r/ShitAmericansSay • u/mak05 • 1d ago

"Cannot see WALMART"

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379 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

176 comments sorted by

386

u/Cerbbot 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yes.
Walmart tried the entry in the European market.
And failed.

Their biggest mistake was probably starting in Germany.
Where you find the both most efficient - how we call them - discounters worldwide: Aldi and Lidl.

They were doomed to fail with their american strategy.

260

u/Blacklotus3993 1d ago

And now Aldi and Lidl are massively expanding and taking over the US

146

u/Efficient_Gate_5771 German who wants to know what humour is 1d ago

Which I find pretty amusing

77

u/Different_Diamond976 1d ago

Reverse take-over: Show how disgustingly ineffective you operate, so they barge into your own market and slowly take over your business 

15

u/TheCynicEpicurean 1d ago

The equivalent of flicking a peanut at the big burly guy and his friends at the bar.

17

u/Different_Diamond976 1d ago

Nah, more like flicking it at a group of lanky guys at the bar. Then they stands up and you realize they are 2 meter tall martial artists.  They feed you peanuts for the rest of night. You cry while eating more peanuts.

68

u/Historical_Cook_1664 1d ago

German humor is no laughink matter.

5

u/Commodus_Wankus 1d ago

I laugh in the basement when appropriate.

8

u/Efficient_Gate_5771 German who wants to know what humour is 1d ago

Happy cake day!

6

u/Necrolust1777 Danish, not the pastry 🥮 1d ago

"Wee wiil let shu know wenn ze laff"

11

u/Battle-Any 1d ago

I'd really like it if they started taking over Canada.

3

u/Objective_Party9405 ooo custom flair!! 1d ago

I would definitely shop there.

8

u/crucible 1d ago

Aldi is now well established in the UK’s “Big Four”, having relegated Private Equity buyout victim Morrisons to fifth place about 2 years ago…

9

u/Acceptable-Ad8780 FREEDOM ENJOYER 🦅🇺🇸 1d ago

And I'm all for it.

6

u/Immediate_Word1295 Europoor who don't need AC 🇧🇻🇨🇵 1d ago

But failed in Norway. Also, Aldi didn't try, but Lidl did. Tough both exist in Danemark, and Lidl also exist in Sweden too.

2

u/bob_nugget_the_3rd 1d ago

The great German invasion of the US

119

u/Mightynumbat 1d ago

Walmart tried entry in the Australian market.

And was told NO.

Didn't Walmart struggle due to the fact many European countries (Germany in particular) have strict labour law?

Oh, it went further than that:

Walmart tried to ban relationships between co workers. They in fact actually TRIED to do so, their guidebook / company manual actually had a "no dating rule". Massive invasion of privacy.

Had an "anonymous hotline" to report co workers.

Tried to sell goods below cost and was slapped hard by antitrust laws.

Tried to fight against unions.

Tried to force early morning group "exercises".

128

u/fang_xianfu 1d ago

It's really funny when American companies try to operate in countries with actual rules and then shocked Pikachu face when the government stops them.

I worked for a big US company in France that tried to do layoffs. They did them US-style, announced the same day they were carried out in their US offices, and then realised that this wasn't allowed in France. They did such a shit job handling the French layoffs that it took 2+ years of negotiation before eventually the layoffs were completely cancelled and everyone kept their jobs.

66

u/Tiny-Sandwich 1d ago

It's really funny when American companies try to operate in countries with actual rules

Had this recently with Expedia, an American company.

One of my flights got changed and made our holiday unworkable, so I cancelled the flights and hotel. They refused to refund me for the unchanged flight, because it wasn't booked as a "package".

When I submitted a chargeback, they argued that with my bank, despite me submitting my ATOL certificate that very clearly stated multiple times it was a package.

Absolutely fuck American companies trying to force their own consumer unfriendly practices here.

30

u/JiminieKookie123 1d ago

Reminds me of when almost all of the 19K employees from Tesla Germany got sick at once and Musk decided to not pay them. Oh that backfired cause most people sued him for not getting payed

12

u/Ivanow 1d ago

Reminds me of when almost all of the 19K employees from Tesla Germany got sick at once

Still not as funny as when Tesla refused to sign/negotiate collective wage bargaining agreement with IF Metall in Sweden, which resulted in dockworkers in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway blocking unloading of cargo transport (they had to deliver cars using passenger ferries and overland trucks), postal workers refused to deliver mail and license plates, licensed electricians refused to service supercharger stations, garbage collectors stopped picking up trash from Tesla locations...

