It failed the moment they expected a cheery attitude from german employees and predatory pricing is illegal in the EU

Aldi is German and not Australian ..."Aldi" is the abbreviation for "Albrecht Diskont"..There are actually 2 seperate Aldi companies = Aldi-North + Aldi-South with 2 different looking Logos because the Albrecht brothers who inherited the company from their parents splitted the company entirely in the early 1960ties because they had a huge unsolvable dispute in behalf of the business model...So one brother got the shops in the German South and the other brother got the shops in the German North. During the time both started then to operate internationally. Also here they splitted the regions in the EU foremost into North + South as well meaning only one of those 2 either Aldi North or Aldi South is operating in an European country outside of Germany but not both of of them..while Aldi North is present foremost in Northern continental Europe (but they are also in France+Spain+Portugal) Aldi South is foremost present in Southern continental Europe but Aldi South is also on the British Isles (UK+Ireland) + Australia + China. But both are also operating in the US of A. ..Aldi South as "Aldi" and Aldi North as "Trader Joe´s" Pleasure to enlighten you.

Yes, I think they did not quite understand the cultural differences here in Germany... We usually do not like pushy sales people constantly smiling at customers offering help all the time. I can only speak for myself, but when I go shopping, I don't like to have someone coming up to me, offering help... I also do not like to do smalltalk at the checkout. If I need help, I can still ask someone. So, I consider the American way of overly friendly behaviour as rude. It's just a cultural difference, not a judgement!

Walmart equally failed in the UK. They bought Asda in 1999, UK's 2nd largest retailer, Netto and other chains/stores for a cost of well over £7.5bn and eventually gave up when Asda slipped to 3rd position and sold the company for £6.8bn in 2021. I think Walmart is one of those companies that just doesn't understand how to operate outside the US.

what wal-mart and other american companies that have failed here do not consider is that there are serious labor protection laws in germany that must be complied with. Laws for the protection of employees that do not exist in the USA. Working hours of 24/7 around the clock and then with poorly paid employees is doomed to failure from the outset.

Refering to 4:00: It is not allowed in Germany to sell basic groceries below purchase price. You have to make a (small profit). That protects smaller stores from predetory pricing so a cash monster like WAL MART cannot buy its competitors out of business. You have to be really competitive to offer low prices or you have to rise them.

Just to clarify, the German regulator did not make them to increase their prices simply because they were "too low". Walmart sold its products below costs, i.e. making a deliberate loss which they would be able to bear because of the size of the company. Once their competition would have been out of the way, they would have increased the prices above market average.

Aldi is a German store. The biggest problem that walmart had was with the laws for workers and did not want to pay the minimum wage that is put forth by the government and the unions.

They bombed in the UK too. Walmart couldn't legally exploit their employees like they could in the US.

One major reason for Walmarts failure doesn't get mentioned in this video: Germany (like Europe general) has walkable cities. Walmart purchased mostly huge stores at the edge of a city, with big parking lots. In America It seems to be more common that people go grocery shopping only ones every week or every two weeks, drive with their car to Walmart and make a huge grocery haul. This is rare in Germany. Germans are quite used to go buying grocerys multiple times a week on their way home, by foot or public transport at smaller stores in the inner city for things they are in need of. Add to that the difference in worker protection laws and work culture, plus the competition, no wonder WalMart failed

Wallmart set prices below cost for certain products. That was seen as predatory. I went to a Wallmart outside of Frankfurt when it opened. Within 2 minutes, I remember thinking that it would fail. Wallmart greeters were obviously faking friendliness. They never understood the concept of worker's council, which had the right to be involved in decisions. Lastly, I remember Wallmart's PR that was nothing short of arrogant. They were talking like all competitors would die after Wallmart opened.

The Aldi employees get paid well, but they also have to work hard for their money. I know that and do not expect smiley happy faces all the time. What impresses me at our local Aldi is, that on several occasions I saw the store manager wiping the floor after some customer spilled e.g. milk. All the other employees were busy, so he did it himself. That‘s what impresses most Germans, not the commanded smiles. I know it‘s not the same at all stores. It highly depends on the management.

