Has any foreign chain been able to really take off in Germany?
IKEA.
This Is Not America: Why Wal-Mart Left Germany (2006)
31–40 of 77 posts
Re: This Is Not America: Why Wal-Mart Left Germany (2006)
#32"Germany enjoys a healthy pro capita income" Locally walmart means absolute junk quality for poor people who wait in long lines. The description of Germany is a good fit for retail in general, but not walmart. This truth can't be stated in a commercial publication, walmart spends too much money on advertising, but I think it fairly obvious. Now Target could have possibly made it. Or maybe walmart could have made it i…
lidl is the epitome of junk quality for poor people who wait in long lines, and it's the quintessential german supermarket.
Lidl seems to have a terrible reputation in the UK and Italy (and possibly elsewhere), but in Germany they're just another discounter.
We do have some more upscale supermarkets, but there's generally little variance in quality among the discounters. Although Lidl does have by far the best store brand (J.D. Gross) chocolate.
Re: This Is Not America: Why Wal-Mart Left Germany (2006)
#33"Germany enjoys a healthy pro capita income" Locally walmart means absolute junk quality for poor people who wait in long lines. The description of Germany is a good fit for retail in general, but not walmart. This truth can't be stated in a commercial publication, walmart spends too much money on advertising, but I think it fairly obvious. Now Target could have possibly made it. Or maybe walmart could have made it i…
lidl is the epitome of junk quality for poor people who wait in long lines, and it's the quintessential german supermarket.
The food in Lidl isn't junk quality, most of it is fine. They have some junk quality non-food stuff quite often but there's nothing wrong with the food in my experience.
Re: This Is Not America: Why Wal-Mart Left Germany (2006)
#34Re: This Is Not America: Why Wal-Mart Left Germany (2006)
#35"Germany enjoys a healthy pro capita income" Locally walmart means absolute junk quality for poor people who wait in long lines. The description of Germany is a good fit for retail in general, but not walmart. This truth can't be stated in a commercial publication, walmart spends too much money on advertising, but I think it fairly obvious. Now Target could have possibly made it. Or maybe walmart could have made it i…
lidl is the epitome of junk quality for poor people who wait in long lines, and it's the quintessential german supermarket.
I can't comment on Lidl in Germany, but the quality of goods at Lidl in the UK is actually fairly high. You do generally wait in long lines though...
Re: This Is Not America: Why Wal-Mart Left Germany (2006)
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like the Aldi I used to go to in Kansas while working there. Cheap, clean and no one bothers you. It actually was a better experience than Walmart, even for this American. They had cool, better carts too!
Unfortunately Aldi in the States doesn't do as well as Aldi in Germany.
AFAIK Aldi is expanding in the US. Also, Trader Joe's which is hugely popular with the younger crowd (at least here in Chicago) is owned by the same company.
Re: This Is Not America: Why Wal-Mart Left Germany (2006)
#37While I wouldn't completely discount cultural and business-environment differences, this is probably the most relevant part, > Another fatal flaw was that Germany's retail market is already saturated with discounters such as Aldi and Lidl, meaning that any new arrival inevitably finds itself in the midst of a cutthroat price war. Walmart's model is to do high volume at low margins with a highly optimized supply chain…
It still surprises me that a company like Walmart, with such massive advantages, cannot figure it out.
Re: This Is Not America: Why Wal-Mart Left Germany (2006)
#38> The company also scrapped the staff warm-up sessions scheduled at the start of every day, on the grounds that German employees found them ridiculous. Ah, Germans. Gotta love the directness of the culture. Keeps things real.
Germans I've asked about this say "why do you need to perform a cheer to begin your work?" It's not just the directness, it's the attitude that you show up on time and work. No screwing around, no hand-holding needed.
Re: This Is Not America: Why Wal-Mart Left Germany (2006)
#39While I wouldn't completely discount cultural and business-environment differences, this is probably the most relevant part, > Another fatal flaw was that Germany's retail market is already saturated with discounters such as Aldi and Lidl, meaning that any new arrival inevitably finds itself in the midst of a cutthroat price war. Walmart's model is to do high volume at low margins with a highly optimized supply chain…
"Not a lot of room" in this case is basically zero. FYI to those unfamiliar with Aldi: their (grocery) stores are fairly small, run in a seriously minimalistic manner. Products are usually presented either on their shipping palettes, and/or still in volume cases - customer does some of the unpacking. Most products are "made for Aldi" or otherwise sourced from bottom-price manufacturers. Variety is nearly nonexistent.…
Possibly, but it would seem like there would be ample opportunity to compete on a number of other dimensions that would resonate with most humans. What you describe sounds a little like Trader Joes (some relation to Aldi) except that there are tons of happy employees around.
Re: This Is Not America: Why Wal-Mart Left Germany (2006)
#40> The company also scrapped the staff warm-up sessions scheduled at the start of every day, on the grounds that German employees found them ridiculous. Ah, Germans. Gotta love the directness of the culture. Keeps things real.
Just wondering.. i never heard of this (I'm german) but i have seen a documentary about Japan, where employees (in this case salesmen) gathered in the morning, did some kind of sports and some motivational speech and things like that. Is that also something i'd find in the US? I must admit, i smiled at it and found it ridiculous. I'd think all the time "stop wasting time with this shit and get some work done"...