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July 28, 2006
Wal-Mart? nein, danke.
neener-neener-neener! neener-neener-neener!
okay, well i guess that's pretty obvious how i feel about Wal-Mart absolutely tanking this week in my country-in-law, Germany. (if i acquired T.T.'s parents as in-laws when i married him, i got his country too.) i can't help but feel somewhat snarkily pleased that despite all its corporate might and yellow-bouncy-smiley-face power, Wally is admitting defeat and pulling out with over $1 billion in losses. as T.T. and I gleefully discussed this story, it became obvious (to at least his German self) that a German Wal-Mart -- especially as run by American managers -- never had a chance to begin with. the culture of Wally and the culture of the average Deutsch shopper just don't mesh. small examples: there are already plenty of discount stores in Germany, so the competition was fierce. Germans shop daily and buy in small amounts. (most don't even have cars big enough to cram a full American-style Wally shopping spree-worth of stuff into.) Germans don't want strangers touching their groceries, so baggers were seen as unwelcome. when checkers were told to smile at customers, it was seen as flirting -- perhaps a little basic observation would have clued American Wally execs into seeing that business transactions there are as brusque and short as possible. even the American employees' manual was a flop, as its encouragement to report colleagues' unethical behaviour, and discouragement of employee romances were seen as totally invasive. even if Wal-Mart is trying to be more progressive, recently inviting Al Gore and his film to an executive meeting where he got "a larger round of applause than we gave for Wayne Newton," in the words of CEO H. Lee Scott, there is still too much of a massive monocultural attitude of economic domination associated with the company. this is what makes them so loved and so hated, depending on who you talk to, and where.
but if i just take a break from my snark party, i have to admit that as much as i like to think of myself as informed and multicultural and oh-so-much-better than those big dumb Wally execs, well, who am i kidding? too often i thunder into situations with my expectations firmly located in my own little world. too often i find myself putting my HadashiCultural overlay upon situations, being angry at people because they should think this way; they should treat others that way. and far too often i get all surprised and huffy if someone disagrees with my sooooo obviously correct and well-thought-out opinion, and then instead of listening choicefully to them and having a true conversation, i spend my energy on thinking of how they should agree with me and what i'm going to say next. in many ways, this personal arrogance is no different from the corporate imperialism that Wal-Mart, amongst many other institutions, indulges in.
at least apologising for this behaviour doesn't cost me a billion dollars...
Posted by hadashi at July 28, 2006 7:42 PM
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