How many wal marts are there in china

November 04, October 21, October 15, Upcoming Events. February 09, to February 11, September 07, to September 09, Asia Fruit Logistica Featured Produce Focus on Chile. Produce Marketplace Offers Requests. Barbara Corcoran: The housing boom is not a bubble. The Arkansas-based retailer announced Thursday that it plans to open new stores in China over the next five to seven years.

That would more than double Walmart's WMT footprint in China, which is expected to become the world's biggest grocery market by The expansion comes as China's huge economy is cooling. The country is grappling with slumping growth and a prolonged trade war with the United States. China's GDP growth dropped last quarter to its lowest level in nearly three decades, and Beijing has been rolling out stimulus measures to jump start the economy.

Chinese consumers, however, are still spending, and that's been good news for Walmart. China's shoppers are still going strong. The company's China sales grew 6. How to choose a student loan. How to pick financial aid. Best tax software. Best small business tax software. TurboTax review. TaxAct review. Credit Karma Tax vs TurboTax.

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Walmart was one of the first major international brands to enter China, having opened its first store in Despite the early start, the brand has struggled to dominate in China as it has in the US, stalling out with a little over stores. I visited a branch in Beijing recently. From the poorly designed store to the confused inventory of products, it was obvious why Walmart has struggled in the country.

I went to a Walmart in Beijing's Chaoyang district, a popular shopping area in the city. It's not far from the swanky Sanlitun area, as well as many foreign embassies. But the entrance to Walmart was a bit dingy.

Many of the pictures I've seen of Walmarts in China show products like pigs' heads and crocodiles. I was surprised to hear that Walmart has been criticized for not catering to the China market. But once I got inside, the retailer's mistakes at this location at least became apparent. The Walmart was located in the basement of a dingy shopping mall.

It was hardly inviting. There were lockers out front for shoppers to lock up valuables before they go in. When you walk in, there is an attendant shouting that day's promotions, a not unusual occurrence in Chinese stores. From the first few steps in the store, it feels like a low-quality retailer.

The ceilings are low, the aisles tight, and the lighting low-quality. It was strange to see a Walmart in China look in worse shape than a typical store in the US. Chinese consumers generally seek out foreign brands due to a perception of higher quality. There was a large selection of high-end foreign skin products. Those restaurants, from the locations I saw, were bright, clean, and modern. So much so that they seemed to be popular hangouts for families and students in the neighborhoods.

Walmart, on the other hand, was the opposite. Its prices were slightly higher than other supermarkets I've been to in China, but its environment didn't reflect that. It did, however, have this large snack section where you pay by the pound. Walmart has notoriously struggled to adapt its inventory from city to city in China, where consumer needs vary greatly.

In the case of this store, at least, it seemed to have made some improvement. Just near the door was a selection of pollution masks, a nod to Beijing's persistent smog. There were only three aisles of home goods, like these hot plates many Beijing apartments lack a stove. They call out their wares in Mandarin, proffering samples of soya-bean milk, date juice, and lychee jelly. Around them are mountainous piles of fresh pig intestines; pillow-size bags of dried fungus, seaweed, and mushrooms; packages of desiccated deer tendons still attached to hooves!

Will that effort take hold, or will it unravel in a recriminatory tangle of misguided expectations and broken promises. Beyond the sheer scale of the relationship, what struck me was how interactive Walmart and China have become.

Together, they are engaging in a bold experiment in consumer behavior modification, market economics, and environmental stewardship.

Just how this unlikely partnership will affect the evolution of these two larger-than-life entities is as yet uncertain. Since the s, many U. So one might plausibly wonder why Walmart, a company that is so indelibly American, might now have an experience that is any different.

Indeed, Walmart has deep roots in conservative, southern, small-town, fundamentalist-Christian, anti-union, middle-American values. Walton opened his first store in rural Rogers, Arkansas, in Then, in , the company opened its first international store, in Mexico. Since then, with only a few notable failures in Germany, Russia, and South Korea , it has continued to expand abroad.

And when the company arrived there in , the country was terra incognita for Walmart executives. Both are animated by a mythologized grand progenitor. Each is not only unelected, but also anointed with quasi-cultish Big Leader status to reign over a fundamentally authoritarian organization held together by an elaborate belief system or ideology bordering on the religious.

And each presides over an enormous and complex apparat staffed by a professionalized core of operativesnamely, Party leaders and cadres in China, and senior executives and mid-level managers at Walmart. And finally, each professes a proud populism, always proclaiming a responsibility to better service. Leaders are left to confront the same question: How, in such a tightly controlled and closely monitored organizational structure, can they encourage the kind of independent, creative spirit that is essential to surviving and maintaining a competitive advantage?

In that respect, if China wants to keep developing its hybrid form of authoritarian capitalism, its leaders could do worse than to learn from Walmart, a corporate entity larger in scope and logistical complexity than any other in human history: Its 9, stores in 28 countries, supplied by a network of more than , sources in 60 countries, are staffed by some 2.

In many ways, the company is like a country. Its CEO, when abroad, is treated almost like a visiting head of state. The various national arms of the Walmart Foundation operate almost like a government foreign-aid program. But, if China was going to be the laboratory of the future, it was difficult to imagine how even Walmart could wrangle such a far-flung and disparate range of suppliers into a responsive group.

We have worked hard to try to meet those expectations and to save money in the process. As Scott continued in the cavernous and, by now, completely still room, he conveyed utter conviction. A year from now, each and every one of you who chooses to make a commitment will be a more socially and environmentally responsible company.

And that will make a difference. It will make a difference for you, for Walmart, for China, for our customers, and yes, for the planet. To meet these customer expectations, we need to ask ourselves: Is a product made in a factory that is a responsible steward of the environment and our natural resources?

Meeting social and environmental standards is not optional. I firmly believe that a company that cheats on overtime and on the age of its labor, that dumps its scraps and its chemicals in our rivers, that does not pay its taxes or honor its contracts, will ultimately cheat on the quality of its products. If they still do not improve, they will be banned from making products for Walmart.

Ultimately, they would also be required to open themselves to third-party auditors. Scott gave his speech about making Walmart a socially and environmentally responsible company, Orville Schell wrote in The Atlantic, as growing numbers of Chinese were also becoming worried, even frightened and angry, about pollution, adulterated foods, and the corruption that kept local government agencies from taking remedial actions.

And because more and more Chinese were not only erupting into spontaneous protests as a way to get action, but also looking to NGOs rather than to the government for relief, and because even the press had become more activist, the government became concerned about the impact of environmental damage on the stability of the country.

The number of scares involving illegal chemical additives in food was creating particular alarm. In , milk products were found to contain melamine, a coal-based industrial chemical that, when ingested, can cause kidney stones and renal failure. Melamine had been regularly used to give milk powder and baby formula a seemingly higher protein content.

As a result, some , Chinese consumers were sickened and at least six infants died.