18

u/BringBackAoE 1d ago

I once read a really interesting article on how “the imperialistic mindset” of current or previous empires results in a chosen ignorance and arrogance when doing business abroad. Which in turn results in failure.

Even when they try to be sensitive, they do it without speaking with local people first, and just get it really wrong.

One example: when Algeria was again opening up for foreign investment into their oil and gas business, they laid out a timeline. So many international firms started getting ready.

One US major oil co sent their staff to Egypt for 6 months to learn Arabic. Thing is: in Algeria the working language is French! First meeting the two parties couldn’t even discuss business!

7

u/will2089 1d ago

Mate of mine works for a US Company, he’s always trying to get me on board because the pay is better. It is.

I’ve worked for Americans before though, that extra 1k a month isn’t worth the American managers, shitty pension, bare minimum holidays & sick pay and the fact they treat you like absolute dogcrap.

19

u/Mightynumbat 1d ago

I ran a quick AI search and found this delightful coda to Walmarts foray into Germany

A 1 billion dollar loss.

11

u/Odd_Reindeer303 1d ago

1 billion from selling assets after they failed.

All in all it was an estimated 3 billion.

10

u/agnesperditanitt 1d ago

They did make the mistake to give the plastic bags away for free. Dumb move in a time, when everywhere else you had to pay for them 25 Pfennig.

My mother still has some of them, btw.

4

u/neilm1000 Human Verified 1d ago

Why was that a mistake?

2

u/bhesel 1d ago

I'm guessing since Walmart were giving them away for free they went through a crapload and it cost them a lot.

3

u/fang_xianfu 1d ago

I don't know how it works in Germany but in my country but the company has to pay a tax on every bag they sell or give away, so it's not just the cost of the bag but the tax that bites them.

2

u/neilm1000 Human Verified 1d ago

They're not that expensive in bulk. I think it's likely some sort of tax as someone else has mentioned.

23

u/Zealousideal-Deer724 1d ago

There was actually a post here on reddit about that a while ago. Even a comment from a former employee who told about the meeting with the US representers to teach the german employees their rules. I remember there was a guy in this story who told them their rules were illegal.

37

u/mig_mit 1d ago

They also insisted on that rule that when a customer gets close enough to a sales associate, the latter has to say “can I help you?”

Some Germans mistook it for sexual harassment.

5

u/Terran_it_up 19h ago

They also tried to force cashiers to stand

5

u/Mightynumbat 1d ago

Gives a whole new meaning to the words "tone deaf".

18

u/OriginalUseristaken 1d ago

Oh yeah. My company build their fullfillment centers on the east coast for their online marketplace. All workers had to meet in the morning to excercise together. They tried to get us to join them. When we (european workers) said no, it was made mandatory by locking our cabinets with their locks and a paper on them that said we could continue to work after we had joined the excercise.

We took the paper and went to our site manager who called some big shot from our company, who called some big shot from Walmart. The next day, our cabinets were open and we didn't have to join in those excercises.

12

u/Arcyguana 1d ago

I didn't know about this stupid exercise shit. It's next level dystopian crap, making workers do all that just to exercise control.

6

u/SaltyName8341 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 1d ago

It has weird Hitler youth vibes

6

u/Arcyguana 1d ago

Manipulative cult tactics for sure. Filthy company.

3

u/OriginalUseristaken 1d ago

We were instructed by our company to not engage with Walmart personel as they might want to convert us to some christian cult.

One day there were papers taped to our cabinets with bible verses on them.

But only at the Bethlehem, PA location.

10

u/DefinitionOfAsleep The 13 Colonies were a Mistake 1d ago edited 1d ago

Walmart tried entry in the Australian market.

They never really did more than scout out a few locations and do a market analysis

And was told NO.

They weren't told anything. Their conclusion was it was next to impossible to enter against Woolworths and Coles, and that Woolworths (when you consider BigW as well) was already doing something too similar to be different.

Kaufland over a decade later reached the same conclusion, except they spent about $500 million dollars acquiring leases and land options (not to mention initial staff) before realising the same thing.

