Bad news WalMart Fans, the chain is pulling out of Germany.
QUOTE
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, is selling its underperforming German stores to the country's leading retail chain Metro, a major retreat that will cost it about $1 billion.
Wal-Mart, which operates 85 hypermarkets across Germany, said on Friday it would incur the roughly $1 billion pretax loss on the deal in the second quarter of its fiscal 2007 year.
Wal-Mart entered Germany in 1997 but has been unable to capture market share, hurt by cut-throat competition from rivals such as Metro or discounters like
Aldi. Wal-Mart has closed several of its German stores over recent years.
Full release available at Reuters:
Wal-Mart pulls out of Germany, sells to Metro
Business Week ran a related story which caught my eye, albeit back in 2005, that catalouged the chain's struggle. Full story here:
Wal-Mart: Struggling In Germany QUOTE
With discounters already dominating the market, the American giant is in the unaccustomed role of pipsqueak
To American eyes, the new ethics manual is standard stuff. But when Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT ) distributed the newly translated code to German employees a few weeks ago, it caused a furor. They read a caution against supervisor-employee relationships as a puritanical ban on interoffice romance, while a call to report improper behavior was taken as an invitation to rat on co-workers. "They have to communicate better," says Ulrich Dalibor, an official at the ver.di service-workers union, which represents German employees of the Bentonville (Arkansas)-based retailer.
No kidding. Seemingly surprised Wal-Mart officials said they have nothing against romance -- plenty of Wal-Mart co-workers have married, the company notes. And reporting lawbreaking is just good citizenship, it said. But to no avail.
judders
Jul 28 2006, 9:23 am
Looks like American Muscle can't conquer all.
Hutcho
Jul 28 2006, 9:26 am
BadDoggie
Jul 28 2006, 9:40 am
I won't shed too many tears but they carry a number of products that no other store does, especially items from other European countries. Metro's selection of non-German items is surprisingly low. It's hardly surprising that their excessively paternalistic and overbearing "ethics manual" caused outrage -- my company's is likewise shite -- but the reason they have that is to be able to fight back one frivolous lawsuit after the next in the US.
woof.
mulah
Jul 28 2006, 11:08 am
Don't you need a special card to shop in Metro or have I got the wrong one?
Gen
Jul 28 2006, 11:09 am
You do need a special card but you just have to have a Gewerbeschein to get one. I can't remember if the card has your photo on it, but you are checked at the entry.
Allershausen
Jul 28 2006, 11:13 am
The card does have your photo on it. Metro is however a large trading company, the cash and carry Metro stores are just part of it. See the website:
Metro
Small Town Boy
Jul 28 2006, 11:23 am
According to
this article, they are going to become Real stores. Metro own Real, but you don't need membership. They're pretty similar to Wal-Mart in the things that they sell, as far as I can recall.
Gen
Jul 28 2006, 11:29 am
Right, so if you borrowed someone's card to get in, you'd better look a lot like that person, right? Or can a business have a card that any employee can use?
Darkknight
Jul 28 2006, 11:53 am
Looks like Wal-Mart finally got tired of the German Labour laws and Unions. In the US they close stores that threaten to go or have gone Union. Thats how bad they hate them. If the new Min. wage law in Chicago passes then I see them cutting back or pulling out there too..
sarabyrd
Jul 28 2006, 12:06 pm
QUOTE (Gen @ Jul 28 2006, 11:29 am)
Right, so if you borrowed someone's card to get in, you'd better look a lot like that person, right? Or can a business have a card that any employee can use?
You can get a proxy valid for one day only signed by the card holder but you have to pay cash, no debit to the owner's Metro account, no EC. Take ID along. A card issued to a business would have to have the carrier's name on it.
resi
Jul 28 2006, 12:19 pm
Over here in Aachen there's a Walmart opposite a Real - and Real really sucks in comparison. So I am not exactly thrilled at the news. As a former resident of Wuppertal (that's where Walmart Germany has/had its HQs) I am also sorry for the people who will no doubt lose their jobs - in a part of Germany where unemployment is a serious issue.
Don't know about other Walmart stores, but here they sure tried to introduce something called customer service - and I enjoyed that. Gone now.
sarabyrd
Jul 28 2006, 12:20 pm
Customer service? I've had employees cutting into the line in front of me while waiting at Information.
xargon
Jul 28 2006, 3:23 pm
Good riddance!
Zeppelin
Jul 28 2006, 3:36 pm
QUOTE (sarabyrd @ Jul 28 2006, 1:20 pm)
Customer service? I've had employees cutting into the line in front of me while waiting at Information.
