TL;DR – Walmart decided to start off European expansion with shit that is illegal in Europe, shit that makes European consumers frown and shit that makes workers run away – and choose to rather drop $2b of investment than adapt to different market, because it would invalidate the practices in US.
I have been browsing the net and I have stumbled upon a story depicting expansion and evacuation of Walmart from Europe when then aimed to open a new market in Germany and I thought it would be a good story to share with y'all as there are some obvious conclusions that can be derived.
So the year is 1997 and Walmart decides to open new market and use their amassed wealth (being 2nd largest private employer and that jazz) to grasp it. They were sure that their business strategy is foolproof and decided to not change anything and just go guns blazing.
“You betrayed the the laaaaaaw”
Judge Dredd
Coming in guns blazin' meant they will use their wealth to eradicate majority of competition through bearing the losses or operating on no-profit margin to quickly gobble a sizable part of the market and establish themselves – only to start recouping your losses after you have taken in big enough slice of pie. Problem is – that is illegal AF, so they had a small issue of getting reamed by german courts.
Similarly, they had an inherent fear/disgust towards unions so they prepared “trainings” for employers on how unions are actually bad for them and how they should not be a part of union. Problem is – that is also illegal AF, so they had another small issue of getting reamed by german courts again.
“You sit on a throne of lies”
Buddy The Elf, Elf
On the forefront of customers they also had a really hard time. Door greeters creeped out customers, because why the fuck there is some guy that is gonna greet them at the door of a supermarket? Cashiers had a policy to smile to customers which lead to complaints from people on topic “why employees are flirting with us?”. But that was just small peanuts. Real shit started when someone released the tapes depicting starting shifts – light exercise accompanied with chants “Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart” as a form of team building. This did not sit well because it was already a thing for other group that also liked to promote teambuilding in similar ways. It was called NSDAP.
“- The Department of Labor wishes to note that the workers of Freedonia are demanding shorter hours.- Very well, we'll give them shorter hours. We'll start by cutting their lunch hour to 20 minutes”
Secretary of Labor and Rufus T. Firefly, Duck Soup
And people were not happy about treatment of workers. They did not like to shop at a place where cashiers are forced to stand instead of getting a chair. They did not like to go to store where some poor sod has to stand in front of store and pointlessly greet customers. They did not like that someone is forced to pack their bags.
“Am I out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong.”Principal Skinner, Simpsons
So, did Walmart realize that they miscalculated some things and tried to adapt? Nope. They tried to brute force for nearly 9 years changing little to nothing, pumped $2b into the market and finally decided that they are going to drop Germany as a market. Why? Because if they adapted and were able to gain a foothold in Germany with unions, worker laws and all that Jazz it would show unpleasant truth. That companies don't need this shit in US to have a profitable business.
“You know what capitalism is? Getting fucked!”
Tony Montana, Scarface
This ending shows a problem. US work culture is rotten and this state is perpetuated by companies that prefer losing an absurd amount of money rather than admitting that they can change and still make a profit. They prefer to lose billions of dollars if it's needed to maintain the charade that “US market is different”. And somehow if those same billions are to be taxed, they are screaming how this money would put them out of business.
Dear Americans, please know better. Worker laws, unions, corporate taxes, raising minimum wage, national healthcare – this is something that already works in every developed nation besides US. Hell, it works in developing nations even. You are getting fucked. And you deserve at least lube and ability to consent.