12

u/Mightynumbat 1d ago

. Their conclusion was it was next to impossible to enter against Woolworths and Coles, and that Woolworths (when you consider BigW as well) was already doing something too similar to be different.

Bit more to it than that.

They also never started because their slave wage mentality wouldnt be tolerated here. Walmart didnt like leave loading, casual loading, our high standards with minimum wage lawe.

Walmart LITERALLY loicked people into stores and forced them to work extra hours unpaid. Thats..false imprisonment, violation odf a least dozen OHAS and fire laws and, of course, criminal wage theft.

Forcing staffers to work on lunch or telling them not to eat lunch AT ALL.

To date, Walmart has paid 1.5 billion in penalties, one of those being a singe settlement of $640 million.

Staff were threatened with dismissal if they didnt report in early, unpaid. More wage theft.

Their current wage floor is $14.00 USD which is $19.56 AUD per hour. Way below Aust min wage.

Look up Betty Dukes. That case went all the way to the Supreme Court.

1

u/DefinitionOfAsleep The 13 Colonies were a Mistake 1d ago

Bit more to it than that.

There isn't. You said they were told 'no', they weren't.
Everything else you wrote was unrelated.

I brought up Kaufland because they did commit, and came to the conclusion that Walmart made almost 14 years prior - except they spent a tonne of money doing it.

Aldi sort of works because their model leans into smaller stores, where it is easy to just get space at Westfields/LendLease/Vicinity etc. run shopping centres.

Both of their models (Kaufland and Walmart) in Australia would require anchor tenant sort of space (akin to what BigW uses) or prime off-freeway/motorway land (that Costco uses) - and there's simply not many of those options that aren't already earmarked for those companies or someone else.

4

u/According_Bridge_746 1d ago

I knew someone who worked for kaulfland in it. He got a good severance package

2

u/DefinitionOfAsleep The 13 Colonies were a Mistake 1d ago

I assume the severance package for the one hundred or so staff they had amounted to a rounding error next to the lease terminations and the options that they were cancelling.

2

u/Rugkrabber 🇳🇱The stocks are ours, babe🇳🇱 1d ago

I love how Australia often follows the same route as we see in Europe. Lots of people love to claim it’s just Europe but it’s really not.

31

u/Patecatli 1d ago

They tried to enter the UK market by buying a supermarket chain, Asda, completely failed to understand UK consumers, the UK market, and ended up selling Asda for a loss to exit UK 20 years later. Asda is still trying to recover to this day, being squeezed by Aldi and Lidl.

8

u/crucible 1d ago

Tbf I don’t think they tried to ‘Americanise’ it, particularly, they just never did anything competitive with Tesco or Sainsbury’s to increase market share.

Asda does have a bit of a classist reputation with some people, too.

7

u/Patecatli 1d ago

Oh they did, they tried to "undercut" the competition with their "everyday low prices" that they thought would help them overtake Sainsbury and Tesco, unfortunately for them, at that time, people associated those lower prices with lower quality, whereas Tesco, Sainsbury, had "deals" to lower prices.

What didn't help is the fact that the stores regularly appeared run down, poorly stocked, which is still an issue today.

I say this as someone who regularly shops at Asda.

12

u/herefromthere 1d ago

Prison lighting. It's grimmer in ASDA than other supermarkets somehow, despite them all being windowless caverns.

2

u/No-Quarter-6327 1d ago

I rarely shop in Asda. I went in once to check out their beer aisle and was impressed by some of the prices ... until I realised they were selling smaller can sizes than I expected. I think I checked a few other items and found similar and haven't been back since.

0

u/Scrimge122 1d ago

My mum doesn't shop at Asda because she believes your more likely to get stabbed going there than other supermarkets.

5

u/Crookfur 1d ago

No ASDA was a case of them pretty much getting it right.

Basically ASDA of the mid to late 90s was already doing all the Walmart stuff after a fact finding tour as they tried to recover from the "Be Sainsburys and M&S but cheaper" thing of the 1980s (the only bit of which that worked was George).

During the take over there was a lot of talk about the mad yank stuff but they were wise enough to listen when ASDA house told them to stick it and they left most of the ASDA management in place. As an employee the only direct changes we saw were what company we got shares in and the Epos and stock management system got modernised (with wireless scanner guns and printers!).