This is common in every supermarket here in Germany. They believe it is their right because they are employees on their break. Just yesterday at my local, there were 10 people waiting on 2 cashiers. One then proceeded to close off, and then cut in on the now 20 people waiting on one cashier to go on a break. Whilst I understand the need to give staff their breaks, this is just over the top.
canuck
Jul 28 2006, 4:46 pm
I guess the Walmart in Munich's Europe Industriepark will close down totally, since there's a REAL just a km down the road. Too bad really...
Crawlie
Jul 28 2006, 5:20 pm
I don't know what everybody expects from Walmart. It is a shit store, selling shit produce at very low prices... Employees get discounts as it is the only way they can afford to actually do any shopping because of the pathetic wage they get. I boycotted Walmart years ago and gladly pay more for my groceries knowing that the qualilty is infinitely better and local communities are being supported
OhFFS
Jul 28 2006, 5:40 pm
QUOTE (Zeppelin @ Jul 28 2006, 4:36 pm)
This is common in every supermarket here in Germany
Yup. And when it does I just drop my stuff down and walk out, with a cheery "I'll leave you to clear that lot up."
gills
Jul 28 2006, 7:30 pm
Wheee! Germany defeats WalMart,
the evil empire. I couldn't be more pleased.
DriveShaft
Jul 29 2006, 10:31 am
I only went once to WalMart in Germany and it was totally shit - full of cheap nasty stuff and very little specialist american products...
Dunno if it is better in the U.S...?!?
cinzia
Jul 29 2006, 10:56 am
No, Wal-Mart is not better in the US. It's popular because of perceived lower prices. Most don't have groceries; I find it OK for things like cosmetics and shampoo. All the other stuff is generally crap. It's just that they've got more crap, at lower prices, than some other places. Many Americans love this.
I must say the check-out lines are much shorter at Wal-Mart in the US, though.
Jenny L
Jul 29 2006, 2:41 pm
Yeah, and in the U.S. they have those automatic check-outs, where you scan your own stuff and then pay... which a lot of people find really cool. Except I was always too stupid to figure it out and fucked it up every time and in the end a Wal-Mart employee had to help me anyway. Way too futuristic for me. Everyone else seemed to have no problems with it though. Stupid Wal-Mart.
I'd warmly welcome Target stores to Germany though.
brokenm
Jul 29 2006, 2:50 pm
Is Target really better than Wal-mart?QUOTE
"Entry-level hourly workers in Target stores earn roughly the same pay and have more difficulty qualifying for health care coverage than their peers at Wal-Mart. Both retailers oppose unions and have taken steps to prevent organizing efforts in stores. And both have outsourced jobs overseas to save costs."
I wouldn't support either.
Jenny L
Jul 29 2006, 2:54 pm
Target crap is cooler than Wal-Mart crap. I wasn't thinking about the quality of the employee benefits package.
brokenm
Jul 29 2006, 2:56 pm
All crap smells the same, you get what you pay for.
Hutcho
Jul 29 2006, 4:20 pm
QUOTE (Jenny L @ Jul 29 2006, 3:41 pm)
Yeah, and in the U.S. they have those automatic check-outs, where you scan your own stuff and then pay...
They have this at Real, which is just down the road from Walmart..
Tbunny
Jul 31 2006, 7:54 am
I am guessing that the walmart in euro industrie park will be closed down and a company such as XXXLUTZ will buy it. Just look at all the furniture shops which have newly moved in that area.
koorosh
Jul 31 2006, 12:10 pm
You can't shop in metro unless you have a special card i guess.(dont know really how to get it as i think you need to belong to a business...). Does this mean that walmart will be limited only to a special group of people?
Hutcho
Jul 31 2006, 1:36 pm
The Walmart in North Munich is not going to be a Metro, because there is already one down the road from it.
greenlakechris
Aug 1 2006, 8:00 am
Well I suppose Walmart is evil and it's probably good that they've "lost in Germany", but I wonder if it was because:
- Couldn't find enough employees that could be cheery for 10 seconds
- Distribution problems. I have heard that "super-efficient" businesses from other countries have problems getting their goods delivered to all of germany because the distribution system is too slow. Probably because of working-hour restrictions, holidays, sundays, etc.
planetmoni
Aug 1 2006, 8:25 am
the distribution problem sounds valid. supermarkets are pretty slow in refilling their shelves...
...or maybe it is because i never shopped at walmart out of principle? (my principle being: support the small shops)
but then i don't really count because i have been out of the country most of walmart's time.
Small Town Boy
Aug 1 2006, 8:43 am
Someone keep an eye out for when their closing-down sale starts -- I predict bargains!
