Franchises, corporate superstars and coconut cream.

I had a rather drunken momentary lapse of reason on Saturday night...ended up at BK. Although their food is technically made in New Zealand I'm not sure that it counts. Is it possible to get a New Zealand version of good old sobering greasiness for that cheap at that time of night? BK is a franchise so a New Zealander does own and operate it but does that make it a New Zealand product?...McDonalds claim to source their ingredients locally but I can't find any info to suggest BK does the same. Surely it would be cheaper to get them from here than to import them from America or wherever though. Surely this is the same as the Dilmah dilemma. While I'd like to think this exercise is restricting me from putting more money in the pockets of corporate superstars I'm not sure that's possible. Even coke is 'made in NZ'...they bought L&P too so what I thought was an iconic New Zealand drink and 'safe to buy' actually now belongs to a massive multi-national corporation! There are things that we all consume everyday that I'm sure most people don't consider, sugar for example. We don't grow sugarcane here so have to import all our sugar but it's in almost everything we consume and I'm sure pretty much everyone can't live without it in some form. I figure if there is no NZ made equivalent to something I need (versus something I want) then it's ok to go for the next best option. Last week on my night to cook, I really wanted to make a Thai curry, I had been looking forward to it all day then got to the supermarket and discovered coconut cream isn't made here. If I had of thought a bit more I would have realised this but was blinded by my curry craving. The only options were 'Made in Thailand', 'Made in Samoa' or the home brand version which didn't state country of origin. I figure next time it's ok to buy the cream from Samoa as it is one of the few exports they have as opposed to Thailands giant 'Trident'.