For years the massive buying power of the global Walmart group did keep ASDA ahead price wise but consolidation elsewhere in the sector meant everybody else caught up eventually and when the "right" buyer came along they unloaded most of what was on the knife edge of becoming a liability. Of course a leveraged buyout never really ends well and ASDA has suffered terribly from the usual private equity vampire tactics.

3

u/audigex 1d ago

ASDA was fine when owned by Walmart. It wasn’t setting the world alight but it was doing okay

The problem is that the owners of EuroGarages bought it for the forecourts and are doing private-equity-esque debt loading and asset stripping. They’ve made no real attempt to actually run it as a supermarket

1

u/Patecatli 1d ago

Not entirely, they saw some growth early on, but their market share then declined between 2006 and 2015, with Walmart looking to exit the UK in 2018 but the porposed merger with Sainsbury's was blocked by the CMA.

2

u/audigex 1d ago

That's a hell of a stretch, their market share "declined" from 2006 to 2015, sure... from 16.6% to 16.5%

1

u/Patecatli 1d ago

You've got your figures wrong, at least according to what I read. Their market share fell from 17.5% in 2006 to 15.3% in 2015.

2

u/This_Charmless_Man 1d ago

I remember dad talking about this. He used to go to the US a lot for work and said that he noticed Walmart's becoming anglicised to be more like Asda. He said Walmart used to be filthy but after the Asda takeover they must have got some of the UK team to show Walmart execs how to professionalise their stores.

5

u/JiminieKookie123 1d ago

Also the work ethics they put onto the staff like doing a kind of workout each morning like in the army where you got told to jump and say that Walmart is cool and a good employer etc. And standing at the cash register instead of getting a chair plus greating customer with a fake smile that the customer found creepy etc. 

6

u/frpeters 1d ago

While I agree with you, I cannot find Aldi on the map. Is that just me needing to look for my reading glasses, or is it not on there?

24

u/Joran212 clog-wearing colonizer 1d ago

Because the map is about online retailers. I don't know about other countries, but Aldi definitely isn't a big online retailer in The Netherlands; they're just a popular physical supermarket, not an online one :)

10

u/Catatemyspacebar 1d ago

As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure Aldi doesn't do online retail services at all in the Netherlands, not even through third parties like Thuisbezorgd.

4

u/Joran212 clog-wearing colonizer 1d ago

exactly, that's what I meant but I could've phrased it better 😅

1

u/Catatemyspacebar 1d ago

All good. It's still early in the morning lmao.

2

u/frpeters 1d ago

Ah, thanks. So it was lack of my reading glasses after all.

2

u/SuperCulture9114 free Healthcare for all 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 1d ago

No Aldi online shop in Germany either. I think it's the only discounter without one.

4

u/Odd_Reindeer303 1d ago

Since a year.

They had one for many, many years.

aldi-onlineshop.de

6

u/SendMeCuteOwlPics 1d ago

Aldi is not an online retailer. That's why it's not on the map.

5

u/Edelgul 1d ago

Neither of Aldi (there are two - Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd) actually sell online.
Both have websites with products, but you can simply see, what they have, but you can't order online.
https://www.aldi-nord.de
https://www.aldi-sued.de/

3

u/LeftMechanic1995 1d ago

Same with Aldi and Lidl in the UK. Ironically, I just came back from Aldi... such a good store. So good in fact that my small-ish town has two of them.

2

u/No-Quarter-6327 1d ago

Ditto, except we have 2 Lidls and 1 Aldi. :)

1

u/LeftMechanic1995 1d ago

Lol, my town is the reverse. We have 2 Aldi and 1 Lidl.

3

u/No-Quarter-6327 1d ago

You can never have too much of a good thing - like 2 Screwfixes. ;)

1

u/LeftMechanic1995 1d ago

Yeah we only have one of those. Not enough tradesmen I suppose.

2

u/No-Quarter-6327 1d ago

I think you have to be a certain size of town to make it worth their while ... or be the home town of the company. ;)

1

u/Edelgul 1d ago

I prefer REWE, to be honest. They are a cooperative chain and have a better selection than ALDI and LIDL.
But prices at ALDI and LIDL are unbeatable, and quality is often on the level.

2

u/Odd_Reindeer303 1d ago

They did until a year ago.

www.aldi-onlineshop.de

But it was always for non food articles.