In Germany you can't just build ONE huge supermarket outside of town when there already are five or six smaller supermarkets located on the way there. Yeah, they may not have the huge range of different brands for one and the same product type as Walmart. But those other chains are often much cheaper at the same or even better quality. That's one failure. But the most important failure was that they couldn't strongarm the competition out of the market. In addition breaking multiple employee protection rights enshrined by law didn't endear them with their employees. When Walmart tried to either drown the local courts in lawyers, or tried to draw out the court cases, thereby bleeding the competition dry, they failed miserably. Because the law in Germany is a civil law system, not a case law system like in the USA. The judges basically slapped them with charges, and a world collapsed for the Walmart lawyers. What, no corruption or grift? No bribery or threats to influence the non-existent juries? No threats of retreating and cutting off the market for their customers worked here because there was a lot of stiff competition used to this market? Darn it... 😂😂😂 When they found out that ANY local branch of any company with at least six employees is mandated to be allowed to have a body called the employees' council/Betriebsrat, their minds burst into flames. This council is made up of employees to mitigate conflicts between employer and employees. These council members are employees who can't be fired just for representing other employees. Their council membership protects them from employer whimsical decisions. They have to commit pretty egregious violations of their job contract to be able to be fired. That's "socialism"... 😂😂😂 The final blow came when they were informed that any publicly traded company in Germany of a size much smaller than Walmart requires a union representative on the board of directors with voting rights. Oh, the horror of Horrors of employee representation. 😂😂😂 That's just a small, non- comprehensive summary what they did wrong.

There was a Walmart in my hometown back then... I went there once... the greeters and the fake friendliness were so weird, I never went back to that store.

You can summarize it: Americans like it the superficial way, us Germans like it the natural way. That's it.

'Difficult to obtain the results we desire' Seems the only way for Walmart to be successful is to use hostile practices. What a luck they didn't reintroduce child labour. In Europe we mostly want a quick check out and not spend our leisure time in the supermarket. But we do take our time when dining out.

This beeing required to report on rule breaking of co-workers is particularly problematic in Germany. In the 90s the memory of Stasi (East German secret police) and their surveillance methods was still fresh. The terror regime of the Gestapo was also never forgotten, of course. This history is ultimately responsible for Germans strong sense of privacy.

Walmart can serve as the example of what not do in Europe. Lesson #1: Europe is not the USA. The reason why chains like McDonald's are successful (meaning they're still here) is because they have adapted to the laws and customs in each European country (within Europe, countries also differ). They pay decent (=legal) wages and the menu's are adapted to the tastes of the specific country.

Incidentally, Trader Joe's is owned by Aldi (German company). In Germany there are 4 large supermarket groups: Edeka, REWE, Aldi and Lidl, but there are also far more small or independent supermarkets than in the UK, for example. There are also several farmers' markets in every city. Then there are specific markets for beverages & spirits, electronics, drugstores or hardware stores. Walmart had no chance to keep up anyway.

One thing must be mentioned too. As Walmart made more and more loses, they tried to punish the German producers to sell them the goods at lower prices. But they just stopped selling to Walmart (cause there are enough other German resellers), so more and more products get out of stock at Walmart.

I don’t need a stranger to be my new best friend and I can pack my own bags. Thank you.

@ 3:30 I think it is a bit misleading what Cheddar says there. She basically claimed that small stores are allowed to offer lower prices compared to big stores. That is not, what the law says. It is just nor allowed to sell at a loss in order to ruin your competition. And AFAIK that law already exists since Bismarcks times in the late 19th century. I never was at a Walmart here in Germany. Their stores were at remote locations, a long car drive away and I have and had always grocery stores within walking distance, much easier to reach. Also I don't like those super large stores, where it takes an hour just to walk trough. At Netto, Aldi, Lidl I am in and out in 10 or 15 minutes. Maybe 5 minutes longer at Kaufland (if those stores aren't too crowded) and I can find the stuff I want quite fast. Nevertheless I had the idea to go to Walmart at least once just to see what they have too offer, but my motivation was apparently not great enough before they left again. 🤷‍♂

Aldi and Lidl are German supermarket chains.

Hi from Belgium. When you want to invest abroad, the very first, should-be-obvious point is to study the local market, understand the local culture and see how you can fit in both. In Europe generally, the important question of workers' rights put aside, Walmart obviously missed that the overwhelming customer service culture of the U.S. might be seen as intrusive, and just too fake, by most European customers, not just in Germany. We also appreciate kindness and customer service, but don't overplay them.

German here. I remember going to a Walmart in my city in the late 80s. It looked like a mix of a hardware store and a blown up 1 dollar store. I cannot pinpoint an exact reason, but it felt uncomfortable. I just walked through it without buying anything, left and never came back.

