AH Challenge: Carrefour competative in the US

What would it take for the French chain Carrefour to be competative against the likes of Walmart in the US, or even better be able to beat Walmart?


(Note that this is in post 1900 as I expect the PODs will be post 1900. But pre-1900 PODs are fine.)
 
How competitive is competitive? I don't think any imported chain beating the US giants is plausible. Shopping cultures are too different. It's nothing to do with size alone - WalMart crashed and burned in Germany.

What I coulöd see is Carrefour making its way into the US market in the late 70s or 80s, in the course of early globalisation, and establishing its brand at the low end of upscale using its Frenchness andgenuine concern for quality. A sitcom character going 'To Carrefour' would be established as a pretentious bourgeois. Give it ten years and it's part of the US cultural scene.

Short of some well-meant but majorly disruptive lehislation crippling the US supermarket industry at birth, I don't think it's plausible for any foreign company to dominate the market, though. Not without altering the economic fundamentals of the twentieth century.
 
How competitive is competitive? I don't think any imported chain beating the US giants is plausible. Shopping cultures are too different. It's nothing to do with size alone - WalMart crashed and burned in Germany.

What I could see is Carrefour making its way into the US market in the late 70s or 80s, in the course of early globalisation, and establishing its brand at the low end of upscale using its Frenchness and genuine concern for quality. A sitcom character going 'To Carrefour' would be established as a pretentious bourgeois. Give it ten years and it's part of the US cultural scene.

Short of some well-meant but majorly disruptive lehislation crippling the US supermarket industry at birth, I don't think it's plausible for any foreign company to dominate the market, though. Not without altering the economic fundamentals of the twentieth century.

Compatative as in able to compete, not as in dominate.

The Carrefour as a pretentious bourgeois symbol scenario suits what I was thinking exactly. :D
 
Eh, Carrefours may not be el-cheapo stores as Aldi or Lidl (don't know any US equivalents) but they are far from being classy enough for the bourgeoisie to like to shop there. At least here in Belgium they sit in the middle as far as price and looks go. In fact, by themselves seemingly not knowing where they sit they got to the point of having to close of a lot of stores by June this year.
 
How competitive is competitive? I don't think any imported chain beating the US giants is plausible. Shopping cultures are too different. It's nothing to do with size alone - WalMart crashed and burned in Germany.

What I coulöd see is Carrefour making its way into the US market in the late 70s or 80s, in the course of early globalisation, and establishing its brand at the low end of upscale using its Frenchness andgenuine concern for quality. A sitcom character going 'To Carrefour' would be established as a pretentious bourgeois. Give it ten years and it's part of the US cultural scene.

Short of some well-meant but majorly disruptive lehislation crippling the US supermarket industry at birth, I don't think it's plausible for any foreign company to dominate the market, though. Not without altering the economic fundamentals of the twentieth century.

Actually in New England the leading supermarket chain is Stop & Shop, a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Ahold in the Netherlands. Ahold also owns Giant and few other fairly large chains along the Eastern seaboard. While I can't see Carrefour dominating the entire United States, but it certainly wouldn't be implausible to have it dominate a region by buying an established brand and re-branding the stores as Carrefour.
 
Eh, Carrefours may not be el-cheapo stores as Aldi or Lidl (don't know any US equivalents) but they are far from being classy enough for the bourgeoisie to like to shop there. At least here in Belgium they sit in the middle as far as price and looks go. In fact, by themselves seemingly not knowing where they sit they got to the point of having to close of a lot of stores by June this year.

KMart, probably.

And just being foreign, much less French (associations with fine food and goods) brings it an upscale cache in the US. (It did here in Japan as well.)
 
Top