Jorgen: There aren't that many 7 Elevens around here! That's The American way; we export our worst bits to the third world (and what used to be the third world). The highway thing is what happened to Los Angeles. The auto and oil industry got PG & E (rail/street cars) shut down to support the automobile culture. In seattle, we're spending billions of dollars to get a transit system that won't be as efficient as the one we had 80-90 years ago.
Cheers, Matt.
http://mdriscoll.zenfolio.com
Matt,
I believe LA was indeed the "success" they were going to copy. They are still building motorways in a desperate attempt to solve the problem, but the City of Bangkok can't take any more cars, and more motorways, while solving some problems, generates even more traffic. Investments in public transport is lagging so far behind that the best solution would probably be to build a new capital and start from scratch. That has been discussed, and sooner or later, it will happen.
There's an interesting (American) story behind Pizza Company. The owner, Bill Heinecke, had the franchise for Pizza Hut in Thailand, starting the first restaurant in 1980. Around ten years ago, when Pizza Hut became greedy and wanted a larger piece of the cake, it took him one month to change all restaurants to Pizza Company. Pizza Hut then had an 80% market share. Now they are fighting for a share of the 30% that is left after Pizza Company's 70%.
Mr. Heinecke, a Thai Citizen since 1991, also owns the franchises for Swensen's, Sizzler, Dairy Queen and Burger King through Minor Food Group as well as a few hotels in the region (Four Seasons, Marriott Resort & Spa and Anantara). It's an impressive story, and although they mostly sell junk food (my definition), it's high quality junk. Even I eat at Burger King occasionally, but if you see me at McDonald's, you know the end is near