Saudi Arabia's Americanization Explained

This mall in Jeddah looks identical to ones I see in the U.S. In this video, I go inside a massive mall in Saudi Arabia, eat at an Applebee's, walk around a grocery store and try to understand why America's influence is so high here.

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[uptin]

This is the 4th video in my 6-Part video series in Saudi Arabia. Subscribe to learn about my trip here and things I've learned.

[tsham]

What you see is not Americanisation. What you see is globalisation in action.
For some reason, you tend to see the American brands, but not the other brands that come from other countries… probably because you don’t know them.
At least in the GCC, it’s an open market for all….
But am happy that you notice the local brands, which you should have tried….
Btw, Americana is a Kuwaiti brand of frozen foods, go figure ;p

[davidrickman]

Great video but theres also nothing wrong with NOT selling alcohol or pork. Different cultures have there own ways…

[zarahlina]

Lived in Saudi Arabia for many years... And yes we grew up going to these restaurants in Riyadh. And the American products and restaurants were already available for decades, it is not new.

[thewayiamvamshi]

Instead of Americanization we can call it consumerization, that's synonymous with Americanization I think in my opinion. Consumerization is all about adapting to the consumer needs in other words playing to the gallery. This is what is happening, it's just like google search engine, just show what people like more, customisation is the key

[markmoncera]

I was born and raised in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I went abroad for college in 2015 and when I got back this year after graduating (6 years later), a lot has definitely changed. I was surprised how these changes were implemented quick in the country. Great video, Uptin!

[boptillyouflop]

A lot of those brands haven't even made it to Canada...

[gracielapereda]

Not even in Canada we have that much selection!!!

[lemagnifique]

I don't think it's americanized, because almost every countries basically have American fastfood chains like KFC, McD, BK, PH, Domino's, Baskin Robbins, Wendy's, etc

[moodymoody]

It's always been like this. But now all these forign brands are loosing the market for Saudi brands. For example a location here in Riyadh for Applebee's closed and century burger, a Saudi brand opened in its place. Pizza hut is now bankrupt because of maestro pizza (a Saudi brand) Saudi brands have far higher quality and innovative menu items

[OnilMarteNavarroza]

That's all the same in GCC. All these brands can be found in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Also, many of the workers in these establishments are Filipinos and they control the music which explains the American music.

[عبدالله-نهص]

For information, Saudi Arabia was one of the reasons for the economic renaissance of America, because it was buying oil at discounted prices globally at the beginning of the discovery of oil, and this is the reason for an economic revival for America.
America was one of the reasons for the Saudi renaissance by discovering oil and building a number of petrochemical plants, and the strength of human resources by embracing thousands of students on scholarships to study in American universities.
There are brands of Saudi restaurants that rise to compete with the best American restaurants whenever they find financial support.

[tayabaabdullah]

Saudi Arab has always loved Americanisation! I grew up there, Baskin Robbins, Applebee's, tgif and etc were there back then too. Do check out their channels, they show so much of the American stuff.

[arandomhandsomeman]

Its not only Saudi. Kuwait and Qatar are exactly same. Especially kuwait. Basically they see American culture how we see Japanese culture. Hollywood movies mainly play a big role in exporting American culture. When you are living in america you think the country doesn't have a culture . Interestingly new york city is roughly same distance to Saudi as it to Japan.

[ThePakLife]

Love the saudi-based content. it would be great if you could make a video essay like this – on expatriates in KSA - the kind of impact they leave in the Kingdom :)

[saugata]

i have spent part of my childhood in the UAE, and honestly watching the entire video of you roaming around the mall brings back memories.

[Danygotaworldtosee]

Very interesting video. Planning to go to Saudi soon 👏🏼

[alajeb]

As a Saudi i can tell you this guy is trying so hard to add that drama factor to the video, he went to one place the mall and filmed only American brands.
If there is a place that got affected by the American culture it would be east of Saudi specifically Khobar city because The company Saudi Aramco back in the 80s and 70s had a lot of American employees and they passed on their culture to the people of that city.

I’m sorry but I got too annoyed he’s basically saying that we lost our culture or about to lose it in the upcoming years which is a lie.

[gudmundursteinar]

It's not really that complicated, the same process happened in my home country.

As we opened up to the world the first place where you could get fast food, see movies and go shopping was at the American Military base at Keflavik. On weekends people would go there to shop, eat and party. When teh country started developing it's own shopping malls, own movie theatres, own restraunts, own discoteques etc. the one we made were all on teh american model and often using american franchises, especially the ones already established by the US military (easier supply chain).

The same will have happened for Saudi, only here it's not just the US military providing the seed, but also Saudi Aramco, which brings in tens of thousands of foreigners to work who want the comforts of home.

[badrmods]

a true video, do note saudi arabia has always been like this for years and years.