They used to own the second largest supermarket chain in the UK (ASDA), but recently sold it

I do recall that! I sometimes walked out of a Walmart, having not bought one single item: they didn't have, was I was looking for. When I heard about this: "singing the Walmart song", I was like: "what ?? I would never want to work there. That's insane!" So strange, to a german. Another huge fact: Walmart became huge, when opening a supermarket in the US in every small town. There: they where the most accesible option. You don't wanna drive 30 miles more for to buy 30eggs, when you can have 'em around the corner. But: Germany was a completely "saturated" market. Like today, I could choose from ALDI, Lidl, EDEKA, Penny, REWE and 2 (different) NETTO and famila chains within a reach of a 15 min. drive. I don't *need* a Walmart, do get what I want. Plus: we have the "Asia Markt", here in Pinneberg. A hole in the wall store, that will even order things for you, they don't already have. Now, THAT is: adopting to a market! Even our local asian restaurants buy from them!

Aldi and Lidl are the mostly know German chains in other countries, but there more. Very popular is Edeka which is quite a unique system. Although they are a chain on the outside, too, all their supermarkets are owned by individuals or small companies. It also means that the products on offer can vary from one Edeka to the other.

I was in Walmart a few times back then because it was near my school but it was more our of curiousity. I didn't know the concept of a greeter and I remember finding him creepy. I thought he was there to see if people were shoplifting or something.😅

I was maybe 3-4 times in a Walmart in Bremen, but in the end it was way to far away from my home and also it was waaay to big and so much harder to find what you wanted to buy than in a smaller store.

It‘s so funny to hear that Trader Joe‘s employees almost seem to be flirty or even speed-dating, even for an American, since Trader Joe‘s belongs to Aldi, which is a German Company. Obviously, they adapted a bit too well to the American market.

I'm not German, but regarding the beginning of the video and the pricing policy by Walmart (not allowed), I think it has to do with a law that also exists in my country (Italy), which is "violating the regime of competition on the market" (sorry but I wrote the literal translation, I don't know what it is called in English). I believe that underlying this is the different way of thinking between the hyper-liberal (unregulated) American system and the European system (which has basic rules to follow ALSO for companies). The same thing happens with worker rights (and so many other things), it's (precisely) the difference between European social-democracies and the (again) hyper-liberal U.S. system; these are differences found in many areas, from public health to public education etc, it always comes back to that "famous" talk about your economic-cultural setting and the European setting (which is different).

The "forced rising of prices by law" is because you're not allowed to sell products (especially the basics) with a loss long term (short term special offers/ sales are possible to a limited degree). This is regulated in order to avoid monopoly formation We had a Wal-Mart in my town, one of my current colleagues actually did work there. The products and special offers weren't that different from comparable stores. Plus, those big stores, mostly located in the outskirts, generally became less popular. Apart from the rural areas, there is lots of retail space in short distance, so many people buy groceries on short term, not in stock. I work in retail too and of course our company expects us to greet our costumers and give them a smile and such. And we do exchange words here and there and make a little joke if it fits the situation but definately not in the busy moments. It's work not a get together and as you've said in the video, main focus is to finalize a transaction, for both the costumer and the sales person.

I stopped to soon. In Germany we have things like health insurance where the employer pays for half the monthly charge (this is mandatory). We also have mandatory paid vacation days and if you are sick and stay home you still get paid and can not be fired for being sick.

As a German i think i rather have a casheer i know and frequently visit and chat with a bit honestly than this alien smiling fake stuff. Like im frequently going to a local LIDL and i know the casheers there and they will tell me "omg its so hot today, i have so much work, im sweating, i already changed clothes and im pissed off". I like that. This honesty. It makes them human and it makes me relate to them.

The just straight up bizarre and crazy thing was Walmart trying to pick an outright fight with Verdi and treated them like they were some tiny US retail sector union. Just to put that into perspective, Verdi is the second-largest union in Germany. They had something like 2.5 *million* members across the service industry in 2006. Walmart basically decided to kick what they thought of as a chihuahua, and then belatedly realised that it was more like some prehistoric 800-pound monster wolf that didn't start mauling them in return only because it barely even noticed the kick and had bigger shit to deal with at the time. Like winning a simultaneous strike campaign against 11 german state governments to force them to negotiate an increase of public worker wages.

