Aren't a lot of these not even Canadian?

Yep, you nailed it. Agree with all of that. And actually, it’s pretty common these days in China to see tiny unassuming independent shops popping up with a La Marzocco machine. Probably cost more than everything else in the store combined, but the equipment is important. 

There’s a LavAzza opening right across,  showing you just how insane this flurry of openings is.  LavAzza is an interesting story. It has been common for almost two decades to see shitty coffee shops and hotels offering LavAzza coffee. It seems the practice has been to advertise having the beans, but then murdering them in the brewing process. Thus, I have a pretty bad impression of  the brand, and I associate it with horrible places like C Straits. I’d love to learn more about the history of LavAzza in China, because in my mind, they have 100% botched their strategy. Only now do they decide to open shops? Too late, guys.

There’s only one #Luckin in the area of China where I live part of the year, that I haven’t yet hit, so I wanted to drop by for an order count. All the others in the area open between 7am and 8am, but this one opens at 10am, which I found curious and obnoxious. Well, turns out it’s in a mall, and that’s what time the mall opens. Mystery solved. Anyway, my plans changed when, immediately upon entering the mall I found an Algebraist, one of the newer boutique coffee companies to hit China. I was very intrigued and had to check it out.  Algebraist is in a prime location. Right at the entrance to the mall, which is just next to a subway stop. Gotta be high rent. In contrast, the Luckin is buried in the basement.

And that's hardly the worst that China has done!  Definitely can't trust the country. But the people can be quite fun!

i don't think China, which is very keen on keeping tabs on it's people, would want cars being able to hide from surveillance, by charging in these containers.

Don’t forget $AABB!

China has been actively working on its state-backed digital Yuan. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise that the nation may move to crush other public cryptocurrencies. $BTC.X $Bitcomp.

Check out this little bit from Investing....

charts.stocktwits.com/.../original_332885144.png

I remember reading that suicide rates actually decreased in Japan by 15% because of Covid. Probably because they normally have such a high suicide rate from being so overworked. Not sure about the US.

Thanks for the read.