Wal-Mart suffers $1-billion loss as it beats retreat from Germany and, as a commenter on a community site quipped, isn't it ironic that an inflexible behemoth like Wal-Mart couldn't get along with the resolute Germans to turn a profit?
Why did Wal-Mart fail in Germany? Because they failed to realize that they weren't dealing with Americans, they were dealing with Germans who, (in a Gomer Pyle voice) surprise, surprise, surprise, aren't Americans and don't generally have the same cultural norms as Americans.
And part of Wal-Mart's success is to get a strong enough market share so that they can force their suppliers to give them better prices so that they can undercut their competition. Well its hard to do that when people do not like shopping at your stores to start with.
Here in the states, we've already been long afflicted with the asshole business model so the solution will necessarily be different.
So that's two countries (South Korea told Wal-Mart to shove it months ago) that have rejected Wal-Mart's lecherous and unsavory advances. How many more to follow?
Tags: Wal-Mart, WalMart, failure, Germany, South Korea