I do not know if I am right, if it is isolated to this area, or what, but I am noticing a death of foreign products around here. For a while, the Dove chocolate bars (in many delightful variations), Nabisco cookies and crackers, and other foreign food products were always on the shelves. At first, I thought they were only disappearing from selected stores (the unenlightened), but now I see that nobody is restocking and few stores have any of those food products left.
Now, keep in mind, when I say I live in a small town hidden away in Southwest China, I do not mean a small city. I am not counting using the inflated sense of size usually used in talking about China's cities. One million people is a small city around here. This little town, though, is about 30,000 people...a little different. Just keep that in mind.
At first, I presumed that if the stores were no restocking the supply, it meant the people were not buying the products. Maybe, maybe not. It would not surprise me to hear that managers stock what they want, and not necessarily what sells. But, if for nothing other than argument's sake, let's assume it does reflect demand.
One problem could be all the Chinese counterfeits. Fake Oreos are just plain sacreligious, but there is almost always an identical Chinese version of all those foreign foods on the shelves. For locals, they see the same thing for a cheaper price, and make the obvious choice.
I would guess this is primarily a small town problem, but a problem none the less (especially when that less is 70% of China's population).
