Just a little stub of a post today — I’m swamped at the moment, and I my typing fingers need a rest after that little novella the other day on press freedom in Gaza.
A new mall in Nanjing, China will apparently host only stores that sell knockoff brands, such as “McDnoald’s,” “Pizza Huh” and “Bucksstar Coffee.” I don’t know much about Chinese trademark law, but I’d wager that some scary corporate legal teams are weighing their options right about now.
The U.K.’s Daily Mirror reports:
City bosses are under pressure to ban the soon-to-be opened mall after pictures of the fake stores were leaked, causing uproar amongst angry consumers who feared they’d be ripped off.
“Not every shopper is brand conscious so a lot of people will walk into these stores thinking they are getting the real thing,” said an angry shopper in a local newspaper.
“The whole idea of this mall is plain dishonest.
“Some fakes are done light-heartedly to be funny, but these stores look so much like the real thing people are going to feel cheated,” the shopper added.
Story via Michael Citrome, the quirky tech columnist at the Montreal Mirror.
1 response so far ↓
1 daniel // May 17, 2009 at 11:43 am
I live in Nanjing, I think this story is fake.
Every link to this story seems to have the same pictures from one source, I have a feeling these shops are simply place holder signs waiting for business to eventually buy the location.
China is not organized enough to make a mall “fake only” as is the claim of the original uk mirror article.
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