Wal-Mart Invasion Imminent?

BRUSSELS, Belgium (June 2) – Wal-Mart is changing its focus – the US mega-company is now targeting stores in every European country: its own outlets as well as major acquisitions. The first move might be trough the UK supermarket chain of ASDA, which Wall-Mart bought almost 5 years ago. Wal-mart has been accused of a slack policy in international expansion: hitherto limited to the ASDA deal and two minor acquisitions in Germany. Also the company has been under fire for the impact its superstores have on local communities and some internal labour conflicts that hit the press. The current announcement of European plans is part of a ‘charm offensive’, which is rolled out by Wal-Mart. Not all of the announcements are ‘charming’ though – the company already warned competitors that do not posses the same levels of efficiency as Wal-Mart that it is going to step that up even further by means of radio-frequency- tagging (originally introduced in WWII aeroplanes…) which will make it possible to lower prices even further…(MH) source: Financial Times