I don’t know why this is so fascinating to me today and I have no explanation why I never noticed this before today or really thought about it as much as I have today, but American products are everywhere in China! I was browsing through this big supermarket this afternoon, while I was waiting to meet JJ for dinner and I was just looking around, without much prupose to buy anything.

Literally, if you pick a product in any aisle in this big store (I happened to be in the general area where you can find anything from car products to cleaning supplies to computer supplies to kitchen appliances), you will find the most famous American brand somewhere in that section. And most likely, that product will be the premiere brand, as if the other brands that make the same product are like knock-offs or even just lower quality products.

I am sure there are exceptions but really, its quite amazing. everything from WD-40 to a vast array of Armor All products. Even down to the small small products like office supplies, the pen companies are there, Bic, Dixon Ticonderoga. I started playing a game with myself to find a product that was common but contained no American brand of that product. Honstly it took me a while, finally I found it. Power surge protectors! (Maybe thats a business we should get into as an American company….hehe, theres my niche)

Other than that, not much interesting happened today. I did have a funny thing happen at Mcdonalds, where I had a snack for lunch. I was just sitting at a counter, eating a large order of French Fries and drinking a small Sprite. I noticed two other guys sitting near me at this counter area, speaking to each other in what sounded like German. One looked like your typical German guy, the other looked of Asian decent. So they were just speaking to each other in German for several minutes whil their other buddies were getting the food at the counter. (these guys were younger guys with skateboards, not a feature you see everyday in Shanghai.) Then all of a sudden, one of the guys turns to one of his buddies waiting in line and says in no accent at all : ‘Hey where the Fuck is my burger?’ .. Then the guy yells back, replying, “Oh man, you gotta out check this dude in front of me. his mustache is fucking sick!” (By the way, that Chinese guy’s mustache was fucking sick. Fu Manchu style..) At that point I laughed and ended up talking to them for a while, they were actually professional skateboarders on an Asian trip sponsored by Adidas. The whole thing was just pretty funny because there was no contact until we understood each other when one of them bursts out yelling the F word.

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This is how older people exercise in China….