When you do visit Zürich or Cape Town or Bangkok, they are very much alike: the amusement parks have striking similarities, the cafés all play the same Brazilian music, the malls are interchangeable, kids on the school buses resemble one another, and the interiors of middle-class homes conform to the same parameters. This doesn’t mean the world is

Maybe another way to ask all these questions at once is to wonder what exactly is being sold when you sell the character of a place? Not just the amenities or the architecture per se, but how do you put a price tag on the vibe of a town?