Wal-Mart's Shopping for China

Wal-Mart Corp. (Bentonville, Ark.) has won approval to open its first supermarkets in Beijing. While the world's largest retailer already has 15 stores in China, it had been unable to gain a foothold in the lucrative but highly competitive Beijing market. Now it has gained the Chinese government's go-ahead to build five Beijing supermarkets. The first store will be in a southwestern suburb and should be opened either late next year or early 2003.

Wal-Mart has opened four stores in China this year, giving it six in the thriving southern town of Shenzhen, two in the southwestern city of Kunming, two in Fuzhou in the southeast, two in the northeastern city of Dalian, and one each in Shenyang, Shantou and Dongguan.

Wal-Mart's successful China policy is in direct contrast to its worldwide rival, Paris-based Carrefour, whose expansion plans for China have run foul of the Chinese government. Its plans to open 10 supermarkets nationwide in China this year have been put on indefinite hold, partly because of its failure to secure approval from China's State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC) for any of the 27 stores it has already opened in China. Three of those are in Beijing.

Wal-Mart has also announced plans to open two new supercenters in Germany, one near Hanover and one near Leipzig. Kay Hafner, head of the group in Germany, said the new stores would incorporate the latest marketing concepts and displays of goods, plus Wal-Mart's extensive experience in self-service stores.