Don't dismiss the knowledge of store chains as something silly and bad. It's about life's little needs. You need to know where to buy tons of little items for the right price/quality and moving countries means all that knowledge needs to be rebuilt. Since I buy most of these things from the various chains then yes, moving countries means having discover again the chains/stores that I need.

I actually felt this when I moved from Europe to the US. Suddenly I had no idea where to buy food ingredients, kitchen items, etc that weren't too expensive but were not of crappy quality either. Even the relative value of things (ex. is a $4 loaf of bread expensive or cheap? Converting to the previous currency and comparing prices doesn't work at all). Also, Europeans don't realize but the US has a lot more choices for almost everything (well, I guess except broadband Internet and some other things, heh). That's great in general but it's overwhelming to the newcomer.

I moved country twice in my life and I never had much trouble with the things you mention. I acknowledge they exist, I just don't agree they're a big thing (in the sense that knowledge can be re-build relatively quickly).

It reminds me of that dystopian mega simcity city that was on the front page a few days ago.

I guess people in that city feel the same ... they need their familiar chains in their cookie cutter neighborhoods or they feel lost.

May you get flagged and banned for your pointless, cruel, thoughtless contempt.