Familiar Brands

Here begins a series of smaller (text-wise, anyway) posts.  This first one is to show y'all that there is a good amount of Americanization that has occurred even here in this third world country (which it is, whether you're classifying it as such based on the Cold War-era demarcations or based on its status as an economically developing country).  Of course, there are a lot more brands than the few I'll be showing here, but many of those, particularly in the arenas of (fast) food/beverages and clothing, you'd probably expect to find almost anywhere anyway.

Doesn't look familiar, you say?  Well, guess who bought them out within the past few years?  Wal-Mart.  Their quest for world domination (Buy-N-Large from Wall-E, anyone?) marches on.

Just in case I had forgotten about working at Best Buy...

Guess which picture on this page is my favorite?  ;)

Though a tad obstructed by a palm tree, Cinemark is what I'm pointing out here.

Of course, this is to say nothing of all the Perry the Platypus shirts I've seen (people who don't know what Phineas and Ferb is have no idea what I'm talking about right now...well, it's a cartoon on the Disney Channel that has a decent number of older fans), along with merchandise featuring various other recognizable characters.  Oh, and, as is the case almost anywhere with some level of technology, Facebook and radio stations playing songs you'd hear on the radio back home.  And the Papa John's less than a block from my apartment building, which I actually haven't gone to yet.  In fact, I've avoided essentially all fast-food chains while I've been here (for whatever that's worth).  Anyway, that's it for this one!