How do you create an atmosphere that will make people want to shop? In Wuxi, China, there’s a lovely, newly-built street lined with shops from various international brands. H&N, Appla, Zare, Sffcccks Coffee…wait a minute. Once you look at the signs more closely, something isn’t right here.

These aren’t knockoff stores that sell actual knockoffs. No, they’re reportedly knockoff stores that sell nothing at all. Local news reports say that the buildings are completely empty. The real estate is for sale, and the idea behind the name fakery is to show what the street would look like if it were full of prosperous international brands. It’s like the cardboard computers and TVs that you see in furniture stores, only with way more intellectual property theft.

On this street in southern China, you can visit Starbucks Coffee – or rather, ‘Sffcccks Coffee’ [South China Morning Post] (via Racked)

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