Sadly Cheddars clip contains some inaccuracies and leaves out some important points why Walmart failed in Germany and as a consequence in all EU member countries, incl. the UK as they sold ASDA in 2020 (yes it's an older clip) - poor market research in advance - poorly chosen locations of their stores, as most of them where hardly accessible by public transport or foot. Walmart chose to place their stores the "american way", meaning in solely commercial areas (bc they where used to american laws that strictly separate commercial from residential areas, unlike Germany where commercial and residential areas are more mixed), most of them where hardly accessible by public transport or foot, unlike the German stores, who tend to be closer or directly in residential areas, easily accessible without a car. For example, I live in Berlin, an there are 11 (!) grocery stores of 9 different brands within a 10 minute walking distance. I also lived in smaller towns and rural areas, but I never had to use a car, as there where always at least 2 grocery stores within walking distance. - communication problems, as the "German headquarter" was based in the UK, without any german employees in the middle and upper management, and mostly US and UK managers that barely spoke german, if any at all. - You can be sure, that Walmarts "ethics code" that "encouraged" the workers to report coworkers for breaking the rules, was not taken well, in a country where 2 authoritarian regimes (first the Nazis and later the east german communists) actively encouraged and forced it's citizens to spy, snitch and denounce their neighbors, coworkers and even their own families. also: the statement that in Germany small retailers are allowed to sell at lower prices than big ones by law is incorrect and misleading. The relevant law stipulates that the goods must not be resold to the end customer below the retailer's purchase price. So if the retailer buys a gallon of milk from the dairy farm for $1, he is not allowed to sell it to the end customer for $0.99. But this "predatory pricing" is exactly what Walmart was doing, and is widely known for. To sell their goods at a calculated loss to force competitors out of business. Also: the shown timetable of the opening hours is just made up BS ... the usual retail hours at the time where monday to saturday from 8am to 7 pm it changed a bit to mostly 6 or 7 am to 9 or 10 pm currently, but sunday is still closed "It has become increasingly clear that in Germany's business environment it would be difficult for us to obtain the scale and results we desire." a.k.a. "We cannot be successful in a market where we cannot bend and break the existing rules and laws to our advantage and our preferences." Walmart also faced similar problems in other countries, like India, Brazil or Japan. a small fun fact at the end: The Aldi-Brothers, Karl and Theo Albrecht already had more than 300 stores running in Germany, when Sam Walton opened his first Walmart in 1962.

Aldi is a German supermarket chain, it's also located in the Netherlands, Belgium, UK and more European countries.

encouragig employers to snitch on each others and call them communists just 10 years after the fall of the GDR is a master brain moment of Walmart.

3:20 No. Aldi is German. There are actually two Aldi companies, Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd (Aldi North and Aldi South) because the two brothers who owned the company decided to split up because they couldn't agree on selling cigarettes. Aldi Nord operates in the northern half of Germany; in the USA they have bought Trader Joe's and operate under this label. Aldi Süd operates in the southern half of Germany; their shops in the USA operate under the Aldi label (which means all Aldi markets you see in the USA belong to Aldi Süd). What made you think Aldi was Australian? The australian Aldi markets belong to Aldi Süd btw. Aldi Nord operates (under the Aldi label) in Denmark, France, the Benelux countries, Portugal, Spain and Poland, while Aldi Süd operates in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Switzerland, Australia, China, Italy, Austria and Slovenia. Both operate in the USA as explained above. 4:00 It is illegal in Germany to undercut prices and sell at a loss to force competitors out of business. 7:45 Yeah. Walmart also didn't understant what a union is. Unions are not on a corporation level, they are national. Ver.Di, the union representing most people working in the retail sector among others, is the second largest union in Germany with 2.1 million members (after the IG Metall which represents people from manufacturing and industry sectors with 2.3 million members). Parts of their ethics code where outright illegal in Germany btw.

There was a Walmart 10 minutes from my apartment. All the weird points mentioned in the video were true (smiling, singing, bagging at the cashiers which isn't a thing in Germany etc.). BUT: Walmart Hamburg was full of all those wonderful American products that no other store had! I loved Swiss Miss chocolate powder, creamer with flavor, weird yellow hotdog mustard, Ranch dressing (unknown in Germany), Reese's, this scent powder for carpets, and my mom loved a universal cleaner based on orange oil which was a magic product. When Walmart closed, all those items vanished from the shelves. So sad. 😪 I miss Walmart. The PX stores on USAF bases don't let you shop without military ID, so ordinary Germans have no chance to get US products. Amazon and quadruple prices took over.

