Brit Reacts to Why Walmart Failed Miserably in Germany

Is it true that Germans don't like to be smiled at? Let me know in the comments section below.

Thanks and subscribe for more German reactions every weekday!

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS

[miba]

"we don´t like fake" is perhaps the most common ground most europe has

[TierchenF]

Oh yes, performing wild dances and hymns for my employer in the morning would be grounds for me to quit. They can't pay me enough to humiliate myself in that way EVERY DAY. "Human dignity is inviolable."

[JohnDoe-xzmw]

imagine having the ignorance to ask employes to snitch on each other in a country that first thad the gestapo and then the not "not adapting to the customer" thats insane.

[JohnDoe-xzmw]

im not german but if a supermarket forces me to have interactions while im trying to remember my shoppinglist, ive been there for the last time :P

[UtaNeubecker]

I remember going to the Cologne walmart. They sold sheets and duvet in sizes we don't use here! They didn' t even research standard German sizes!

[Frohds]

Of course we are happy when people smile at us. But it's important to us that it's honest and not fake. For us, a smile is still something special. We say in Germany "wir verschenken ein Lächeln", we give a smile as a gift. Same with small talk. For example, the cashiers at Walmart had to ask - translated one to one from the American manuals - "Hatten Sie einen schönen Tag?" "Did you have a nice day?" We take such questions seriously in Germany; for us they are not empty phrases to which a banal answer is given. Therefor this question is too private for a huge supermarket where you will definitely not be recognized when you visit again. If the saleswoman at my bakery, where I have been going for 17 years and who only lives 3 streets away, would ask me this question, I would look dumbfounded and wonder what business my day is to her.

The other thing: We Germans don't like to be treated like children when shopping. We want efficiency. I don't remember my two visits to Walmart very well, I was only 10. But I do remember my grandma saying, "You think it's Minchen sitting at the checkout." Minchen was the then 90-year-old mother of the small village supermarket owner in my tiny village. That means the cashiers were terribly slow. And that was long before the speed champion cashiers from LIDL and ALDI.
And one more thing: Walmart thought it had to bring its pack sizes to Germany. Germans rarely buy 5kg of pasta or cola in a 3l bottle. We don't buy 500g of cold cuts at once, if we need that much the whole weel we buy 100g every day. A lot of the stuff at Walmart wasn't suitable for our kitchen cupboards. I liked eating Kellog's Smacks back then. My mother had to put the huge box from Walmart across the top of the kitchen cupboard.
In addition, the quality was not good. At Walmart the motto is "We sell a lot very cheaply but with lowest quality and praise ourselves with a lot of advertising, despite poorly paid unnecessary staff." At ALDI, on the other hand, the motto is "we sell cheaply in good quality, but save ourselves on expensive packaging design, advertising and unnecessary staff."

[Takketa]

Aldi is not traded on the stock market all shares belong to the family.

[isomon]

I was actually at a Walmart in the late 90s, early 2000s. It was a very strange experience. People wanted to talk to me and ask me questions about my purchases, like why I chose them and what I liked about them 😄 As the video said, they picked a fight with the wrong guys. They had strong competition from strong household brands like Lidl and Aldi and they tried forcing American work ethics into a culture that will not cheer as compensation for being underpaid and spied on.

[StellaTZH]

My mom actually worked at a store that was taken over by walmart at the time. It was much worse than the video makes it seem. The missteps by the American management were staggering. For example: They just sold products designed for the American market in Germany without adapting them. Like pillow cases that wouldn't fit the standard sizes in Germany. One time the management at my mom's store literally threw away money. We have a nationwide standardized deposit system for recycling bottles and cans. You can bring your empty bottles to any store and get your deposit back. The American managers wanted to clear up storage space and threw out all the empty bottles that had the deposit on them. My mom was with the union at the time and even held a position on the worker's council and it was really insane how combative it was. Just one case after another of walmart trying to break German employment laws and the employees seeking help from the work council.

