Wal-Mart Stores

WAL-MART CHAIN STORES NAME OF STUDENT NAME OF SUBJECT NAME OF UNIVERSITY DATE Wal-Mart is a retail store that operates more than four thousand outlets in the world. It is the largest retail store in the United States of America and is largest retail chain in the world as well. It also dominates the retail store market in Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom. Its sales include general merchandise such as household needs, family apparel, electronics, shoes, jewelry and beauty aids. The store also runs a photo processing center, tire and lube express and a department of pharmacy. Wal-Mart operates in twenty eight countries and employs more than two million people globally. In other countries other than the United States, Wal-Mart uses different names. The stores are called Welmex in Mexico, Toda Dia in Brazil, Seiyu in Japan, Asda in the United Kingdom, Supercentre and Discount Store in Canada, Trust-Mart in china, Econo in Chile, Pari in Costa Rica, Dispensa Familiar in Guatemala, Dispensa Familiar in El Salvador, Pali in Nicaragua, Dispensa Familiar in Honduras, Changomas in Argentina and Best Price in India. Most recently, Wal-Mart acquired fifty one percent of Mass-mart stores in South Africa, a retail store with two hundred and eighty eight outlets operating in fourteen countries in the southern Africa region (Pereira, 2002). In the United States where Wal-Mart has its greatest presence, the market system is a free market economy under a capitalistic setting. The consumers relate to the economy by seeking the best value at the lowest prices with free political beliefs and protected rights. Wal-Mart is succeeding by appealing and supporting the consumer needs while striving to remain efficient in its business aspects and offering the lowest prices possible (Courser, 2005). In operating in the other countries, Wal-Mart had to adjust in order to remain flexible and adapt by showing local understanding. Being a typical American store it had to change many of its ways in order to reach out to the suspicious German consumers and the British consumers who are seen as being reserved. Generally, consumer tastes and preferences vary in different countries and therefore Wal-Mart was aware of the fact that selling the same products it sold in the United States in the same way would lead to failure. In the Chinese market for instance, Wal-Mart realized the customers had preference for leafy vegetables than anywhere else where it had outlets. Due to the strict government regulation in China, Wal-Mart could only source for some products such as tobacco and alcohol locally (Towers, 2004). When venturing into Germany, Wal-Mart acquired more than one hundred of two chain stores which were already operating in Germany. It opted to rebrand due to the low levels of customer care and service that had been dominating the German market. Changing the culture of the consumers in Germany was however not easy and some strategies which had worked well in many other countries were received suspiciously in Germany, for instance, the culture of having Wal-Mart greeters at the store entrance was perceived by the customers as being superficial. The success of Wal-M...