Trader Joe’s is Aldi is German 🤔

Many American companies have the philosophy to expand into the world spreading their own company concepts and values. Like e.g. McD... This CAN work to a degree, but grocery stores are very different in different continents and countries, and esp. in Europe, grocery stores traditionally look very different. Germany is dominated by a few chains, led by Aldi, which has a totally different philosophy than Walmart. High quality products that were tested at least "satisfying" by the biggest independent product testing institution, low prices that everyone can afford, no-name/in-house brands on the packaging that are often from the production of known brands (surplus or additionally produced for this purpose). They set the mark of what they want to pay the manufacturers for products. Funny example: Aldi was the last one of the big chains to introduce electrical conveyor belts because no manufacturer wanted to lower their price for them. They simply waited until one did it for the price they were willing to pay. Another specialty: They introduced a revenue share for EVERY employee. Also, for a long time they were known to pay the most fair wages in the business and consequently invested in professional training of the employees. VERY different to all American grocery store chains. In a country that is led by a company in this business with this kind of values, it is totally naive to think you can take over with nearly the opposite values. I think, the problem is, that American companies really think, that they are automatically superior with complete concepts, as if the patriotic slogans (US=the best) are actually reality. And obviously this does not work this way in Europe. They can not brute force their philosophy into all markets. What may work to a good degree in businesses like media (tv, cinema, music) or some technology sectors, does not work in some essential businesses. Here: Grocery stores. Ignoring cultural differences and hoping that the target market will adapt does definitely not work everywhere. When it comes to daily needs and labor markets, other strong economies might never change their values because of traditional cultural core values. The idea of the US as the centre of the world might sound great to the conservative shareholders of these huge companies, but is simply not working in many parts of the world.

They failed in the UK too and sold off all their ASDA stores in the UK. ASDA had declining sales and quality under WALMART

Union politicians? What? In Europe some companies even have unions of their own, so it's not rare to see something that would be like "Walmart Worker's Union" or "McDonald's Labor Association" (all made up names, just an example), and sometimes they even have unions for different positions, such as how airlines have unions for pilots, cabin crew, ground crew, etc. They are deeply connected with the companies, and they are almost like an extension to the board, negotiating with the company, and if the company refuses to sit at the table with them, they just call in a strike with no scheduled deadline and what the entire corporation crumble. Unions are also run by workers themselves, and the tiny percentage they get from your wage (usually 1% or 2%, so for me would be about €14) go towards running the union and paying your wages when you go on strike, as well as any legal fees if you choose to sue a company, and not to "take a cut of my pay" or something like that. Unions are also sometimes close to political parties (a pilots union is close with a far-right party, and the laborers union is close with a far-left party, so it's not just a leftist or "communism" thing), and even if you don't belong to a union, you can still get support.

Aldi is a German company. It is split into 2 companies "Aldi North" and "Aldi South". The shops in America belong to Aldi South. Trader Joe's is owned by Aldi Nord.

The Walmart shop I know was.. creepy. And full of things no one needed - and for sure not in a supermarket.

If i go in a store of any kind and the staff are overfriendly and keep pestering me i would leave and probably never go back. Just leave me, i know what i am doing. You can probably tell i hate shopping.

If you want to hear a funny story the other way round, learn about BMW (and I think Volkswagen but not 100% sure) in the USA. In Germany the law says that if you commit a crime anywhere outside Germany then you can get a penalty in Germany even if it is perfectly legal in the country where you committed the "crime". Alright. Now according to German law a company must be unionized if bigger than a certain size (50 people or something idk exactly). So for a German company it is mandatory to have a union and it does not matter if it is located in Germany or elsewhere. BMW is located somewhere in the south, I think it is Mississippi but not 100% sure and since these guys are mentally still stuck with McCarthy they (the workers) didn't want to have a union in the factory so the BMW management had to make clear that either they form a union or BMW must leave ;-) I love it!

I was once in a German Walmart, i hated it!

Aldi North/South, Lidl, REWE, Edeka, are the biggest Retail chains in Germany. They are German company’s. Btw Aldi south operates in the U.S,, Aldi North owns Trader Joe’s

Most unions in Europe actually work closely with the government and the companies, and being anti union like Wallmart is basically illegal too. Afaik it's also illegal in the US to coerce and threaten. I guess the law doesn't mention misinform and cajole.

im german, never was inside a walmart. we have a lot local markets like aldi, lidl, edeka, kaufland, norma, netto, np, rewe, penny and so on. so why shopping in a american market? but it seems that german markets like traders joe, lidl and aldi are succesful in the usa.

