Walmart Intent on Destroying Mexico's Mom and Pop Businesses, Also
Although Walmart now controls "more than a fifth of all grocery sales" in Mexico, there is still room to expand. Aren't there some poor small local merchants still left to be put out of business?
The answer is si ("yes" en Espanol (Spanish)). The Wall Street Journal reports that—now that Walmart has moved past that enormous bribery scandal, in Mexico—the multinational crap purveyor is now intent on capturing more of the food market by putting small, poor, local stores out of business, in Mexico. Offering consumers slightly lower prices in exchange for destroying the entire local business base will surely work out well for Mexican towns, just as it has for middle America.
Not to worry: the Walmart corporation understands Mexico's culture on a visceral level.
Wal-Mart's solution for Mexico is a mini-grocer format called Bodega Aurrera Express, which the company launched in 2008. The store looks like an oversize mom-and-pop shop, with products stacked high against the walls. Bodega Aurrera's mascot is Mama Lucha, a chubby cartoon homemaker dressed like a masked wrestler, who fights for the best prices.
Mexicans who formerly worked for themselves as street vendors to their own friends and neighbors may now get jobs as shelf stockers for the Walmart corporation, or perhaps as customer engagement associates dressed up in "Mama Lucha" costumes, handing out fliers. All is well.
