The Americanization of China: how far are you from Starbucks?

pretzellogic
February 18, 2010, 10:34 AM posted in General Discussion

We had the pleasure of entertaining friends from Lanzhou earlier, one of whom is originally from the Boston area (if you're from there, think Merrimack NH). The former Bostonian mentioned how much he missed Starbucks, McDonalds, and basically something different from the diet he was enjoying in Lanzhou.  He came to Beijing and seemed refreshed after a few days' worth of lattes.

I have observed that in Beijing, you're usually about a mile away from a Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC or some other fast food joint.  Also, on the consumer front, you're about a 1/2 mile away from a store that sells some American consumer product, like Legos, or Motorola phones or something.   On the German front, maybe you're about 5 miles away from a BMW, Porsche, Audi, VW dealership, and 1/2 mile from a store selling a German toy. 

I don't think that it's all that interesting that in Shanghai or Beijing, with lots of foreigners/westerners, that American, German or western things are available to westerners.  What might be interesting is how far interior China is from these types of products, and whether or not they want them.  The view from Lanzhou was that there were at least 2 KFCs in town. Pondering when Lanzhou, Ningxia, Xining and any other place not Beijing/Shanghai would get more of these products is something else entirely.

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quickblur
February 18, 2010, 04:13 PM

When I lived in Beibei (outside of Chongqing)in 2005 there were no foreign brands anywhere. I had a friend visit there last year and he said they were building a Carrefour and a KFC, with rumors about a McDonalds.

I suppose that's just globalization at work. I'm sitting here in America typing on my Lenovo laptop (Chinese) wearing Adidas clothes (Germany), eating pad Thai (Thailand) and listening to Ayumi Hamasaki (Japan).

Chinese brands may take a bit longer to become mainstream in other countries, but Haier and Lenovo are already doing well in the US, with plans for Chery to introduce cars this year. I bet in the next 10-20 years we in the States will see a lot more Chinese and Indian brands.

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pretzellogic

yeah, that might be interesting as well. As you point out, we're already seeing a bit of Haier in the US, thanks I think to Walmart. So it's likely that Haier is already playing in Peoria.

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simonpettersson
February 18, 2010, 06:05 PM

Hey, Pretz! Did you just call LEGO American? I have some neighbors to the south who'd be mighty peeved at such an insinuation.

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pretzellogic

ok, I sit corrected. Change "legos" to "hot wheels cars" and "Barbie dolls". Don' t tell any Danes that I did this.

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bababardwan

Interestingly the name lego was coined by it's Danish inventor from "leg godt", which means "play well".Nice to learn something new every day.

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pretzellogic
February 18, 2010, 07:21 PM

ok, I sit corrected. Change "legos" to "hot wheels cars" and "Barbie dolls". Don' t tell any Danes that I did this.

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pretzellogic
February 18, 2010, 07:24 PM

yeah, that might be interesting as well. As you point out, we're already seeing a bit of Haier in the US, thanks I think to Walmart. So it's likely that Haier is already playing in Peoria.

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bababardwan
February 19, 2010, 12:37 AM

Interestingly the name lego was coined by it's Danish inventor from "leg godt", which means "play well".Nice to learn something new every day.

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Sue
February 19, 2010, 08:41 PM

definitely (learning something new) ! godt = well sounds quite plausible, good orgut. but leg = play, where does that come from ? rather interested, cos going to Copenhagen soon.