delicious, period“, our national Russian brand. I recently went there, I wanted to buy a hamburger, it didn't work out because the queue was huge. There is life, so all these fears, apocalyptic expectations are in the past. The adaptation happened, and today I would say that people do not particularly regret it, but say: “You left us at a difficult time, if you try to return to us now, we will not buy anything from you, because there is no faith in someone who once betrayed us.“
According to Fedorov, today emotions have calmed down.
“Our country is huge, IKEA has not spread its tentacles everywhere. Here I would say that there is some history, some dynamics: in 2022, when Western brands, including very popular ones here, began to leave Russia one after another, of course, this caused a whole range of emotions. For some it was despair, for others discontent, for others, I would say, aggression, including towards these brands“, he said.