Above: Illustration by Chris Philpot.

WELL, THEY ARE WORLD FAMOUS
Kateri Osburn lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she thought she had struck gold upon finding a jar of Hatch chopped green chiles in her local Whole Foods store. She snapped them up. A month later, her stock had dwindled, and when she returned to the store, the chiles were nowhere to be found on any of the store’s copious shelves of condiments. Afraid she had missed out, she asked a staffer for help. “He happily took me right over to the international section, and there they were, with products from all over the world. I just had to chuckle,” she said.

IN IT FOR THE LONG(ER) HAUL
Andrew Russell and his family plan to retire to Santa Fe from Munich, Germany, in 2021, so he was checking on the cost of shipping a 40-foot container to the States. Luckily, he found an international shipping firm with a promising name: Santa Fe Relocation. “The reasonably priced estimate duly arrived,” he said, “and they wished us well for our move to our new home in … Mexico.”

Based in London, Santa Fe Relocation is owned by the Santa Fe Group, which is based in Copenhagen, so maybe the international confusion can be forgiven. Still, we’d ask for a new quote, right down to the street address.

CANCÚN CANNOT
Paul Gilberto of Rio Rancho logged on to Secret Escapes, a British-owned travel company that features discounts on spots all over the world. Looking for deals in his home state, he entered “New Mexico” into the search box. “But the only ‘deal’ that came up,” he said, “was for a luxury hotel in, you guessed it, Cancún, Mexico.”

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