German here (again lol 🙂) - I remember the start of Wal Mart here in Germany in the End of the nineties. I used to go relatively regular to two of their stores here and they were quite practical because of their sortiment of goods. One was a former Wertkauf (in Pfungstadt, Hesse) and in Groß-Gerau (Hesse, too; as far as I remember right a new build Wal Mart). What I found annoying was their practice, that the workers had to ask the customers if they need help, if a customer cames closer than I think 3 meters (roughly 3 yards) to an employer. So this causes me to avoid any corridor if there was a Wal Mart employer in it - even if I needed to go there to get an item I had on my shopping list. I always waited till the Wal Mart staff left 😂. I didn't want to get disturbed while doing my groceries 😂. Wal Mart quickly got a bad reputation in Germany for various reasons as mentioned in the video. This lead for me to avoid their shops. I like to go to Rewe (which is a supermarket what we call "Vollsortimenter" (I think you can translate this to "full product range supermarket", the opposite are discounters like Aldi and Lidl (also known in the US, and btw. Trader Joe's, founded in 1958 by Joe Coulombe, was sold to the Markus-Foundation (which belongs to Aldi) in 1979. Fun fact: Aldi Nord in Germany sells products under the Trader Joe's name. These include iced tea, fish, meat, dried fruit, nuts, salads, ice cream and crispbread. The discounters have a limited range of products with a high revenue to use the shop space efficient and therefore with cheap prices). I also love to go to "Globus" (globe) to do groceries for several days. Oh, regarding minimum wage, because I saw some comments: many of the commenters seem to forgot, that Germany has had no minimum wage law until January 1st 2015

Walmart only exists as a company because of the exploitation of society. This video proves it. Germany has strong laws and employee protections, so Walmart couldn't get away with their usual poor treatment of their workers, couldn't use the legal system against everyone and were actually held accountable whenever they broke German laws. And were barely more than breaking even. Their business model is inherently predatory. In the US, many of their employees are on benefits, because even with a job, they're making so little money they still qualify for government assistance. Don't spend money there, if you can help it. Walmart are the biggest welfare queens in the US. Every employee that's on welfare while working near full time hours is Walmart leaching off society to line their own pockets. No one should need government assistance when they have a job that they work full-time or near full-time hours.

Dumping prices ( _planning_ to sell certain items at a loss) is a predatory, anti-competitive practice. Germany's market economy is built on markets actually functioning. Therefore dumping prices are illegal. If competitors notice this is going on, they have leverage to stop it. This protects us from big chains taking over the entire market and raising prices afterwards once they have a monopoly. (Unfortunately, with bakery chains this is not working for some reason. But with supermarkets it is.) And yes, the main reason Walmart failed was the combination of creepy and fascist practices that are kind of normal in the US but considered totally inappropriate here. Why would you do your shopping in a tunnel of horror if it's not even cheaper than the countless competing domestic discount chains? The worst thing for me was that they seriously thought they could prevent their employees from having relationships with each other outside work hours. Slavery is illegal in Germany. Probably a case of the Dunning-Kruger effect in Walmart's management. They had no idea what they were doing and for some reason thought they didn't need to get proper information first. (Or maybe they tried, but failed because of a Yes men culture.)

That's a good video! The topic reminds me a lot of Starbucks attempts in Sweden (they still exist here, but certainly not to the degree they first intended).

A loooong time ago in Germany, Walmart opend a store next to where I was living... Been there once and I kind o' "hated" it!!! Hard word, I known. Let's say: I didn't liked it at all and went only back one more time - they didn't had, what I was looking for ... Every other store in Germany was nicer, warmer, better and different - but in a good way! XD And the stuff they selled what either unknown to me or poor/cheap quality. I refused to by there for reasons! :-/

By the way: Aldi is a German company owned by 2 brothers. They share the regions. Aldi South and Aldi North. Aldi South Also trades abroad under the Aldi name. Aldi North is also active abroad. The name outside of Germany: Trader Joes

Aldi is indeed in Australia - but it originated in GERMANY.

Yeah, I think unions are pretty much stronger all over Europe when compared to the USA. Workers all over Europe will go on strike if they feel tthey're not paid enough, which isn't that often to be fair.

Aldi, by the way, is very very German as well as Trader Joes's is part of Aldi. In the U.S., there's also Lidl - also German - which is the largest discount retailer in the world by number of stores, with over 12,000 stores in 31 countries. Then in Germany there is REWE Group with over 384,000 employees or Edeka with over 408,000 employees and so on and so forth.

This has been the case for many American companies that do business around the world and especially in Europe, they basically think they can export their ideas of how to do business in other regions around the world, many of them get a shock once they realise that the rest of the world is different from American norms, and especially In Europe and many other modern countries that have better workers rights, unions and conditions, it must come as a bit of a shock for some American businesses. In the end, any business really needs to adapt to the locals of any country, you're more likely to be more successful if you do that. I also think that laws and regulations should be different, depending on the size of the company, or more accurately, the market share in any given field, after all, it's clear that any company that has a lot of market share doesn't have the consumer's interest at heart, in fact, they tend to go out of their way to screw consumers over and lock down the market by trying to give you less choice, contrast that with small to medium size companies, that are hungry for your custom, it becomes clear that the rules should be different on companies depending on market share in any given field, that would likely give consumers more choice and at a lower price point, it would also likely foster more competition in the market, whereas monopolies rarely do any of that.