2

u/iTmkoeln Cologne native, Hamburg exicled - Europoor 🇪🇺 1d ago

Online Retailers Aldi Both Nord and Süd are brick and mortar retailers. They do

Lidl and Kaufland (Schwarz Gruppe) have a online presence but mostly not for produce but for basically anything else. Kaufland is a Marketplace site which 90% is third party listing. Where Lidl often has tech deals from their weekly listings online as well

Lidl (Schwarz Gruppe) is by far the largest retailer in Germany followed by REWE (Rewe Group), Edeka (Edeka Gruppe), Aldi Nord, MediamarktSaturn, Aldi Süd, Kaufland (Schwarz Gruppe),dm Drogeriemarkt, Roßmann Drogeriemarkt and Penny (Rewe Group’s Discounter)

1

u/OldGuto 1d ago

Aldi is actually two retailers Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud.

4

u/Poopyman80 1d ago

All they achievd was alerting European price fighting retailers that its extremely easy to compete with wallmart and other US retailers.
Aldi, lidl, and ahold now own most grocery chain brands in the us. Even the small ones limited to a few states like Foodlion

6

u/BevvyTime 1d ago

Asda (UK) seemed to be quite successful. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until 1999 when it was acquired by Walmart for £6.7 billion.

Asda was the second-largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom between 2003 and 2014 by market share.

Sold in 2021 & they still own a piece of it.

1

u/crucible 1d ago

Where did you find that data? I once got something from Statista before it asked me to sign up for more, and Asda looked to bounce between 2nd and 3rd place - but mostly staying in 3rd - under Wal-Mart’s tenure…

1

u/BevvyTime 1d ago

Probably depends on which data you use and when it was released/which part of the year it’s from/to etc.

US-owned & listed businesses release results at different times of the year to UK ones

3

u/Osati94 Bri'ish 1d ago

They owned Asda in the UK, and were successful because they had a hands-off approach and didn’t change anything.

2

u/Willing-Quote-1682 1d ago

They had a lot of problems with our labour laws and their employees, who were also not in the mood to sing the walmart song every morning

1

u/Distantstallion 25% Belgian 50% Welsh & English 25% Irish & Scottish 100% Brit 1d ago

There are costcos which seem to do alright

1

u/Generic_Drummer 1d ago

Lidl is absolutely goated imo

1

u/GlassCommercial7105 1d ago

It was also the fact that they forced their employees to be super creepy and tried to circumvent laws. 

1

u/BartyJnr 1d ago

I believe they owned Asda for a little while too

1

u/Shockwave2309 1d ago

Additionally, they tried to bring murican employment standards to Europe.

Daily motivational dances and singsangs, employees MUST talk to shoppers, employees MUST NOT take breaks on their own terms, employees MUST NOT join unions, employees being paid less than minimum wage, employees MUST NOT sit at the cash register, ...

They tried. Germany told them what to do. Walmart cried and ran off back to murica lol and Aldi and Lidl are taking over murica right now and it's just glorious lol

-2

u/lankymjc 1d ago

They bought ASDA, so they are in Europe just under a different name.

14

u/sihasihasi 1d ago

...then sold it again, because they fucked it up so badly.

3

u/lankymjc 1d ago

It’s only just occurred to me that it’s been 15 years since I’ve lived near an ASDA and maybe my ASDA knowledge is out of date.

1

u/bluedarky 1d ago

From my experience it's the other way around, it was working fine until Walmart sold it.

3

u/Powerful_Pirate2984 1d ago

Walmart still holds a 10% interest in ASDA, TDR Capital owns 67.5%, and Mohsin Issa owns 22.5%. The split from Walmart's legacy computer systems cost ASDA millions. Walmart's retail philosophy just doesn't work in Europe, even in the UK.

114

u/Neddlings55 1d ago

Didn't Walmart struggle due to the fact many European countries (Germany in particular) have strict labour law?

137

u/Tjobbert 1d ago

Yes. And tried weird greeters at the entrance which creeped everybody the fuck out

79

u/Hugh_Mann84 1d ago edited 1d ago

The greeters and morning exercises sound genuinely dystopian, I have no idea how anyone can look at that and think "yeah that's alright".

32

u/Redbeard_Rum 1d ago

"Welcome to Walmart, I love you"

2

u/BubblyMoose3597 1d ago

"We do this on oir own will. Pur family is not kidnaped."

