YANGON, Myanmar \u2014 Those who have wandered the fluorescent-lit aisles of America\u2019s largest superstore would hardly recognize the \u201cWal Mart\u201d in Myanmar\u2019s crumbling city of Yangon.<\/p>\n
For starters, the store is scarcely larger than a typical Wal-Mart parking spot. Only two incongruous items are sold there: cellphones and washing machines. The teen clerks must shoo out intrusive stray mutts and, by the showroom, a half-exposed sewer gurgles under the tropical sun.<\/p>\n
Ask for the manager and out comes Phyo Khat Wai, 23 and chipper, a teal sarong swishing at her rubber sandals. Though she has never set foot in a legitimate Wal-Mart \u2014 or even outside her impoverished homeland \u2014 her shop\u2019s sign is a faithful recreation of the logo recognized around the world: \u201cWAL MART\u201d in blocky words separated by a star.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just heard it\u2019s some famous department store in America,\u201d said Phyo Khat Wai, her shoulder-length hair streaked by a sepia-tone dye job. Her tiny shop is one of many imitation US retail stores in Myanmar. \u201cI\u2019ve never been to the other Wal-Mart and don\u2019t expect I ever will.\u201d<\/p>\n
For decades, US sanctions against Myanmar have blocked the vast reach of American franchising that scatters McDonald’s, 7-Eleven and Gap outlets across the planet.<\/p>\n
There is a Starbucks in Saudi Arabia. There is a Pizza Hut in Ho Chi Minh City. But thanks in large part to US business blockades, these multinationals have yet to open shops in Myanmar, the Southeast Asian nation formerly titled Burma.<\/p>\n
Two decades worth of embargoes, designed to drain power from a corrupt cabal of ruling generals, have created a American franchising vacuum. In this void, with few domestic intellectual property laws to stop them, Myanmar\u2019s entrepreneurs have been free to brand their own shops with the names and logos of America\u2019s top eateries and retailers.<\/p>\n
Some trademarks are lifted outright: there is a rogue Holiday Inn in Myanmar\u2019s Mandalay State and a Best Buy imitator in Yangon\u2019s outskirts. Others such as \u201cMacBurger\u201d and \u201cBurger Queen\u201d tweak well-known titles for a veneer of not-so-plausible deniability. In one of Yangon\u2019s slick new malls, the fried chicken outlet ICFC sports a logo in which the I and the C and mushed together in the likeness of a K. The french fries are served with ketchup and chopsticks.<\/p>\n
Myanmar\u2019s trademark impunity, however, is likely in its last days.<\/p>\n
In the words of former junta general-turned-President Thein Sein, Myanmar is \u201cengaged in an adventure to build a more democratic, open and inclusive society.\u201d The White House has applauded the release of political prisoners and the loosening of strangleholds on trade and expression.<\/p>\n