Why Are These Chinese Message Board Users Fascinated By Dollar Tree?
Today, a top story on one of China's largest message boards is a boring gallery of a Dollar Tree store, right alongside truly interesting pictures of pickpockets caught in the act. The post currently has almost 200,000 page views. What's so fascinating about Dollar Tree?
"Today we show the daily lives of low-income people in the United States," writes the poster on the message board Mop.com. "You can buy so many things," marvels one commenter. It seems the post is comparing a U.S. dollar store to its equivalent in China and concluding that the poor in the U.S. have it much better. (True.)*
According to Adam Clark Estes, the French share a fascination with Dollar Tree. You will know the U.S. is in decline once we stop impressing foreigners with how much cheap shit you can buy here. We've still got it!
*I don't speak Chinese, though, and am relying on a broken Google translation. So if you know anything more please explain in the comments.