Bucksstar? McDnoald's? Fake Brands Shopping Mall Set To Open In China (PHOTOS)

China has confirmed itself as the 'king of counterfeiters' with the building of a new shopping centre dedicated to fake brands.

Some of the brand impostors at the mall in Nanjing, east of Shanghai, include a McDonalds look-a-like burger bar called McDnoald's, a Starbucks-style coffee shop called Bucksstar Coffee, and a wannabe Pizza Hut called Pizza Huh.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[GOOD4]

There are a lot of counterfeit products and stores in China, one way or the other, this is a fact.

However, the original author of this story didn't get the facts right. This was actually about a story happened in early Nov. 08. The facts are that there were just dirty tricks played by the developer of this shopping center in order to get some PR exposure and media attention to help renting the retail places. They did this by setting up the fake brandings on the store fronts, in order to show the potential of this shopping center. These fake store names were never intended to be really used when the shopping mall actually opens. When the developer was challenged by local media, lawyers and government agencies, they removed the labels days after.

If you can read Chinese you can find the more information about this story here:
http://news.hnce.com.cn/c/200811/10/145331390.html

[Bitsko]

Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown.

[Ray46]

I wonder what they'll call Fuddruckers?

[mytwosense]

That's a non-PC given: Fuddluckers.

[tedmore123]

Hey, as long as they take play money I'm okay with it.

[Melanie226]

By doing this mall I think China has made the best social commentary ever on the worthlessness of labels. Whether you are buying Nike or Niek, you still get tennis shoes. Before mass globalization a brand used to be associated with item quality, but now that all of the items are made in China, Indonesia and other third world countries, the knockoffs are the same as the name brands.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

In response all items made in China should be required to labelled with the PRC flag and the words "Made in China" in a size IMPOSSIBLE to ignore........; moreover, all RETAILERS should be required to publish both the PERCENTAGE by number and $$ value of the goods they STOCK!!!

[metropixie]

You mean in response to their response to our ridiculous love affair with labels we should become even more ridiculous? Through our fascination with ridiculous discounts we have priced ourselves out of the market to the point where every price is suspect. The bottom line: discounts hurt and should be unnecessary if each price truly reflects the cost of the product. By outsourcing manufacturing to friendly dictatorships where workers without shoes stitch your Nikes greedy capitalists have effectively helped the demise of the domestic market. China's long benefited from this, but now that our economy is imploding they find themselves tethered to ours in a way they may not like. Luckily, with all the money they earned because of our need for needless products they can lend us the capital to fight our dirty wars with less-friendly dictators. Now I must stop, as the ending of this story is obscured by very fuzzy logic...

[WillNYC]

and for your convenience lead has been added to that special asian fusion taste.

[soycat]

I am not sure if this is just a funny topic in the long run. China is famous (or notorious) for its ignorance of copyright laws and regulations. We need an order and ethics in business practices and China's practice has been veru difficult for many businesses.

[Melanie226]

They're not ignorant of the copyright laws, they just don't care about them. They are a communist society, and in a communist society, anything that is created is created for the greater good and use for everyone. There is no such thing as ownership, therefore China will never really recognize copyright.

[Budokan]

Hey, the coffee HAS to be better than Starbucks.

[Roadblock]

Wait until the day when Chinese consumer lose interest in American brands, real or fake alike. Chinese corperations have been gradually displacing their American counterparts in many areas. America should be pleased to find "Bucksstar" in China.

[NoCalDrummer]

The sad part is, the "Duma" shoes, "Adidos" sportswear, "Ferrari" computers, etc. are all probably made by the same slave labor that makes the "Puma" shoes, "Adidas" sportswear, "Ferrari" computers, .... The US Government (with the "help" of the entertainment industry) has seen it fit to crack down on US citizens who make backup copies of their music CDs, their movie videotapes, or record television shows for later viewing, through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [DMCA], but don't dare go after the Chinese. Perhaps the reasons are - 1) our trade deficit with China is too large, 2) we don't actually manufacture anything, so if they cut us off, we're REALLY sunk. What a wondrous time we live in.

[Rachel36]

Agreed. I worked in publishing were the pirating was out of control. Eventually, the publisher entered into a landmark agreement with the Chinese who evenutally paid for the content.

[BrunoDJ]

Ferrari makes cars, not computers. And no American has been prosecuted for making a backup copy of something they purchased, because that's legal. We use our DVRs without getting arrested also.

REALLY DUDE?!?

[metropixie]

Obviously, you didn't bother to Google "ferrari computers".
As for the remark that "we don't actually manufacture anything," I thought that our greatest export eight years running was "Democracy." Seems like China's not that much into importing.

[NoCalDrummer]

As metropixie points out, the Ferrari label is on items other than their famous cars, just like you can buy "Porsche" sunglasses. The Ferrari computers that I've seen are that bright racing red, although I will not express any other opinion about them other than I'm not the least bit tempted to buy one.

As for DCMA, take a little time to read up on that as well. Yes, we consumers have always considered making backup copies "legal" but the RIAA (and it's members) do not agree. Check out the article http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2177&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdblog .

Also, do you remember the Microsoft Music Store? If you'd bought your music on Microsoft's site, you could play it on your PC. The Digital Restrictions Management would "call-in" to make sure you were allowed to play that music. But now that the music store is no longer ... well, you're out of luck if you wanted to play it. Hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of music purchases are essentially worthless because you can't move them to your new PC. (See http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080422-drm-sucks-redux-microsoft-to-nuke-msn-music-drm-keys.html ) So THAT means that American consumers get scr---d. REALLY DUDE.

[Blurp]

mmmm... can't wait to try the McMelamine shakes!

[mytwosense]

You mean my new Ipad Classic isn't? Next you're gonna tell me my IToons Gift Card is fake, too.

[metropixie]

I tried to call to tell you that but my iFone didn't have your number...

[mytwosense]

LMAO... gotta love Taiwan.

[Burner]

My sympathies to the multinational corporations.

[MajorKong]

It would be amusing to watch McDonald's, which is about the most litigious corporation there is, take on the Chinese government. It would be like Alien vs. Predator.

[wadenelson1]

My guess is than an economist would tell us "piracy" of this nature is probably good for consumers.

Anyone who wants a "real" Prada bag or "Starbucks" can find it and pay premium for it.