I don't know one shop in Germany that exploits its employees like they do in the US. The system is just different and even a Walmart with all their money can't break the rules for workers in germany(or most parts of europe). There are almost four weeks of vacation here, paid sick leave(Unlimited), parental leave, decent pay, and many additional costs that the employer has to pay. If Walmart were in a union, there would probably only be strikes. They would never want to go in there, and that's a problem with big companies here. You kinda have to, to protect the people here from mass exploitation.

There is a saying in Germany: Wer saufen kann, kann auch arbeiten! (Who can drink, can also work!) 😉

They failed in South Korea too.

born and raised german here: never went to a walmart in my life, we have edeka lidl aldi norma rewe penny etc etc. the market is very competitive!

German here. Our food stores are for - the most part - pretty basic. And small. These are the budget food stores like Penny, Aldi, Lidl and Netto. Then you go up a level for stores like Rewe and Kaufland. These typically cost a bit more and usually have a greater variety. Overall though food shopping in Germany is a necessity and not a pastime. We do have malls here but they are usually much smaller and not as many as I have seen in other countries.

It is interesting that Walmart also failed in the U.K. as others have said. But Aldi in the U.K. is a roaring success and opening more stores every year. It is not simply a case of cultural differences for shoppers like having greeters etc. Walmart bought an existing well established supermarket in Asda, and I don’t recall ASDA suddenly having greeters and staff suddenly smiling inanely. They also did NOT rebadge the stores as “Walmart”, so most shoppers would not have known that ASDA was owned by Walmart during that time. ASDA seem to be doing OK since Walmart sold it, I am not aware of any ASDA stores closing. I believe the big cultural differences were behind the scenes, e.g the way staff and suppliers were treated, unions and their attitude that they could put competitors, especially small businesses, out of business. The profit margins were too low for them. I believe they did open a very few US style Walmarts which were badged as “WALMART” but closed quite rapidly. Shoppers in the U.K. just don’t like giant stores that takes an hour to walk around to just find milk and a loaf of bread that they want. Aldi have relatively small stores and have a relatively small range of products in each category, so you can be in and out in 15 minutes.

I remember Walmart in Hamburg Germany. Didn't like it. They were so strange!😂

You get paid less then legally allowed, have to report your coworkers and then they make you sing their stupid song every morning. Are germans the only ones who think that's rediculous? Do people in other countries not think that this song and dance praising someone who you hate is a punishment and hate to get there every morning?

One problem with the ethics code was that by German law, employers are not allowed to interfere with their employees private lives.

(German here) Min. 6.20 = Trader Joes is a german company, belongs to ALDI North, ALDI in the US belongs to ALDI South

As a Swede, autistic and introvert person I would HATE going to restaurants and stores in the US. All that fake "friendlieness" and "positivity" is ew. Leave me alone, just tell me what it costs and wait for me to ask you for help...

It is not true that smaller shops could offer lower prices. This is simply wrong. But Walmart (like any other shop) was not allowed to undercut prices by selling items below their own purchase costs. Which they tried.

Walmart sold Asda in the UK in 2021 although they still hold "an equity investment". When they first bought it they wanted all the employees to sing the company song before their shifts. That lasted all of ....... five minutes. 🤣

Predatory pricing is not allowed. Some business do. Our stores like Aldi, Rewe or Edeka get fines on a regular base form the Bundeskartellamt, the federal authority who watches prices and competition. In this case prices for some diaries like milk were to low. No only Walmart got fined but other chains to. They paid the fines and raised the prices. This is what usually happens. But Walmart went to court and they won. The court said that the market share of Walmart was to insignificant to have an impact and it does not matter, when they sell under costs. The Bundeskartellamt however thought that this judgement was not good for them and they appealed. The next higher court came to the conclusion that Walmart is to insignificant by market share but not with the number of stores, 95 or so. So their judgement was that Walmart can't sell under costs. Yes, they are well knowm for exploiding workers and this is the reason why they failed. You can't do this an the same level like in the US because of worker protection laws. Of course the companies have ways to get around some laws but for that you have to know the laws very well and work with them. It is not that you can change the interpretation of a law by a one court judgement.

