Wal-Mart Globalization Global Corporate Strategy: Term Paper

However (on the plus side toward Wal-Mart's capacity for increased successful globalization) there remains Wal-Mart's sophisticated supply technology, the best in the retail world, a tool that makes it possible for the retailing giant to meet individual store and customer needs everywhere, almost instantaneously. Ernsberger (2002) points out that:

one reason the company is so productive is that it knows how to use technology... Wal-Mart was the first major retailer to use satellite communications to link stores to suppliers, so suppliers can track sales second by second, and deliver new stock as fast as old stock disappears from the shelves... [s]ays Dan Binder, a senior vice president of Morgan Stanley in New York "They do a lot of little things right."

In perusing the United States Wal-Mart.com website (Wal-Mart.com, August 7, 2005), one finds that enormous attention is paid to local needs and markets, for example, a link to a "store finder" in one's own residential area by zip code. Daily website advertisement changes are geared toward seasonally-anticipated needs, for instance, a preponderance of "Back-to-School" items advertised on the United States website on August 7, 2005, for a school year beginning in September.

Clicking the "Books" link on that same American Wal-Mart.com website produces a link to "Textbooks." The "Textbooks" link states that: "We have over 300,000 textbooks, all at Everyday Low Prices." That sort of detailed attention to ever-shifting customer needs goes a long way, it seems, toward explaining some of the key reasons that Wal-Mart's marketing strategies and practices have been so successful throughout the United States, and why such strategies and practices could arguably be just as successful abroad, especially in less friendly worker union areas like many parts of Asia, and/or in areas abroad with little or no similar retail competition (again, like many parts of Asia).One obvious drawback of Wal-Mart's globalization efforts, especially in areas where such efforts are extremely successful, may, however, be the insidious "cannibalization" of indigenous shopping cultures, such as the one in Shenzhen, China, as described by Ernsberger (2002). Relatively easy convenience of Wal-Mart shopping may make customers in such areas, who jump on the Wal-Mart bandwagon, joyfully oblivious, at least at first, to the inevitable loss, to American capitalist enterprises, of shopping and other atmospheres and indigenous products that make those areas of the world richly unique in and of themselves. By then, however, it will most likely be too late to change back to the old ways of doing retail buying; supplying, and shopping. Such, after all, is the Wal-Mart way - Internationally and "Always."

References

Books. (August 7, 2005) Wal-Mart.com. Retrieved August 7, 2005, from: http://www.walmart.com/books?path=0%3A3920.html.

Ernsberger, R., Jr. (May 20, 2002) Wal-Mart world. Newsweek international. 50.

E- library. Retrieved August 7, 2005, from: http://europa.ccsn.nevada.edu:2263 / libweb/elib/do/document?set=pbsissue&groupid=1&requestid=issue_docs & resulted

24&edition=&ts=C0E005574F3A1EB4DC9C77177F4EAD40_1123448077234 urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B53060287.html.

Homepage. (August 7, 2005) Wal-Mart.com. Retrieved August 7, 2005, at http://www.walmart.com.html.

Textbooks. (August 7, 2005) Wal-Mart.com. Retrieved August 7, 2005, at http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=58294&path=0%3A3920%

3A58294.com.

Wal-Mart. Wikipedia. (August 7, 2005). Retrieved August 7, 2005, from:

Retrieved August 7, 2005, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walmart.html.

Wal-Mart -- Timeline." Wal-Mart.com. Retrieved August 7, 2005, at http://www.walmartstores.com/wmstore/wmstores/Mainnews.jsp?BV_

SessionID=@@@@2118382765.1123454475@@@@&BV_EngineID= ccchaddfdldmdkfcfkfcfkjdgoodglh.0&pagetype=news&categoryOID=-8769&catID=-8248&subCatOID=-8303&template=DisplayAllContents.jsp.html......