MeyerBros

Walmart has been infiltrating other countries. I suppose I knew this, although it wasn’t really on my radar. What I find interesting now is that its “Formula Doesn’t Fit Every Culture”

Apparently in Germany it has lost lots of money, because of the company’s lack of cultural sensitivity. The article states:

“In Germany, Wal-Mart stopped requiring sales clerks to smile at customers — a practice that some male shoppers interpreted as flirting — and scrapped the morning Wal-Mart chant by staff members.”

One employee explained, “People found these things strange; Germans just don’t behave that way.”

And Americans do???? We enjoy morning chants and fake smiling at all customers????

Fascinating.

We also, apparently, are willing to move to another state when one store closes and we are asked to transfer to another store - unlike the Germans who were “infuriated” and quit. And unlike in Germany, Walmart doesn’t actually need to work with labor unions in the U.S.

They say they are learning more about how to work with other cultures. In reading this, I am learning (or at least wondering) more about ours.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006 at 5:53 pm by michelle and is filed under corporate criminals, culture watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.