Sunday, September 03, 2006

There goes Wal-Mart...






"The vulnerability of Wal-Mart is in fact an object lesson for other retailers. Business schools should write case studies about Wal-Mart's German debacle, for it is an example of locals bucking globalising uniformity..." (Summary)

What I found extremely interesting is that one of the world's biggest discounter stores and also a figurehead of American globalization, Wal-Mart, is withdrawing from the German market by selling its 85 hypermarkets to the Metro AG . Wal-Mart's officials explained it with an unexpected loss due to German consumer buying habits, who prefered other discount stores.

I believe that Wal-Mart's statement needs to be understood as an attempt to use German consumer buying habits as an excuse for its inability of competing with other German discount stores and its anti-union philosophy, facing a strong German union.

Do you also identify Wal-Mart as a symbol of globalization? Does Wal-Mart have the same problems in the US?



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