The Christian Science Monitor reports that in Germany, where Wal-Mart has been largely unsuccessful competing with the likes of Aldi and other local businesses, the biggest problem isn’t price or location or product selection.
It’s culture.
Germans don’t like one-stop shopping. They want cheap prices, but they don’t give a hoot if the cashier smiles at them.
“I don't think that Wal-Mart did their homework as well as they should have," Steve Gotham, a retail analyst with Verdict Retail Consulting in London, told the Monitor. "Germany is Europe's most price-sensitive market. Wal-Mart underestimated the competition, the culture, the legislative environment."
It’s culture.
Germans don’t like one-stop shopping. They want cheap prices, but they don’t give a hoot if the cashier smiles at them.
“I don't think that Wal-Mart did their homework as well as they should have," Steve Gotham, a retail analyst with Verdict Retail Consulting in London, told the Monitor. "Germany is Europe's most price-sensitive market. Wal-Mart underestimated the competition, the culture, the legislative environment."
- KC's View:
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So, essentially, Wal-Mart should have been more Teutonic. Instead, Germany is turning out to be Wal-Mart’s Titanic.
But we suspect that in addition to Germany being a valuable learning experience for the company (and we all know you learn more from mistakes than successes), it’ll be a country that eventually will come around to Wal-Mart’s appeal, especially as the Bentonville behemoth adapts to the German mindset.