9

u/karateema ooo custom flair!! 1d ago

It's so funny imagining a German customer reacting to an American employee

50

u/Mttsen 1d ago

Strict labour law and a whole different work culture that Americans couldn't understand, trying to use the same rulebook towards German employees that worked on Americans.

36

u/Blacklotus3993 1d ago

That's only one part of it. They mainly failed because they thought they were superior in their american behavior. Turns out customers didn't like the american way and the slowness

18

u/IdenticalThings 1d ago

Walmart found a way to subsidize labor with tax dollars by paying people rock bottom wages - leading them apply for food stamps/SNAP.

I doubt rational countries would be cool with that.

7

u/Albert_Herring 1d ago

The UK has plenty of people in work who need to claim benefits to survive. Which begs the question as to whether the UK is a rational country, obviously.

8

u/Only_Tip9560 1d ago

The UK stopped being a rational country in the 80's.

1

u/BubblyMoose3597 1d ago

Thats funny and sad

8

u/Offshape 1d ago

Yes, Walmart is cheap because they exploit workers, that doesn't work in Europe.

13

u/RarePreser 1d ago

To some part yes, but Walmart also wasnt able to compete with prices in Germany, because supermarkets like LIDL or Aldi at that time had a very small selection of mostly every day goods with very slime margins. So Walmart basically was outcompetet.

6

u/herefromthere 1d ago

*slim, and *outcompeted (slime is thick, slippery semi-liquid, mucous etc) But I am sure your English is much better than my imprecise German. :)

3

u/Hoybom ooo custom flair!! 1d ago

and the cartel department had some things to say about their practices

in the end they ended up with a solid billion in the negative or so

3

u/CaptainPoset ooo custom flair!! 1d ago

This was just one of their many problems.

Walmart isn't a very competitive company and their key competitive advantage is that they have established themselves as the local monopoly with their anti-competitive practices which they tried in Germany, too.

They failed miserably with it, as European supermarkets is and especially was a far healthier marjet, in which all supermarkets are far more cost-efficient and are fighting a constant price war. For this reason, Walmart was illegally selling at a loss and they were still more expensive than all their competitors.

-8

u/Bwunt Human Verified 1d ago

That was one of the problems yes, but a minor one. 

46

u/Laiska_saunatonttu 1d ago edited 1d ago

I too am LMFAO. I'm L'ng MFAO at Walmart who can't comprehend the European mind, healthy work culture or basic human rights and failed in countries where paying workers is mandatory and every morning employee humiliation rituals are frowned upon.

Edit. Have a cringe treat

14

u/Mightynumbat 1d ago

...the hell did I just see?

19

u/Laiska_saunatonttu 1d ago

Hell.

There are two kind of people, those who wonder why USA has so many workplace shootings and those who wondet why so few.

3

u/Timely_Pattern3209 1d ago

Aka, Americans and Everyone Else. 

14

u/unwilling_viewer 1d ago

They tried this at a place I worked, company chants morning meetings where they extolled the virtues of working hard, not complaining and licking American boots.

They got laughed at, insulted, ignored and in one case an over enthusiastic MBA (they sent probably 250 of them to "regenerate the company", most of them couldn't even walk, talk and chew gum at the same time) was ejected from a breakroom through the door, history did not record if the door was open or closed at the time. But no further action was taken.

One of the high ranking US directors fired someone in a meeting, she was back within a week. With a signed NDA and a massive compensation package. He was escorted off site within 24 hours after things were explained to his boss. Using very simple words and (I suspect) pictures.

12

u/Yunlihn Vive le saucisson 🇨🇵 1d ago

Holy shit, I'll need a few gallons of bourbon to forget this. And that won't be enough.

I work at BK in France and I'm so glad my restaurant doesn't do the weird whopper chant or whatever the fuck I heard BK does.

1

u/han-bao-huang 1d ago

I watched the show Cloud 9 and it included a bit like this and, as a retail worker from Europe, I thought it was just another part of the show that was a joke... omg

21

u/Ethelred_Unread 1d ago

TIL that Walmart own only 10% of ASDA in the UK, after plateauing sales - shame they didn't get their ass kicked like they did in Germany

8

u/crucible 1d ago

They owned Asda outright for maybe 22 years and barely got out of 3rd place in a very competitive market.

