Opening of Cinnabon in Almaty

Being new to working in the foreign service, we are encouraged to do short-term assignments with other departments and other foreign service agencies. In Almaty, we're fortunate to have an office of the Foreign Commercial Service (FCS), and I thought it would be interesting to do a "TDY" (temporary duty) with them.

Their office has a small staff, one American Commercial Officer and several local hires, and they work with American companies that might be interested to work in Kazakhstan.

I had heard that we might be getting a Hardee's (not sure if that's happening or not anymore), and as it got closer to when my assignment with FCS would begin, I found out that Cinnabon would be opening in one of the big malls here. I helped the Commercial Officer with a speech for the opening, and she invited me to come along (which was my plan all along).

I was a little surprised by the reaction from my American co-workers and some of my DLI colleagues around the world. I know Cinnabon is good, but I had no idea of the love people had for it. One of my colleagues in Indonesia said she would trade the hundreds of Dunkin Donuts locations there for one Cinnabon. As it turns out, Cinnabon gets its cinnamon from Indonesia, so I'm sure they must have at least one.

We met with managers of the company that bought the franchise, and I heard about other chains they have brought to Kazakhstan and others they are planning to open. The worlds of development and business are quite different, and it was nice to get back into the business side and hear about the practical issues of operating chains in developing countries. It's this kind of interaction that will help later when I'm working on AID projects to improve the business environment for just these kinds of businesses.