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Walmart and the Chinese Market

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Submitted By drakesmommy7
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Wal-Mart and the Chinese Market
Kristen Dawdy
International Business
Instructor Kip Roddenberry
October 18, 2015

Wal-Mart and the Chinese Market Wal-Marts biggest reason for entering the Chinese market is because it was a way to receive products at a cheaper rate, allowing the price of the products to be lower. Wal-Mart is known for having low prices, and the Chinese market is what makes this possible. If they were to purchase their items from a country that charged them more, then the consumers who shop at Wal-Mart would be paying double of what they pay now. It all breaks down to supply and demand. “Wal-Mart has operated in China for 16 years. According to its web site, Wal-Mart “opened its first Supercenter and Sam’s Club in Shenzhen in 1996.” By March 2012, it ran Supercenters, Sam’s Clubs, and Neighborhood Markets in China. Its footprint then included “370 units in 140 cities in 21 provinces and four municipalities.” And Bloomberg reported that as of October 2011, Wal-Mart’s China sales totaled $7.5 billion” (Cohan, 2012). Sixteen years is a long relationship for Wal-Mart and the Chinese market, and it has been proven to be worth it for both of them. Everything Wal-Mart has done has proven to be an advantage for the company. They have over 4,000 stores worldwide, and over 3,000 of those are supercenters. The supercenters bring in the most money because it allows people to shop for multiple categories of items without having to go to another store. This is what makes shopping easy for customers like myself. I can get groceries, household items, and then purchase birthday presents without having to travel across town to a different store. “Wal-Mart had caught the China bug. In a speech to business schools in the early '90s, David Glass, who succeeded Sam Walton as CEO, advised students to learn Mandarin Chinese. In regional meetings, Glass told

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