2

u/HighlandsBen 1d ago

barely got out of 3rd place

So, second most successful in a (checks notes) very competitive market... doesn't sound too bad

3

u/BevvyTime 1d ago

Bought by Walmart in 1999, Asda was the second-largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom between 2003 and 2014 by market share…

2

u/Pizzagoessplat 1d ago

To be fair to them they handled ASDA very well, which is why its such a mystery as to why they took on such a terrible approach in Germany

1

u/This_Charmless_Man 1d ago

The funny flip side is Tesco absolutely botching their launch into the US because they didn't do their due diligence like they usually did.

3

u/Pizzagoessplat 1d ago

Apparently they went in with the mentality of the Express Stores.

I saw a clip on YouTube about it and they had some very weird policies.

The clip kept saying "unlike the Brits, Americans....." then they'd then give a strange example that we never do in the UK. It was just terrible marketing on Tesco.

But they also never went in expecting to take out the competition and push British ways onto them, unlike Walmart in Germany

2

u/bluedarky 1d ago

They handled Asda well because they basically left it to operate itself to avoid running face first into employee protection laws.

22

u/JJOne101 1d ago

It says "european origin". So you won't see Walmart since they aren't in Europe, but you also won't see Amazon/AliExpress/Temu which sell a lot online in Europe, more than most companies on this list.

15

u/RazendeR 1d ago

Can someone please bring internet to those poor neglected Irish already!

5

u/noble_plebian 1d ago

Can’t forget the Italians!

3

u/corgi_crazy 1d ago

Internet? What is that? I've heard about something called a "wheel" and I'm looking for it.

3

u/RazendeR 1d ago

Have you checked the houses of the local englishmen?

8

u/de_Duv formerly NRW, now BW 1d ago

Walmart operated in Germany for nine years, during which time numerous managers were worn down, a total loss of one billion US dollars was incurred, and German and European labour rights were repeatedly breached.

However, Walmart is not the only US company to have failed in the European market. Staples, Domino’s, GAP, Home Depot and Best Buy were also more or less unable to adapt to European conditions.

PS: I’m surprised that Aldi (Nord and Süd) and Edeka aren’t listed.

13

u/DefinitionOfAsleep The 13 Colonies were a Mistake 1d ago

Depends which Domino's you're talking about.
There's 3 seperate companies operating in Europe (Australian Domino's, UK Domino's and US Domino's).
They all have the same branding, but they're not the same company.

Guess which company had the 'bright' idea to expand into Italy It was the US one, obviously it was the US one

4

u/VisKopen 1d ago

It just shows the countries top online retailers in Europe originate from.

So even if Walmart was the largest it would still not show up on the map.

4

u/Generic_Drummer 1d ago

ASOS, JD sports and sports direct, sigh, my country has no swag

5

u/fothergillfuckup 1d ago

Didn't they own Asda for a few years?

4

u/crucible 1d ago

Yes, something like 22 years. Asda mainly stayed in third place in the groceries market during their ownership, behind both Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

4

u/Hugh_Mann84 1d ago

You know what, I'm more concerned about the second comment.

Also, obligatory the American mind can't comprehend Lidl.

2

u/Hoybom ooo custom flair!! 1d ago

oh they can comprehend lol

the just know it as trader Joe iirc or Lidl

7

u/DefinitionOfAsleep The 13 Colonies were a Mistake 1d ago

Trader Joe's is Aldi Nord

3

u/TalkersCZ Human Verified 1d ago

I dont see Alza in USA either among 100 biggest online retailers.

Weird.

3

u/DerBusundBahnBi 1d ago

Look at what happened when they tried to enter the German market

2

u/Mysterious_Floor_868 1d ago

They own like 10% of ASDA. So that's something, I suppose...

2

u/Subject_Meal_2683 1d ago

Why are BOL and Jumbo placed in Belgium on this map while both are Dutch?

1

u/Quicker_Fixer From the Dutch socialistic monarchy of Europoora 🇳🇱 1d ago

Lack of logo space.

2

u/Only_Tip9560 1d ago

Walmart completely fucked up Asda and then sold it at a loss and now it is just a shit supermarket.

2

u/Tigweg 1d ago

Walmart did actually buy a British supermarket chain, Asda in 1999. At that time, Asda was No. 3 or 4, by turnover of UK supermarkets. Walmart's plan was to become No. 1 in UK supermarkets, which was a lofty goal, given that the top two, Tescos and Sainsburys had been in those positions for decades. The operation made money for the parent, so was not a total failure, but strategic objectives were not reached, and majority ownership was sold in 2020.

