Expansion of Wal-Mart

Case 2: Wal-Mart's Foreign Expansion

Do you think Wal-Mart could translate its merchandising strategy wholesale to another country and succeed? If not, why not?

Wal-Mart, being a multinational enterprise has had its mishaps in trying to expand internationally, but has also had its successes. Wal-Mart has had to relate and change its ways to suit the cultures of many places around the world. After many years of working on getting the Chinese to want to shop at Wal-Mart, they succeeded. On the other hand, they were unsuccessful in the German and South Korea market. Persistence and changeability helped them in the Chinese market, but they were unable to use these traits in the German or South Korean market to survive.

With all of the above said, I believe that Wal-Mart would not be successful at merchandising wholesale to another country. Wal-Mart has put lots of efforts into other countries with just having its normal stores, wholesale would be a bigger more complex ballgame, per say. Americans are known for wanting everything bigger, better, and more bang for their buck, while most other cultures/nations like to have fresher, smaller quantities of food. Wholesale would not work, especially with people whose norms are to prepare meals from fresh food bought from the local market daily.

Wal-Mart being a financially sound and diversified company, it can make plenty of money and expand in other areas, without losing money for trying to go wholesale in other countries.

Why do you think Wal-Mart was successful in Mexico?

The closing case explores the international expansion of Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer. Wal-Mart began its international expansion in the early 1990s in an effort to continue its growth. The company began with a joint venture in Mexico with local retailer, Cifra. They also believed that they gradually could change the consumers’ behavior by educating them in the benefits of the U.S merchandising culture. That’s what happened in the...