Ghirardheli and Globalization

Our family is a big fan of the Glirardheli's. For people not familiar with this place, they are very famous for their chocolates and have been around for over a hundres years. They are headquartered in SF, where they have this cafe near SF wharf where they sell an awesome selection of icecream and of course chocolates. I still remember the "earthquake" (A platter with your choice of 7 icecream flavors with all the toppings one could possibly imagine) we enjoyed when my sister visited us a few years ago. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when I learnt about the store in San Diego. Since that time, we made it a habit to go there for every small celebration and never miss a chance to take any of our unsuspecting SD visitors there. We typically bring back a souvenir of their hot cocoa or drinking chocolate box every time.
So it all began one evening when S wanted a mug of hot chocolate. I reached out for the box only to find barely a spoonful left. "We are out of drinking chocolate", I declared. S answered just the way I thought ( and hoped) she would, "We better go there soon and get some amma". Yes!! yet another opportunity for a family outing there!!! It so turned out that this hot cocoa situation was so bad that P felt compelled to go to Vons to pick up a replacement ( S barely drinks any milk and she typically prefers it with hot cocoa). I wasn't too alramed, what kind of a match is Hershey's to Girardheli's...this stop gap purchase isn't going to stop us...We had to go and get the "real" thing sooner or later. The same evening I looked for the box to make a mug for S fully expecting Hershey's or some such hot cocoa box but there was it was...a shiny new box of Ghirardheli hot cocoa in my cabinet!! I certainly took my time digesting that...
Our favorite Ghirardehli hot cocoa at Vons!! Coming to think of it, regular grocery stores have always carried Ghirardheli chcolates, so why should their hot cocoa be any different...I suspect they have always carried it but I never bothered to look. I truly felt let down. Where has all the uniqueness gone? Now we truly live in a world where you get everything anywhere. Advent of on-line shopping hasn't made that any better. I still remember every little thing P and I collected on our first visit to Europe. The mask from Venice, the cuckoo clock from Switzerland, statue of Paulina from Rome ...each one was special. It gives (me) immense pleasure buying something knowing you can't get it anywhere else in the world, the purchase itself marking your very presence there. Now you barely need to leave your bedroom to get items from any corner of the world. I hardly buy anything on my travel these days. The very excitement that forces you to make that "buy" decision: the pressure of "if not here you can't buy it later" just isn't there anymore. I know I can always order it on-line if I REALLY want it.Another thing I really used to enjoy is looking at "duty-free" shops at airports, now I can barely even walk through them. You basically get the same darn thing in every single duty free shop all over the world. I am not against globalization in general but sometimes I do feel that we have fallen victim to our own success...As for Glirardheli, luckily we do have a couple of milestones of S's to celebrate, so looks like it IS going to work out after all...