Look At All Those US Exported Options

I always find it interesting to see what American businesses have exported themselves to foreign and exotic places... like Santiago.

Obviously, McDonald's is all over the world, but here, they have small kiosk shops that just sell ice cream in some of the metro stations.  (Speaking of these ice cream stands, they raised their prices by about 600 pesos today.  Yesterday an ice cream cone was 300 pesos, and today, they were 900 pesos.)  A McDonald's ice cream stand is something I have never seen before, and I kind of like it.  Part of the reason I may like this so much could be because I have recently been craving ice cream like woa.

There is also a Burger King close to the place I work, and I have always wanted to go in and ask if they have veggie burgers.  However, I don't know the Spanish word for veggie burger, so I have not looked into that.  It would be interesting to find out if they do though.  I know McDonald's changes their menu for different parts of the world, and even for different regions in the US.  The Burger King near my place of employment is also near two McDonald's (and there is the McDonald's ice cream stand in the metro).  It is a really busy area with lots of businesses around, so placing fast food joints in the area makes sense.  But it always seems like McDonald's is always busier.  I wonder why McDonald's is always busy (especially at lunch) anywhere in the world.  Why is McDonald's so damn popular everywhere?!

Beyond the obvious, I am always surprised by some of the restaurants I find in other countries.  One of the most surprising is KFC.  Fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy and biscuits seems like something the rest of the world wouldn't be that in to, but apparently, they are.  I remember seeing my first international KFC in Mexico City and thinking it was silly.  There is also one near my apartment here in Santiago, and when I first saw it, I laughed to myself. 

American pizza chains are also something I have found all over the world.  There is a Pizza Hut near where I work- I just noticed it today.  It made me want some $10 taco pizza, but I doubt they offer it.  Pizza hut doesn't even know what taco pizza is in Florida, so I am guessing taco pizza is an Iowa/mid-west thing.  There is a Telepizza near my apartment that I found, and I remembered them from Spain.  They have ok pizza, and I wondered why they never came to the US.  Perhaps the market is already too saturated with pizza take out chains for them to really compete?  It's strange running to chains that are not found in the US because there is such a presence of US chains... everywhere.  (There is even an Applebee's out in the Santiago 'burbs- or what I call the 'burbs.  It is really just outside the hustle and bustle of the condensed city centre.)

There are also random brands that show up everywhere: Doritos, Kellogg's, and of, course, the Chileans depend on Nestle for the NesCafe (barf!).  Nestle has a bunch of other stuff here though, as well.  Like, I just bought a Negrita bar at the corner shop- the package says it is a cookie with vanilla flavored cream covered in chocolate brought to you, or me rather, by Nestle.  There is also milk available from Nestle (among about a thousand other suppliers as well- shopping for milk is rather overwhelming.)

Even though these brands have a presence here in Santiago, it does not necessarily mean variety.  Take the Doritos for example.  I have only seen nacho cheese flavor and regular tortilla chips (which are AMAZING), but I haven't seen any of the other flavors we have in the states.  I doubt they exist here.  There is also only Coke, Coke Light, and Coke Zero.  They don't have any of the fancy flavors we have.  I was talking to Clea about the Coke varieties she has in South Africa, and she said it is the same there as it is here.  They had Cherry Coke for a short time, but it was only a limited time offer.  They also don't have all of the different flavors of soda that we do- most street vendors don't offer caffiene free options like Sprite, and I haven't seen root beer anywhere.  There is less variety of everything here (except milk for some reason- there is ample selection there).  There are only two choices for tortilla chips- Doritos or Carlos something or another.  There is, like, one brand of juice with 3 flavors.  There are a few brands of rice and pasta, but you have to look hard to find anything that is whole grain- it is all bleached white crap.  It is kind of nice not having to sift through a million different choices to make a decision, but it is hard when the thing I want isn't there (or hard to find in the case of the whole grain rice).  Look to when I wanted some cheese for my pasta and sandwiches- there aren't as many choices as Hy-Vee has.  In sliced form I found American (or some processed equivilant) and gouda.  I clearly went for the gouda.  There was only one kind of "shreaded" cheese.  It was ungodly expensive and only came in a giant bag.  Even in "block" form there were only about two or three choices.  I just want some cheddar!

On the flip side, I understand the lack of variety.  There is not a lot of room, and there are a lot of things a super market has to pack in.  The entire super market is about the size of one of the large dairy sections at Hy-Vee.  However, the lack of variety extends to the entire city.  It is really interesting to think about how many choices we have in the US.  There is no giant isle of soda to chose from at the super market, and there aren't 12 brands of pasta coming in whole grain, fortified, and enriched varieties.  It makes me wonder why there are so many options in the US, and if US brands are present in foreign markets, why there aren't more options from those brands in foreign markets.

All this talk of food is making me hungry.  The question is, do I make a sandwich, or eat some Kellogg's Choco Krispies de Melvin?  Hmmmm....

Peace out.