2

u/aqvalar 1d ago

I mean ice seen that crap American companies trying time and again in different parts of Europe.

And them they are surprised WHEN people and the unions fight back. Not sure if anyone ever has successfully fought against that, unless Tesla in Sweden actually succeeded (or succeeds? Is the Unions v Tesla still a thing?).

Though they've ruined their name pretty much with that shittery...

1

u/Nurofae ooo custom flair!! 1d ago

Tesla bought out every union member, it's on ice until a new union member starts to work at tesla

1

u/XxoOPatrickXxoO 1d ago

I am actually supprised to not see tesco on the statistic or whatever the 2nd image is. (Or I'm blind enough to not see it)

3

u/Sullkattmat 1d ago

Dead center in the middle of Britain mate

1

u/UnsureAndUnqualified 1d ago

Even if Walmart had been able to establish themselves: The map shows European-ORIGIN companies. Walmart is of US origin.

1

u/Munsbit Austria 🇦🇹 🦘 1d ago

Okay wait, hold up, Hornbach?

Damn, I didn't know so many people ordered there.

1

u/Pizzagoessplat 1d ago

The famous expansion didn't reach this guy then 😆

1

u/Malkryst 1d ago edited 1d ago

Walmart owned Asda for years (including when I lived in the UK in the early 2000s), but actually decreased their market share in the UK over time as Lidl and Aldi just grew and grew from being much cheaper. Tesco continued being global number one (to Walmart in 2nd), maybe because in the UK it usually had the cheapest budget range groceries of the big 4 UK supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Morrisons), so Lidl & Aldi didn't undercut them as much - albeit Tesco Budget was terrible quality imho. Walmart then sold off Asda and just backed off from the UK, and I'm guessing from Europe too.

Morrisons and Iceland seem to be doing ok, though - they've bought up all the independent (not big franchise) supermarkets where I live, where the Co-Op(erative) are rapidly losing market share too.

Admittedly all supermarkets are so expensive here due to import costs (even with no vat), I just shop at M&S and Waitrose for groceries - if prices are similar across the board, I might as well go for the better quality food.

1

u/Emet-Selch_my_love Dirty Socialist 1d ago

Is the first (or second, I guess?) commenter having a stroke, or am I?

I know that’s not what the post is about but… 😵‍💫

1

u/Green_moist_Sponge 1d ago

Wow really? CO-OP not included in the top 100? Or any Italian retailers? Odd

1

u/Remote_Replacement85 1d ago

TIL that Vinted is Lithuanian.

1

u/Ill_Raccoon6185 1d ago

Walmart is one company that has failed outside US and is no wonder as they are like trump - they lie about everything from prices to country of origin of products, They are not cheap but 'fiddle' price & weights to make out you are getting value, but you aren't. In many countries we have government weights & measures organisations that do random checks to make sure customers are not cheated and fines can be in the millions of dollars for breeches & outright deceptions.

1

u/Jlx_27 1d ago

Walmart only uses Luxembourg to dodge US taxes.

1

u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 19h ago

That map only shows European-origin companies, not all companies operating in Europe. Of course Walmart isn't on it.

Edit: why is Italy empty?

0

u/FlowWestern212 14h ago

Isn't Metro like Walmart ? Fun fact we do have it on Ukraine

1

u/MadMusicNerd Germ-one, Germ-two, GER-MANY! 🇩🇪 1h ago

I know Metro from Germany. Here it's a big retailer. You need a special card saying you have your own Business to even shop there. And then you can buy 1000 cans of Ketchup or something like that.

Not for normal people or normal amounts of shopping.

How is it elsewhere?

0

u/ireallydontcareforit 48m ago

Asda in the UK is owned by Walmart.

-6

u/CaptainPoset ooo custom flair!! 1d ago

I see this map and I call bullshit!

There is neither Aldi nor Edeka in the map, but niche retailers like Bon Prix and About You.

9

u/DerPicasso 1d ago

I don't think Aldi or Edeka are large online sellers.

2

u/CaptainPoset ooo custom flair!! 1d ago

Well, I overlooked the word "online"

2

u/ViolettaHunter 1d ago

Aldi doesn't have an online shop. And Bonprix and About You aren't niche.