Why Walmart Failed Miserably in Germany (Canadian Reaction)

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Here is my reaction and commentary to Why Walmart Failed Miserably in Germany

[winterlinde]

Bull in a china shop? 😃
We say: Elefant im Porzellanladen.
Same shop, different animal.

[teotik]

Needing illegal/shady practices to make a profit is not the greatest business idea.

[Cologne.]

As a German, i think the two most important points are the "Walmart cheer" and the spying on coworkers. Stuff like that just doesn't fly in a country that had two dictatorships in the past century where people were oppressed by the state into spying on their neighbors/family members and friends and where people, for example at school, had to salute as a group to a painting of Hitler or to the flag, later in the GDR. That gives strange vibes even if you never lived in one of those dictatorships.

Also i feel like brand loyalty is much more common heren than in North America.

[RustyDust]

When you ignore local laws, then try to send in US lawyers to sway the local juries only to discover we don't have juries, just more lawyers who actually KNOW the local laws (such as predatory pricing = selling under your own wholesale buying cost is illegal), then you are bound to fail.
Throw in additional violations on worker's protection laws as well as ignoring the company council / Betriebsrat Formation, or the allowance for unionization, and you throw good money after bad.

[HenryLoenwind]

Oh, that kind of communal cheering isn't inherently un-German...we just stopped doing it in '45...

[HDreamer]

Wal-Marts failure was quite spectacular and also shows they lacked the desire to make it work, probably because the North American market alone is already big enough and the system works in other countries.

When IKEA went to Japan in the 70s, they failed as well due to not understanding the differences in culture. They took their lessons and tried again and now are pretty succesful. of course there was a 20 year gap between the two attempts, so maybe Wal-Mart returns to Germany as well in 2026, but I kinda doubt it. 😆

[Hurteltax]

A small inaccuracy in the article: It was not the German government that hindered Walmart's strategy but the courts forced Walmart to change course (labor courts and civil chambers for competition law)

[BiaZarr]

Oh yea the fake smiling thing. I guess that Germans can easily come off as grumpy, but the thing is that fake friendlyness is really disliked in Germany. Real friendlyness still works, but if you put on a fake smile in Germany people will notice and will be put off by it. Also Germans tend to be rather private people who don't usually talk to strangers (like, there's an infamous silence in the waiting areas of doctor's offices here), so overbearing customer service just seems weird.

Thus said, the rules kinda change once you become a regular in a supermarket. When the workers there start to recognize you, you'll start to be able to have some smalltalk and such, if they have the time. (actually they might have the time, but you won't, German cashiers are ridiculously fast, you will be really busy packing things away)

[mdk-wcsw]

@Until I Go funny Thing is: German companies like Aldi we're pretty mich successfull in the American Market...slight adaptions, Low prices - americans Love it!

[helloweener]

It was not the German gouverment.
It was the Bundeskartellamt, the national competition regulatory agency.
Although it is part of the ministry for economics, it is also am independent federal agency.
And it was not the Bundeskartellamt but the courts.

[bennyshawny]

Aldi is a German family business and Lidel is also a German company. Before the two companies expanded to the USA, both companies spent years researching the American and Canadian markets. Walmart did not do this in Germany. Aldi and Lidel hired American managers in America. Walmart did not have any German managers. Americans only work in America, not in Germany.

[TheKilaby]

2:20 its even more funnier if you know that Aldi and Lidl as an example, are all about beeing cheap and affordable, but they manage it while keeping quality products and they do it better then Walmart, so eve if they try again the will probably lose again.

[Syndur]

Yeah, the entire Walmat-failure seems to be very little business-failure, and more like not wanting to adapt to their new environment.

It might have been a challenge to break into the existing "discount"-market and become a significant new player, but other than an initial "we'll just outprice them until they die" attempt, everything else seems more like US executives doing US things they learned at US business schools and their US careers without realizing that Germany isn't in the US at all.

[fixzeichner]

I like that there are similar expressions in Canada as there are in Germany. You say "Like a bull in a china shop", but we say "Like an elephant in a china shop" (Wie ein Elefant im Porzellanladen).

[Vojtaniz]

11:40 In other words - "We are focusing on the markets where we can get away with all our bullshit."

[lanzknecht]

I visited a Walmart here in Germany in the Christmas time and of course they were playing appropriate music. When I had to hear the world famous "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht" in English, I turned around and left, never to return.

[pfalzgraf]

Talking of world wide chains (which I generally don't like), McDonald's is the best example for a company that adapts to each country's culture, having different dishes and even different kinds of furniture in different countries. Just look at the difference between their places in Germany vs. France! Now, I hardly ever eat at a McD. and when I do, then only because I really have no other option. But imho they do it right in terms of adapting to local culture.

[PeterSchmidt-lp]

“Like a bull in a china shop”, interesting! - There is a similar saying in Germany: “Like a elephant in a porcelain shop!”😂😂😂

[mats]

I remember going to a Wal-Mart in germany with my mom as a kid shortly after they opened
Everything was weird and unusual.
Greeters at the door, way to large packaging..
And in general just stuff nobody needed or wanted...
We never went back.
In retrospect and after ive been to the US and Canada myself it was obvious that they did ZERO market reseach and just plopped a north american store into a german city..
They just imported stuff from the US and told germans to buy that.. of course we never did..
They tried to sell US pillow cases to germans.. German pillows have a different size. US cases wont fit german pillows!
Again.. no reasearch..

It was bound to fail

[mickypescatore]

Hi, Mace! Wow, you act like a german when you say, if you wanna get some help, you ask. And you don`t want to be bothered if it's not necessary. You want to go into the store, do your thing and wanna go out. 😆
Btw, I already heard the same thing from two americans, too!!!
Minute 8:20 - 9:00: 🤣👍 For me it`s not a scene from a horror movie but from the Kindergarten! (A bit childish!!!) 🧐🙄🥳