[JohnHazelwood]

I've been to a german Walmart once - a long time ago! Outside of the store door a employee was yelling at me (wtf?!), inside of the store a guy was following and watching me all the time. And: I didn't got any of the brands and stuff I was used to buy! For example: They had like 50 (!) different types of gummibears, but no "Haribo" gummibears ... or I was looking for "normal" bread and they only had toast and sandwich bread, etc. :( *pfff

[SiqueScarface]

The word "German government" should be replaced with "German courts".
Walmart did not consider German competition law, German labor law, German privacy law, Germany's wholesale infrastructure. Walmart thought they would be the 800 pound gorilla, while in fact, they were just one medium sized retailer trying to take on the big guys, and thus, they missed to find a niche they could fill.
There is one thing, I debated with some Americans, but what they don't get, or would like to ignore. The American employment market is feudalistic in its structure. Why does the employer thinks the employee owes him a daily praise (or chant)? Why does the employer choose the employee's health insurance plan and pays for it? Why does the employer dictate who you can date? Why does the employer thinks, he owns you, and all the freedom you get, like vacation, sick days or just free time off is by his grace? In Germany, the employee is the business partner (German: Sozialpartnerschaft) of the employer. And the employee sells 8 hours of workforce each day to the employer, nothing more (but also nothing less). And it's the task of the employer to use that eight hours.
Smiling to customers is considered either flirting, which would be non-professional. Or it is seen as servitude, which does not fit the idea of the employee being a business partner, but a servant.

[Herzschreiber]

The 10 foot rule: I remember once being in a Walmart to find a new winter jacket. I just wanted to check the racks and see what they had to "Guten Tag, what can I do for you it was nerve wrecking. While I was checking the racks with the jackets I guess there were three or four sales women passing by and asking me that, and I remember I became increasingly irritable! In the end I was so annoyed that I yelled at the last one asking "The best you can do for me is just leaving me my peace!"
And I am sure that she understood because she was German too and forced to behave that way! Imagine some employer would force you to wreck your customer's nerves by "being overfriendly". Because that is what it felt to us ... the artificial American way of soft-soaping everybody around.

[dontshanonau]

Wait... "like Subway but pizza", somewhere where you can choose what goes on the pizza and then they make it for you? So... every pizzeria ever on the surface of this planet?

[asdfasdf]

I remember being at Walmart in Germany as a child sometimes. I actually found it really cool because it was the first HUGE store I’ve seen with products from Clothes to TVs to groceries… The only weird thing I remember is that there was a person greeting everyone cheerfully at the entrance. I don’t remember employees being overly friendly and offering help if you don’t want it, but this store was in the north of Germany were the people are more stubborn and I could imagine that they straight up didn’t follow the order to be overly friendly with customers

[gmxzorro]

There was also a Walmart near me, the bosses of the store threatened to fire the employees if they entered into a relationship, even privately.
The Germans and probably the British don't like it at all when people try to interfere in their private lives.
I was always suspicious of the store when a student with a big grin behind the cash register put my goods in plastic bags.
Walmart hasn't dealt with European culture at all, which I also find typically American.
I think the Brexit thing is a real shame because we have so much in common and most British people still feel like Europeans.
Please come back

[Dreatnought]

There was another reason why we didn't like the store. They actually brought their shopping carts with them, the wheels on the back of which were fixed and had no bearings at the back. That's why they drove extremely poorly around corners.

[ulf-nicklassdegenhardt-mei]

I have bee at Dr. Oetker, a big German brand, and they told us how much they do invest in adapting to different markets, using different brand and products and ingredients in products to adapt to different countries. People are equal, but not the same.

[entermesser]

The workplace is the biggest Marriage market in Germany.

[karstenbursak]

4:30
Mod Pizza …
Got a better example: guess what happened when American pizza chain DOMINOS entered the Italian market 😂

[stevenbodum]

we europeans ask for help in a shop if we need help. so we customers go to a employe and they will help us than. thats how it works, we are not friends with the employe, its just a business.