Wal-Mart China

If you live in Arkansas, you recognize this sign, but have you ever seen it in Chinese? Well, welcome to Wal-Mart in Shanghai where some customers shop multiple times a day. Jonathan Dong, a spokesman for Wal-Mart China, explains, “On average, I think the customer profile for a Super-center Wal-Mart customer would be a middle aged woman, a family of three or four middle income.” Shawn Gray, the Vice President of Wal-Mart China says, "Theyre here in the morning buying something for maybe Kanji, the rice porridge in the morning, things from our delis and buying the fruits and the vegetables and meats for lunch, and then maybe back in the evening, and thats just their traditional habit because thats the way everyone was raised.” One of the biggest differences is their produce section. Wal-Mart had to make a lot of changes to make the American super-store meet Chinese demands. Dong says, When we first started our store in Shan den, we made beautiful bread. And it looks gorgeous, but we were using an American recipe. And we were wondering why customers didn’t want to buy them. And we found out it’s because people don’t like the sweet recipe’s taste. So we made mistakes like that, but you know, it forced us to learn, and as I said, we came a long way.” Despite the big differences, many Chinese customers like Wal-Mart for the same reasons Americans do. One customer says, “Its convenient. It’s very close to my family.” Another explains, “Its very fair. Some of the prices are lower than the market, and overall the quality is very good.” Wal-Mart China employs over 38,000 people and is worth over 1.7 billion Chinese dollars.