Meijer brand loyalty

When I was in Copenhagen a couple weeks ago, a girl in my room at the hostel asked if I was from Michigan after I told her I was from the States. She said that she's a native New Zealander who has lived in Texas for the last few years.
How did she pinpoint Michigan out of all the States?

She spotted my bottle of Meijer-brand contact lens cleaning solution. It turns out she lived in Grand Rapids for a few months before moving to Texas.

I felt a sense of kinship with her because we had shared the experience of shopping at Meijer in Michigan. Well, she even knew about Meijer, never mind having actually been to one on the west side of the mitten. I haven't even mentioned Meijer too anyone here. I'm guessing that no one else here knows about it since none of the other American exchange students are from Michigan. 

***

Sadly my bottle of contact solution is used up. In the last week or two, I have had to replace several American-brought toiletries with their counterparts purchased in Denmark.

Before: 

Now:

This sounds silly and sentimental I know because the replacement toiletries I bought are all available in America -- Colgate, Alcon, Nivea. One could argue that I haven't gotten anything different.These items aren't unique to Denmark; You can buy all of them in the States too, (though I don't think Nivea is as popular in the States as it is here). Of course I have used Colgate toothpaste and Alcon contact solution before.

But the reason these empty bottles are significant is because they mark the first American possessions I have shed since coming to Denmark. Most of the things I brought from the States are items I will use during my entire time here, things like clothing, shoes, electronics. Most of the things I brought I will throw away, at least not until the end of my time here. And since I have been in Denmark, food definitely represents the majority of things I have purchased so those items are always gone within a few days. I couldn't have brought food from the States anyway. In throwing away the old bottles and using new ones, I feel like I am inevitably living here a little more.