Why did Wal-Mart fail in Germany?

I think it has a lot to do with the different range of products it offered in Germany which was totally different from the range of products in US WalMarts. It has nothing to do with the people working there because the WalMart personnel in Germany was not imported but hired in Germany.

The German Wal-MArt stores were some kind of "dingy" and offered mostly products other German "rummage" stores offered. If you wanted for example buy a backpack at Walmart they did not have quality backpacks like Jansport, Eastpack, Crumpler and stuff like that but only no name products.

When I first stepped into a German Wal-Mart several years ago before they closed I expected what I knew from US Wal-Marts and I was very disappointed because it had no resemblance except the name "Walmart". So I went there only once and that was it and I guess, many other people thought like this as well.

Moreover there are German equivalents that resemble "Wal-Mart" but have much better quality than the German Wal-Mart stores had. So I do not think that it is a Culture problem at all because German Wal-Mart stores simply were not what US Wal-Mart stores are like.

So many great answers to this one! I'm U.S. born and raised (as are my parents and grandparents) but I've visited Germany several times. Some things about German culture I really love, and some things would leave me missing the U.S. if I were living in Germany. Overall, though, I think we have a lot in common. Having said that, it sounds like WalMart really missed an opportunity to do good business in Germany. It seems that they thought Germans would embrace the "American way" when they should have done MANY cultural studies and learned the norms from Germans and adjusted their business plan. I can't imagine Aldi in the U.S. putting up signs in German, so why would they think English signs saying "Price Rollback!" would work in Germany? Yes, most Germans have English language skills, but it still seems arrogant on WalMart's part. And although I love having my groceries bagged for me, anyone who has visited Germany even once would know that they are very environmentally responsible and WalMart should have done everything possible to encourage the use of reusable bags and minimize the waste of plastic bags. Like I said, I've been to Germany several times, last October was my latest, and NEVER experienced anti-Americanism towards me. I've had talks in bars and restaurants about our government, but they know that the American people are not the government, and that probably half of us also wonder how Bush was voted in twice. And I've pretty much only been to mid-size and large cities in Germany, but I never had a problem with getting service for food or drink. In fact, I can't remember a single instance other than having to ask for the bill at the end, but that is because they don't rush you. Again, I like that when I'm there, but at home I appreciate when they put the bill on the table without being asked because I'm usually ready to move on to whatever is next on my agenda. Just my two cents!

I am not wholly familiar with this business debacle, but I think the differences in the US and German cultures had less to do with the failure than Wal-Mart's lack of proper investigation and study of the German retail business community and unsuccessful marketing strategies.

I did come across this interesting research paper on the web which you can get in its entirety at:

http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/publikationen/pdf/w0...

It is titled "Why did Wal-Mart fail in Germany?" and was published in Denmark, but the paper is entirely in English and very readable. I am sure the authors have listed a reason or two for the failure! Best of Luck to you.

Update: Someone was concerned enough to send me an email to tell me that I was incorrect in stating that the paper was published in Denmark. It was actually published in Germany, at the University of Bremen. Fortunately, regardless of where the paper was published, it does not change the information contained in the paper, which was, hopefully, helpful for this asker. My bad. Is everyone happy now?

All you have to do is type something like "Walmart failure in Germany" into your favorite search engine. I did this with Google and came up with: "About 1,170,000 results (0.33 seconds)."

Then sift through the web sites until you find your answers.

I think it had something to do with the employees having a union and all the good health benefits that costs too much money for the company to keep their prices down.