Is Wal-Mart’s entry into the UK market a sign of global retailing?
It’s an interesting move, when Wal-Mart itself is solidly small-town American. For most people, the announcement that Wal-Mart was buying Asda was just another episode in the current merger wave, another confirmation that modern business crosses national boundaries. British retailers responded, however, as native Americans might have done if they had known what the arrival of Christopher Columbus held in store for them. They appreciate, as few outside the retail sector do, the scale of Wal-Mart’s operations and achievement. It is already true that more people work for Wal-Mart than for any other company. And if you list other large employers around the world, you see that – with the pathological exception of Indian Railways – this is the only organisation which will offer more jobs in future, not less. Wal-Mart is not just the biggest retailer in the world. Its sales are three times those of any other retailer. Long ago, it overtook Sears Roebuck, which had dominated the American scene
