So just ignore me.

I, for one, quite agree with you about the bookstores. I like borders and buy a lot of books there. I don't drink coffee, so Starbucks isn't really an issue, and I avoid McDonald’s if at all possible (though admittedly I do crave their fries sometimes).

As for music stores, I’ve all but given up when it comes to new music. I’m still checking out a bunch of those older albums we listed in the “desert island” thread, but as far as new stuff I’ve only bought two albums released in the last two years, both of which are from bands I’ve long respected and know well. My Empeg also exacerbates this problem of finding new music, but that’s a whole other thread. In the end, I buy all of my music online and this suits me just fine.

Moving on to the rest of the discussion, as for this whole “The U.S. is jamming its culture down our throats” thing, let me try to understand it a bit. We do practice, at lest to some extent, economic Darwinism in this country. The weak die, sometimes even if the product/ service being offered is superior to everything else because they aren’t the “fittest” for the market (can anyone think of a good example?). How this relates to the economics of other countries I’ll have to admit ignorance, but I’d at least gather that this “survival of the fittest” capitalism isn’t limited to this country. Still, this thread has identified some of the big boys from the U.S., and they are resented because of their successfulness. Is this because this sort of market dominance wouldn’t be tolerated from European companies? Are there rules of some sort protecting against the strong growing too strong? If so, I suppose the resentment is against the U.S. allowing these companies to become so large. If not, then I can’t see why the success of these companies has anything to do with the U.S. itself.

As has been stated before, if people don’t like these companies or their products, no one is forcing their patronage. That the majority of the populace seems to frequent these places (or at least enough to keep them successful) is an indication that whatever resentment there is, it isn’t enough to override the “need” to possess whatever it is can be obtained from these places. It is enough, however, to dislike the U.S. for “forcing” this need upon them.