Essay Case Study #1: Wal-Mart’s Foreign Expansion

Wal-Mart decided to target emerging markets as the starting point for international expansion in Europe, nations with growing populations in Latin America, and in Asia is targeted China. The first international store was opened in Mexico City in the year 1991. By forming a joint venture with the Mexican retail conglomerate, Cifra, Wal-Mart was able to overcome cultural differences. After some experience with Mexican partners Wal-Mart succeeded to expand further in Mexico, and entered Brazil and Argentina.

Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue (approximately four hundred and eighty billion dollars) and the largest private employer in the world with two point three million employees. Walmart is also one of the world's most valuable companies by market value, and is also the largest grocery retailer in the U.S. “One Nation Under Walmart” is a case about how Walmart has taken over the retail business and the effects of their market domination. The case also shows statistics of how much percentage Walmart is of many suppliers’ sales. According to the case Walmart has a 30% market share of all household items. Twenty-eight percent of Dial’s business and twenty-four percent of Del Monte’s business go through Walmart stores. It is also worth noting that Walmart imports ten percent of all United States imports from China. The case states that Walmart is able to offer cheaper prices because they put so much pressure on their suppliers to lower their prices. The case, “One Nation Under Walmart”, explains the problems that some people have with the massive retailer. One of these problems is how Walmart has forced numerous local businesses to close their doors through their extremely competitive pricing. They are able to purchase bulk goods at such low prices and thus pass the savings onto customers. As a result of these lew costs, rivals are driven out of business which results in a loss of jobs. Jobs are vital to the success of a community and with Walmart causing job

Walmart faced strong entrenched competition in Canada and Europe. In these developed countries, they couldn’t gain critical mass through internal growth, so they had to acquire companies that have been in the market already. They acquired Woolco, a money losing operation, applied many of the American business practices, and within a few years, the Canadian operations were successful. They have 317 stores, and they account for more than 35 percent of the Canadian discount and department store market. In Europe, Walmart entered Germany by acquiring the Wertkauf hypermarket chain in 1998 and entered the UK by acquiring the 229-store ASDA group. They the leader and are now losing ground to Tesco. A major problem for Walmart in the European market is overexpansion. Accompanied with the famous “Always low prices” approach, they met large resistance from the competition and regulators. Large price wars began because Walmart was accused of underselling the competition. They struggled to build a strong competitive base in German losing more than $1 billion. They were unable to create a competitive advantage, so they sold their operations to a competitor, Metro. They also faced problems in Korea, so

1) Should Wal-Mart be expected to protect small businesses in the communities within which it operates?

Wal-Mart has preferred to expand internationally by buying existing operations and converting them to Wal-Mart stores. The company entered Canada by purchasing the Woolco chain that was competing with Kmart in that market, and it entered Mexico in much the same way. The company entered Europe by purchasing the Asda stores in the United Kingdom and an operation in Germany that later failed. Wal-Mart entered foreign markets via acquisition for a couple of reasons. The first is that the company relies on real estate as the cornerstone of its business. The second is that as a cost leader, Wal-Mart needed to build up economies of scale that would allow it to enjoy strong bargaining power in these markets immediately. Moreover, moving rapidly into a market minimizing the ability of competitors to register an adequate response.

Within less than 30 years, Wal-Mart had transformed from a small rural retailer in Arkansas into the largest retailer in the U.S. In order to continue this rapid growth, the company had started to pursue international expansion grounded in the belief that the firm’s business model of offering quality products at low prices and great customer service would appeal to consumers everywhere around the world (p.8)[1]. China was of particular interest in going international as Wal-Mart’s top management held the opinion that it was the only market in which the firm’s success story in the U.S. could be repeated (p.2/8). However, in 2005 (nine years after its

Many countries struggle with poverty and underemployment. Wal-Mart’s ability to give us bottom line pricing is greatly to do with the importation of products from developing countries at a lower cost in shipping as well as production. This is not rocket science for other companies here in America. Wal-Mart would not be the first company to try to pinch a penny by using foreign country products. America itself is doing foreign affairs overseas. This is part of

Since 1962 and the beginning of the discount retailer market Wal-Mart has been ahead of the retail game. By 1967 there were 24 Wal-Marts that had grossed 12.6 million dollars. In just 7 years Wal-mart had spread into 9 states. By 1979 Wal-Mart was the fastest store to reach a billion dollars in sales. In 2005 Wal-Mart has 3,800 domestic stores along with 3,800 stores internationally, and had made over 312 billion dollars. As you can see the Wal-Mart empire has grown monumentally. To move into this segment of the market would be tough.

customers unbeatable prices that their competitors find difficult to challenge. But in providing those “great deals” it deducts from other sources. Walmart directly imports from Asia and in turn Asia produces cheaply made items and sells to Walmart for a low cost. Thus,

Wal-Mart has expanded beyond the United States, they have gone global. Wal-Mart continues to offer food and goods at a low price and continue to thrive by using the mission statement that the retail giant was built upon which is great customer service and low prices.

Wal-Mart is the number one retailer in the world in both sales and earnings, dwarfing many of its retail competitors. It offers a full assortment of products ranging from clothing to electronics. It currently has 6000 locations predominately within the United States with over $312.4 Billion in net sales during 2006. In addition to its strong domestic presence, Wal-Mart has expanded aggressively to Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico with over 1000 locations within those countries. This expansion can potentially create greater economies of scale for Wal-Mart services and merchandise. The synergies created by expansion will also drive profitability in the future by providing goods and services at even lower costs to consumers. In order to enter foreign markets successful, Wal-Mart engages in both joint ventures and acquisitions. By utilizing this method, Wal-Mart intends to leverage foreign retailer's market knowledge with its own core competencies of merchandising and supply chain management (Stilgoe, 2003).

They lacked in cultural sensitivity or empathy i.e. the awareness of and honest caring for other cultures (Derskey & Christopher 2008). They therefore didn’t understand the culture and it cost them money and opportunities which lead to a 9.9 billion net loss and withdrawing from the country (Sang Hun 2006). Not enough strategic planning was undertaken in order to assess just what these demanding consumers required and they therefore weren’t a desirable shopping venue for the South Koreans. Even after 8 years of operation, Wal-Mart were still unable to fix the major problems the company faced. They were still not able to provide consumers with what they wanted and had no choice but to sell their subsidiary to their major competitor.

In order to understand the success and failure of Walmart Stores, Inc. in markets other than the United States, we

Why do you think Wal-Mart did not venture abroad until 1991, despite its success in the USA?

Ans:Wal-Mart,Inc runs a chain of large, discount department stores.it is the world’s largest public corporation by revenue. Walmart is the largest private employer and the largest grocery retailer in the United States. Walmart is one of the best known industries all over the world. Its concentration of a single business strategy is the basis of its success over the decades by this strategy without having to rely upon diversification to sustain its growth and competitive advantage. The leading marketing strategies of Wal-Mart are low prices, service and smile. However by adapting this strategy, it has risked itself by putting all of a company’s egg in one industry basket. While its global strategy worked elsewhere, the results were bad in Germany and Korea that Wal-Mart withdrew from those countries.