Eleanor Rigby
Aug 1 2006, 10:00 am
Normally I'm a supporter of corporate globalisation but I'm a bigger supporter of the price wars here in Gemrany. Walmart just couldn't compete with the discounters that stay in constant price war with each other which ensures that the consumer gets the lowest prices possible.
cinzia
Aug 1 2006, 10:39 am
What ER said. In the US, WalMart has been known to hire mostly part-time workers and contract very low-cost maintenance companies which often hire illegal immigrant labor to keep their labor costs low. In so doing, they don't pay for vacation time, pensions, or
health insurance for the people who work in the stores as direct employees or under contractors.
They have also been accused of bullying their suppliers and distributors to lower their costs and give WalMart better wholesale prices than other stores which might stock the same products.
As the largest retailer in America, they get away with these things. No wholesaler wants to lose WalMart as a client.
Here in Germany, WalMart was not allowed to play those games with their workers, and they don't have so much economic pull that they can yank around the suppliers and distributors, either.
omjoi
Aug 1 2006, 1:05 pm
>I guess the Walmart in Munich's Europe Industriepark will close down totally, since there's a REAL just a km >down the road. Too bad really...
I know it is too much to expect Carrefour to replace it, but I like daydreaming...
www.carrefour.com
Shippym
Aug 1 2006, 1:47 pm
Another reason Walmart has lower costs, always fights any attempt by workers to join a union to fight against low wages, lack of insurance etc.
In my opinion, no loss for Germany -- although people watching at a Walmart in the US can be very interesting esp shoppers in the middle of the night. I've been a few times in the US (under pressure), and one fact one will never experience so many clientele in jogging pants and the lovely running tights/shorts.
cinzia
Aug 1 2006, 2:22 pm
QUOTE (Shippym @ Aug 1 2006, 2:47 pm)
I've been a few times in the US (under pressure), and one fact one will never experience so many clientele in jogging pants and the lovely running tights/shorts.
And I bet these WalMart shoppers are in top condition, too, aren't they? Just popped in for a couple of things after their workout.
Warna
Aug 1 2006, 2:27 pm
They closed a Walmart in Quebec 6 months after it won the right to unionize. 190 people in a small town lost their jobs.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/business/national/...art-050209.htmlWalmart was my first job and from experience they treat their empoyees like shit. I got fired from the job becuase they said I was the last one off at my counter and I didn't do a final count. Truth was I did a final count and I wasn't the last one to go... SKETCHY
And while I'm on this Walmart rant why do they make their employee get to gether and do a cheer in the morning before they start work?
cinzia
Aug 1 2006, 2:28 pm
Brainwashing, Warna.
Although I'm surprised it hasn't backfired.
treqx
Aug 1 2006, 3:51 pm
Now if only
McDonalds could pack it in...
cinzia
Aug 1 2006, 4:07 pm
Why McDonald's? They're very popular with the German youngsters.
mulah
Aug 1 2006, 8:16 pm
QUOTE (omjoi @ Aug 1 2006, 2:05 pm)
>I know it is too much to expect Carrefour to replace it, but I like daydreaming...
www.carrefour.comIt'll never happen but I'm right there daydreaming with you
dimmer
Aug 1 2006, 10:27 pm
you might like the selection of carrefour better - but what exactly makes you assume that they treat their employees any better? mind you - I personally don't give a sh**. but that's what makes (made) walmart so evil, right?
i'm just a customer who likes a good selection of goods and the odd friendly face. and i will miss walmart.
Blimeygirl
Aug 2 2006, 7:03 am
Although I am not a huge fan of the Walmart empire and the busy-ness of it whenever I need to shop, I can name at least 5 products that I can get at Walmart that I can't get anywhere else (no you can't get everything at Minimal or
Edeka).
Shame for that fact, and for the fact that their prices are much better than anywhere else (yes we have done a price comparison).
cinzia
Aug 2 2006, 7:29 am
What are the 5 items, Blimeygirl?
Showem
Aug 2 2006, 7:55 am
You don't even need to do a price comparison. If you can bring in any proof that another store with a 50km radius of Walmart is selling the same product for less money, Walmart will lower their price to beat it.
I think the thing is, they can't beat the noname product prices from
Lidl,
Aldi & co.
mulah
Aug 2 2006, 8:49 am
My five items are:
Washing powder - sensitive, 90 washes
Decent sized salmon
Cheap shoes
Betty Crocker muffin mix
Saint Agur cheese
darmstadt
Aug 2 2006, 12:01 pm
Metro not only own Real but also Saturn, Media Markt and Galeria Kaufhof.
omjoi
Aug 2 2006, 5:20 pm
I don't know if Mr.Carrefour treats the employers any better, for sure treats me a *lot* better. Oh, real vegetables, real fish and the cheese section 1km long...
NOFXmike
Aug 2 2006, 6:58 pm
We only make it to Wally world every couple months, but we love having actual choices at decent prices...and will miss that.
I'm sure I could come up with 5 items too, but would have to ask the gf.
more beer.
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