I remember pretty well, when the local Wertkauf was converted into a Walmart. It was a shop in a good place for busines, not cheap and with sloppy labled goods, but not expensive or enough to chase the customers away to better stores, which were also available. Nothing improved after Walmart took over, if there were illegal dumping prices, they did not have a substantial effect on the total price of shoping. And the logo, colorscheme and the name which started with a W again were similar enough, that the different owner of the shop would have been hardly noticable. But the particularly bad treatment of the workers, which was against human dignity was very noticable and customers comlained loud and clear about it and a lot of them did not come back, if they did not have a particularly good reason to do that. The local Walmart soon stopped forcing the silliy dances on their workers and allowed them to behave a little more natural, but that was not enough and to late. Germans are no saints when it comes to shopping choices, but in that case there was no good reason to accept that dehumanizing busines model, the reaction was enough to make the difference. The building still stands today and it never stoped being a profitable supermarket, even though the competition did not go away, the qualitiy and pricing of the market did not improve much and the company running the shop now has to follow the same rules and the general profit margins of supermarkets are still narrow in comparison to other busineses.

i am from germany/hamburg. wal mart was way to big. i dont want to sacrify half of a saturday just to buy some food. its just shopping and not a shopping event. shops like ie aldi need just 15 minutes.

ALDI is a German discount food chain founded by the brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht and Aldi is simply called Albrecht - Discount and is made up of the respective first letters. Lidl is also German.

Aldi is German, just as Lidl and a few others. Aldi has the more interesting history, as the brothers who started it, split it up in Aldi Nord and Aldi South. If my memory serves correctly the South one, is the one you see in the US nowadays. (Love Nord better, to be honest.)

All I remember in my local Wertkauf is that they changed the name to Walmart. I thought it was still the same store because Wertkauf is also blue. I did not notice any difference in the way they treated me as a customer.

Walmarts practice of selling below purchase price is illegal in germany. also other practices like snitching or no relations between employees are illegal in germany

Yeah I remember in the next biggest town, 10 min away, there was a Walmart when I was a kid. But I don't think I was ever in it.🤷‍♂

You know who els started the day with synchronize calisthenics in Germany back in the 40ish ?

The big german grocery stores are Edeka, Netto (Edeka Group), Rewe, Penny (Rewe Group), Lidl, Kaufland (Schwarz Group), Aldi North, Aldi South (Aldi Group), Real and Metro (Metro Group). I buy mainly from Kaufland and Netto. There was a Walmart within reach, but i definitly would'nt buy from a company which treated their staff badly. I knew it was a shitty company beforehand.

But woohlworth exists here in Germany. One of the few that still exist here, because the branches here have probably made more turnover than elsewhere. As far as our supermarkets and discounters are concerned, Lidl and Aldi are also represented worldwide. Apart from that, we basically have them in the north first: Aldi Nord, Kaufland, REWE, Netto, Lidl and Edeka. In southern Germany, I think the only difference is that there is Aldi Süd.

Germany has their own supermarket chains like Kaufland and Lidl, they branches in other EU countries as well.

3:18 Aldi was founded in Germany. 😂

Have y'all done one about why Starbucks failed in Australia?

Funfact: Trader Joe´s is Aldi Nord :D

The main stores in germany are Aldi, Rewe, Netto and Lidl.

they failed like Interspar failed before. And they were forced to higher prices, cause they sold some stuff under the purchasing price, abd thats never allowed in europe

In my city (Hagen,NRW,Germany) there was Walmart. I never went there

Interesting video, but you two look like u could use some rest 😂 Hope you have a soft hangover, and drink a lot of water... It helps 😜😜

Did you really say you think Aldi is from Australia? WTH? Aldi is German (Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd) and Trader Joe´s is the name for Aldi Nord(north) in the USA. Therefore, if Trader Joe´s is known to be "flirty", they must have adapted to USA customs and customers. Especially as Germans from the north deem "Guten Morgen" to be too chatty and prefer a simple "Moin" 🤣 I myself went once to a Walmart, not noticing that Wertkauf had become Walmart. i went into what I assumed was Wertkauf and thought: "Wow, Wertkauf became really trashy" It wasn´t until I left without buying a thing and spotting the new name somewhere outside that I entered a Walmart.

Here in Denmark , the unions are very very strong and on top of that our government to some degree also make laws to protect workers . if big companies do not enter takes with our unions, they will be hit hard , by boycuts to them and the supply chains....i think it was Burger King here in DK, who found that out the hard way .... we've had unions here since the 1870's

Aldi is a German store

There should be a video of Watchmojo showing a ranking of various American companies that have failed in the world

Are there any Walmart in Europe? There are no Walmarts in Europe for a variety of reasons. Ultimately, factors such as culture, regulations, competition, and lack of resources make it difficult for Walmart to operate its business model in Europe.20. feb. 2023