Cross Cultural Perspectives
The Walmart Corporation is a major American retailer. Walmart is the largest and most successful general merchandise retailer from the US. However, when Walmart attempted to branch out into new countries they failed time and time again. Is this report I am going to cover a few of the reasons they failed in several countries. Identifying the actual issues at fault. Then describe the issues in detail and how they affect Walmart as a result of being a global company.
Walmart Cultural Issues One major issue Walmart ran into is bulk sales. In America people travel longer distances with their own cars and buy enough food to last them a month or more in one trip. It is typical for foreign countries to buy food daily. Foreign cultures are more accustomed to buying fresh food from butchers or local markets. Additionally Walmart is notorious for selling items in bulk. This again is an American cultural habit. In most foreign cultures people take public transportation or walk to the stores. This they do not have the ability to buy multiple bottles of shampoo at once, and prefer to buy it one bottle at a time. On a different note, Walmart failed again on the design of their stores. I will use South Korea as example here, mainly because I lived there for four years and have experienced all of these. In South Korea everything is about presentation. Their largest vendors, E-Mart, Home-Mart, etc. are all finished with an artistic design. They do not leave the ceiling exposed and looking industrial, as is typical in most large American Supermarkets. This was carried in to the Walmart stores in South Korea. Hence, people found Walmart less pleasant to shop in. Another issue with the store design is their actual store fixtures. Walmart uses the same fixtures in all their stores. Same height of shelving, same design, same colors etc. When they branched into foreign countries, they took those systems with them. This caused their Asian stores to have shelving too high for customers to reach product without the use of ladders and stools. This, as one would expect, caused dissatisfaction in their customers and loss of customers. Not only does Walmart have cultural issues in their store stock type and building design, but also in their employee relationships. Walmart took their American business practices and tried to force them onto the locals they employed at their foreign stores.
New Cultural Ethics In America it is standard customs for store associates to smile at all customers. So much so that, American companies will fire people for not smiling at customers. However, in Germany, shoppers were misunderstanding the gesture and thought the associates were all flirting with them. This lead Walmart to removing the policy that employee need to smile at customers in Germany. Also in Walmart practices daily motivational meetings ending in a “Walmart, Walmart, Walmart,” chant at the end of it. This practice was found as unusual and strange by German people. In an attempt to increase employee moral Walmart removed that practice from the German stores. Further-more their daily motivational meetings, where reduced worldwide, first to once a week, then to once a month, and now they are optional. Ethical issues are not always as clear as those above. For example, in some foreign stores customers are upset because Walmart employees handle their produce when placing it on the store shelving. While there is nothing illegal and by American standards nothing unethical, by the foreign customs it is unethical. People in these foreign countries see it as a health risk. They believe that the additional handling is not required. In response to this Walmart reviewed their policies. They adjusted their stores in the affected areas, and now sell their produce in the manufacturer crates spread out on low shelves or the floor.
Solutions
I have covered many issues with the expansion of Walmart stores into foreign markets. I also covered the resolutions that Walmart came up with for the issues I presented. The largest problem Walmart has had is they don’t differentiate between American cultural practices and the cultural practices of the countries they are expanding into. Nearly all the issues that Walmart has ran into during their expansion, were completely avoidable if the research had been done ahead of time. The best solution for future expansions is to do complete research. Hire an executive from the local area you are planning to move into. Have that executive take your store design teams on tour of local stores that will be similar to yours. And lastly have the new executive tour the typical American Walmart, and review the current policies for applicability to the market in question. The above actions would prevent you from having customers believe that the employees are flirting with them. Also it would prevent your customers from feeling that Walmart doesn’t care about them, because Walmart is using materials in their stores that make it difficult to shop.
Conclusion
In this assignment we discussed many problems effecting Walmart and their multinational presence. I brought to light many issues they face, some being cultural misconceptions, misunderstandings, and just plain negligence. Many of those issues are marketing issues however, several are ethical issues. Even though the issues in question are not unethical or even unusual in American based companies. I covered the ways these perspectives are damaging to Walmart, and the actions Walmart has taken to correct them. To wrap the paper up I discussed the methods that should have been used, and should be used in the future to provide relief for this issues. I presented the solution that I believe would be most acceptable for any and all stakeholders. Walmart is one of the world’s most powerful and influential stores around, however, when they ignored the cultural differences and tried to force their current practices on foreign cultures, they failed. This serves to show the importance of recognizing the differences in how business is conducted in different countries. However, even if you recognize the differences you may not be able to make the changes you need to. Cultural practices are often done subconsciously.

References kwintessential. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/walmart- germany-cultural-problems.html Landler, M. (2006). The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/02/business/worldbusiness/02walmart.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2& Lutz, A. (2013). Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/countries- that-wal-mart-hasnt-dominated-2013-10 Boyle, M. (2009). Bloombergbusinessweek. Retrieved from
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/oct2009/ca20091013_227022.htm