Wal-mart leads charge in race to grab a slice of China

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1739319,00.html

Compared with their counterparts in Britain, Chinese shoppers are not satisfied simply pushing a trolley around a shop to buy products that are carefully packaged to look as different as possible from their origins. They want to net their own fish, grab their own turtles and chop the heads off their own dead ducks. If that means facing up to the fact that every purchase of meat or fish is an execution order, then so be it. If it's not fresh, it won't sell. This is one of the lessons being learnt by a growing number of western supermarket chains as they surge into the fast-growing Chinese market. This week Wal-Mart - the world's biggest retailer - declared its intention to lead the charge, announcing that it will hire up to 150,000 new staff in China over the next five years. The plan is the most ambitious attempt yet to convert China to western consumer culture - albeit with a local flavour.

"We're going to be growing in all directions," Joe Hatfield, chief executive of Wal-Mart Asia, told Reuters news agency in predicting that his company's Chinese operation could be as big as its 3,700-store United States business within 20 years. It is one of many. Britain's Tesco and B&Q, France's Carrefour and Leroy Merlin, Germany's Metro and Tengelmann, and Japan's Ito-Yokado and Aeon have all moved into China in the past decade. Most are now expanding at the rate of 10 to 20 megastores a year. In the fast-food sector western firms are so ubiquitous that there is even a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City - Beijing's old imperial palace - and Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald's outlets beside Tiananmen Square.

It is the same in the luxury goods sector, where Prada, Louis Vuitton and Chanel are opening outlets in shopping centres across the wealthy eastern regions. Even more spectacular is the advance of the sporting giants, Nike and Adidas - adding to their Chinese franchises at the rate of more than a store a day each as the 2008 Beijing Olympics approaches.

Like everything in China these days, the change is at a spectacular speed and on a scale the world has never seen before. It is already one of the fastest expansions in retail history, but analysts say it could get faster as international giants race for territory in a £140bn retail market that is growing at a double-digit pace.

[napi21]

1. I think this is GREAT NEWS! I want WM to succeed in China.

Succeed so well, they'll CLOSE all their operations here in the US and become strictly a Chinese Co!

[wakeme2008]

2. Just think Wally Mart... WHAT IF China thinks the dollar is weak so

all future purchases from China need to be paid in Gold..... :rofl:

[onehandle]

3. They should move their HQ closer to their communist suppliers. nt

[cornermouse]

4. I think as a company Wal-Mart has been making some

pretty bad decisions lately. I keep hearing they plan to become an upscale store presumably keeping the name Wal-Mart. That's not gonna fly.

The name Wal-Mart is pretty much viewed as synonymous with the word "cheap". People who buy upscale are not necessarily interested in cheap. They're interested in store names, name brands, and prestige. Also upscale people don't really care to shop with the poor and the disadvantaged. And while Wal-Mart is busy chasing after the upscale market which they're not likely to capture, they're leaving themselves open to losing their cheap market to the dollar variety type of stores.

Anyway, that's my opinion and my prediction.