China, the worldís second-largest economy, seems to manufacture just about everything, including stuff it shouldnít because some of its manufacturers are notorious counterfeiters of Western goods.
Now, according to The Wall Street Journal, the Chinese are counterfeiting not only the goods but also entire stores.
In the city of Kunming, a foreign blogger found a fake Apple store, right down to the details of the real outlets. The store was selling, without Appleís permission, real Apple products like iPads and iPhones.
Dairy Queen has a big imitator in China, down to the menus, cups and employee uniforms. The knockoff store did have the grace to call itself Dairy Fairy.
U.S. smoothie chain Jamba Juice, with no outlets in China, does, however, have an imitator, Jambo Juice.
The sandwich chain Subway has a copycat competitor, so faithful in its details, according to the Journal, that it offers sandwiches in 6- and 12-inch lengths even though China uses the metric system.
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but the foreign firms would probably rather forgo the flattery in favor of royalties and licensing fees. ó Scripps Howard News