An American Werewolf in Singapore

SINGAPORE - Visit any U.S. city today and you will find them remarkably similar and homogeneous. You are sure to see the usual suspects McDonald's, Starbucks, and Wal-Mart wherever you go and often you can't discern one American city from another, it seems. Much the same can be said about Singapore. Conspicuous among the local shops were American strip-mall standards Burger King, Dairy Queen, McDonald's, Barnes and Noble, and, yes, Starbucks anchoring both ends of the same block. We stopped at the local Burger King to compare it to its U.S. counterpart. Finding: the Whoppers and fries we ordered were indistinguishable from what we get at home. Like it or not, you have to be impressed with ability of these companies to deliver their goods and services so consistently across geographical and cultural dimensions.