Not sure if this counts since most of them have recently closed down, but for a while there was a large number of American candy stores popping up all over town. Many cash only, same products and same branding across many different stores. Hardly anyone was ever shopping there, and yet they could somehow always afford to pay rent for prime locations. Eventually, several journalists picked up on the topic and found evidence many of them were fronts for money laundering and were tied to organised crime. Not sure if it was directly connected to that increased awareness, but shortly after more of these articles were published, most of the local stores closed.

We definitely share basic values including political views, but there’s also many things where our opinions differ. For example, we both strongly believe in supporting human rights for everyone, but we have different views on local planning reforms or diets. Some hobbies but not all hobbies and interests are shared, we listen to different music, etc. Overall, I really like it this way - we’re different enough so I can always learn something new from her, but not so different we’d have arguments about basic values.

See username :) So much variety even though it’s all the same tea plant