American Reacts to 'Why Walmart Failed in Germany'

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[klamin_original]

"It has become increasingly clear that in Germany's business environment it would be difficult for us to obtain the scale and results we desire"
Let me translate that for you:
"It has become increasingly clear that if we obey German laws we can't exploit our employees anymore and that would make it extremely difficult for us to get the most out of our underpaid staff."

[Avatar]

"Hello and welcome to WalMart. How may I help you?"

Average middle European: "Shutting the f*** up would be a start"

[Hadewijch_]

About 20 years ago I visited a Walmart in Germany.  We don't have them here in the Netherlands.

When I went to the registry the girl sitting there was smiling to me in a way that felt quite unnaturally to me. I asked her why she was smiling to me in that way. She answered that she was required to smile at everybody by the company. I literally felt the cold chills run down my spine when she said that.  

I never went back to Walmart since.

[MTTT]

One of the biggest reasons why Walmart failed in Germany was that it could not flex its main strategy, driving out competition by selling goods below their buy-price. So for a while they'd make a loss, but that way they'd drive away other local markets. Yet this exact practice has been illegal in Germany since the late 19th century, a law that was implemented under the iron chancellor Bismarck. So that law and sales culture goes allready a long way in Germany.

[TheChiog]

An acquaintance of mine actually worked at Walmart Germany back then, right when it opened. He told me the first pitch meeting basically went like: Boss said something, and immediately someone was like "yeah, no, that's not how the German worker rights work"

[petervenkman]

The reason she said "The Locals are always right" is because it isn't just about the customers, it is about how the business dealt with the staff. In much of Europe the relationship between business and unions is often less adversarial. It is in the union's interest that a business do well, as that keeps employees in good work, it is also in the interest of business to have a happy work force as this helps with retention and maintaining standards so while of course there are arguments and occasional strikes, there is more an emphasis on trying to achieve a positive outcome for everyone involved, for some reason this is a concept Walmart (and most US corporations) just can't get its head around.

Now I am from the UK, and we certainly have had a history of poor labour relations, but then again we have taken what I would describe as an "American light" approach to things, that said I have dealt with employers that have been very union positive and generally worked in collaborative ways. On the flip side I have dealt with employers that do take the American approach. Guess which ones have better retention?

[zanizone]

So, group chanting and coordinated mandatory group activities, mindless slogan repetition, imposing strict rules in the personal life of their employees, pushing them to vigilate, police behavior and snitch on their co-workers, for some misterious reason didn't go down too well in Germany.
I wonder what traumatic experience, in their past, this kind of things might have reminded them of...

[StellaTZH]

My mom worked for one of the German Walmart stores here in Germany and then went on to work for Metro after they left. She told me countless stories of American Walmart execs who just wouldn’t listen to their local counterparts and kept losing money and standing with their customer base. The biggest gaffe was probably how they handled Pfand. We’ve got a system that puts a deposit on many containers for drinks and certain food items. Like bottles, cans, glass containers and so on. The deposit is an incentive for the customers to bring the containers back to the store so they can be recycled. By law stores have to take all kinds of containers with Pfand back. The American execs didn’t understand that system and had the employees throw out all the containers — losing all the deposit. That added up to a ton of money. Also, many employees were union members and anytime the execs tried to bring in a new company rule that seemed unreasonable, it would get reported to the union immediately. It always ended with the rule being struck down and employees getting more pissed off at the company. One rule was that employees were told to greet customers by name if they paid by debit card where the name was visible on the card. That freaked out so many customers since Germans in general value privacy. There were a lot of Customer complains before the execs eventually abolished the rule. Yes, the market was pretty hostile but what really did them in in the end was a lack of cultural awareness and not listening to their own employees and the unions.

[promcheg]

If they do not comply with rules, they could be fired. German courts: Dream on, firing without reason, you pay an additional month's salary for every year of employment. Besides, you can't fire people without notice (1, 2 or even 3 months notice depending on multiple factors)

[derravensberger]

In Germany smilling without an obvious reason is seen as a kind of defraud in mind. So a grocery shop with allways smilling employees makes the costumer feeling uncomfortable.

[ShozzleMeNoz]

They've pulled out of the UK now. Good riddance. I prefer their German competitors.

[geofftottenperthcoys]

Sounds just like Starbucks here in Australia, they wanted to pay the same as US workers, got told "not fucking likely mate".

[ChrisBetton]

I imagine it comes from this weird lie Americans are fed that America is "number one" and it's almost like a commercial neo-colonialism that says "they might not do it this way, but this is how it's done and they'll learn." I absolutely adore it when it blows up in their faces.

[mahe]

In Germany, we also don't have that general mentality, that the customer is always right.
i mean, there are customers, who think that way, but it isn't generally so.
it makes a discounter experience so much less toxic, when people don't come in with that mindset.
and employees are much more willing to help, because they don't have to deal with so much bullshit, that comes from that mindset.

[danilopapais]

I recently talked about it with my mother. She said because of their weird rules people thought Walmart were part of Scientology.

[Jonathanizer]

Because you were wondering about that: The footage looks outdated, because it's like 20 years old. Walmart isn't around anymore in Germany i think, so hard to come by any recent footage.

[XXLShortyXXL]

The most ironic thing for me, as hard as Walmart failed in Germany, German discount markets are now on the rise in the US. xD

[Mysterios]

A main issue with Warlmart was that they thought they could employ all US tactics in Germany, without getting input or help from Germans and people that knew the German market. It was especially the arrogance of the CEO who went against all warnings, imposing the US concepts on Germany, neglecting the different, especially legal, worker's and customer's rights that cause the downfall of Walmart over here.

[jonathanwetherell]

Having worked for an American Co. in the UK I say "Never Again!". They imposed an American culture which just did not fit in. This was highest in the management and managers were basically treated as "We pay you - you are ours". Managers (and to an extent hourly paid staff) were expected to fit their private life in around the requirements of work. This has been a growing trend in the UK and completely alien to most European culture. Live to work = USA. Work to live = Europe.

[DappsJames]

It states at the start that Walmart operated in Germany from 1997 to 2006, so the tech at the time is commensurate with the products on the shelves, regardless of when it was uploaded to YT.