Ha! Wal-Mart retreats from Germany

[siron]

oh. wal-mart was here in germany? I haven't noticed them.

[Ecthy]

Yeah, they had a few markets. They weren't even close to being the cheapest anyway

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Ecthy
If by "inefficient" business model you refer to ...

No I mean you have some sort of wierd nationalist compulsion to pay more money for something of the same quality you could get down the street for less money and to treat such an act as being noble rather than that of a sucker. I guess it really is true there is one born every minute.

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
No I mean you have some sort of wierd nationalist compulsion...

I wonder if this thread will attract some replies other than ad hominems in its near future.

[DinoDoc]

What else am I supposed to think about the threads stated purpose of painting poor economic conditions in Germany as a defeat for Germany?

[Sava]

Some people have a compulsion to not support a corporation that does business with suppliers from other countries where labor conditions are awful. Nowadays, it's almost unavoidable to purchase such products, but one can make a conscious choice to not support the very worst offenders.

[Ecthy]

Sava... thank you so much

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Qwert, they sell all their markets to Metro.

Asher, they never offered that much service to us. They couldn't pay cheap jobs like that in an over-controlled economy like this On the other hand, I still prefer this model to the US one, where Wal-Mart impoverishes entire counties due to its aggressive price policy.

We've got five or six Walmarts in this county yet we've got loads of other retailers who seem to be doing just fine. Walmart tends to be a bottom feeder having the lowest prices but also the lowest quality so the other retailers survive by offering a different mix of quality and price. They say "If you want the cheapest of cheap then go to Walmart but if you want something that will last then come talk to me".

I honestly do think the anti-Walmart folks have over sold the negatives. Currently the poor people such as students, single moms, divorcees, etc... shop at Walmart because they can get a lot of bang for their buck while other retailers from boutiques to other mass discounters (like Target, Kmart, or just about any brand you can think of) do just fine. I'd rather shop at Costco any day over Walmart even though Costco costs 10%-20% more because Costco sells a bunch of designers brands and even their house brand is nothing more then designer brands without the designer label. To compare Walmarts house brands are just total trash.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Sava... thank you so much

[BeBMan]

They never sold Walfisch IIRC. Liars

[Dinner]

That said if you are a retiree on a fixed income, a single parent, a student, or someone else without a lot of money then you can get an impressive pile of stuff at Walmart for not a lot of money.

Sure, the clothes might not last long, the TV isn't the best, and the home funishings have a slightly dodgy feel but you can buy just about anything for an unbelievablely low price. Hell, the blue jeans cost something like $4.99 per pair (or $7.99 if you get their higher quality version) so you can go through 10 pairs of the low quality jeans for the price of one pair of discounted price designer jeans. There is something to be said about that and I don't think comsumers are harmed by having this option. In fact many poor people love the fact that they can get new stuff and fill all of their needs for such a small amount of money. Walmart does help fight inflation.

[Colonâ„¢]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
You feel the need to defend spending more money on products to protect inefficent business models and a desire to paint Germany's poor economy as a defeat for Wal-Mart.

You're missing the ball DD. Germany is the home-place of Aldi and Lidl, two of the world's most aggressive discounters. That Wal-Mart never quite managed to thrive in the German market is probably largely because these discounters were already well established there.

Why Ecthy villifies Wall-Mart while Aldi and Lidl pretty much have the same business strategy, this I do not understand.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by VJ
Anyway, since completely legal competition of Wal-Mart's local competitors got Wal-Mart off Germany (not the other way around), this debate is fruitless.

My point was and is that dissing Wal-Mart because it's trying to ensure that it's customers are paying the least $ amount from a product is elitist BS.

Yeah, and that is one thing Walmart is excellent at. Love them or hate them they are a hyper efficent retailer. For any given good they are likely to have the absolute lowest price anywhere. Sometimes unbelievably low; like 30% or 50% lower. How they do it I'm not sure but they do.

[DinoDoc]

Thank you for the informative post Colonâ„¢.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Ecthy
1. The outsourcing argument doesn't stand because there is next to no welfare in US gov't spending. It's all in charity, which is indeed elitist already. They might as well consume properly.

There is plenty of welfare/doll payments in the US, thank you.

Yes, it comes down to a combination of assistance from the federal, state, local, as well as private charities (religious or other wise) but there is a fairly comprehensive social safety net in place even if it is more patch work then in some European countries. Instead of going to one agency for all their social safety needs, as people would in some countries, people have to jump around between a half dozen different programs but the help is there even if people have to be savy and jump around to get it.

I personally would rather see things more unified to prevent gaming the system.