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BWAHAHA! Germany defeats Wal-Mart!

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  • BWAHAHA! Germany defeats Wal-Mart!

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    Take that, you corporate bastards!

  • #2
    Nothing new... and we made money on the sale of both divisions. Truth be told, we should have never gone there as well as a few other places: Indonesia (huge disaster, for a LOT of companies), Germany (never made money because of "Kaiser Schroeder") and Korea (simply because we didn't have enough stores to make it worthwhile to run a DC).

    Giving some background on the whole deal: All of the International stores started off as part of a tax savings strategy during the Clinton years. When those tax code provisons expired we drew a line in the sand for all of our divisions: fix them or cut them. That was about 4 or 5 years ago. Guess what: Time's up.

    As far as our international divisons are concerned, those are the best-performing divisions profit-wise counting the losses in Korea, Germany and with Seiyu Japan. We know we can fix the issues in Japan. We just expanded into several central-american markets earlier this year.

    There a couple of interesting places we are looking at expanding into: Parts of Europe, the Asia-Pacific region as well as India.
    Hey, Donny! We got us a German who wants to die for his country... Oblige him. - Lt. Aldo Raine

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    • #3
      I think pretty much anywhere where people are conditioned to accept power for its own sake, (i.e. might makes right) would be prime Wal-Mart territory. Russia and Latin America should be good.. as well as, of course, China. Too bad North Korea is of limits for now..

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      • #4
        According to Manager Magazin Wal-Mart will - after the sale is complete - have lost 1 billion EUR since their entry into the german market nine years ago. Every year since 1997 Wal-Mart Germany was in the red.
        There's an Opera in my macbook.

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        • #5
          Not surprised they lost money. The store I visited was a dump. Lets hope the group that takes them over will keep the staff.

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          • #6
            Most Wal-Marts are dumps on the inside and massive stone edifaces on the outside. The psychology is simple.. and for the simple. The massive building makes people think the company is big and powerful, which it is.. (hence my comment about those who will instinctively cowtow to anyone with power) the dumpy insides make you think there is no overhead so you really are getting the best price. They spend lots on marketing consultants, but these guys are Americans, and probably could not fathom why their business model would fail in Germany.

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            • #7
              KvH, the cheap food chains in Germany are dumps from the inside, too, and with a smaller product selection to boot. But they are every bit as cheap as Wal-Mart (our cartel office has forbidden them to sell at a loss), smaller (which, to me, is a plus. I hate it when a store is so big it takes me half an hour just to get a few things for the week), and usually located where one can walk/cycle/take the bus.
              There's an Opera in my macbook.

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              • #8
                I assume you're talking about ALDI? We've got 'em in the US too, nothing quite like getting groceries out of boxes sitting on pallets.

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                • #9
                  Yep, ALDI's been the first (and is still "cult"), but there are lots of competing chains now.
                  There's an Opera in my macbook.

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                  • #10
                    That was the big mistake. They tried to beat out all the other dumps (NORMA,LIDL,ALDI,PENNY,V-MARKT). To many dumps already with no need for a bigger one. They should have tried to set them selves apart from all the others. The competition is very tight at the moment with cheap supermarkets opening up every where you look.

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                    • #11
                      Aldi and Lydil are here in N Ireland - I do one shop a month there for basics
                      (tinned tomatoes, Pasta, veg, olive oil that sort of stuff.....)

                      Then do a shop in a larger suppermarket once a month too - I estimate I save about £30.00 per month...

                      Walmart bougt one of the chains here in the UK (Asda?) It suckie big time..... Sainburys is better. (I am not fond of Tescos either)


                      I do all the domestic shopping in our home
                      Dont just swallow the blue pill.

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