Wal-Mart Goes to India

From today's WSJ, an article about Wal-Mart finalizing a joint venture with Indian telecommunications company Bharti Airtel (provides cell phone service to 24 million Indians) to to open a chain of hundreds of discount retail stores across the country.

India's booming retail market, estimated at about $200 billion, is currently dominated by more than 12 million mom-and-pop shops. Large, air-conditioned stores remain a rarity. Rising middle-class incomes and an increase in demand for branded products are driving the growth of retail business in India. Nevertheless, selling through company-owned network stores currently totals about $8 billion or less than 5% of market.

Wal-Mart Facts:

Wal-Mart has more than 2,700 stores in fourteen markets outside the U.S.: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom.

Wal-Mart's international stores employ more than 500,000 Wal-Mart associates, serving 49 million international customers each week.

Worldwide, more than 176 million people shop at Wal-Mart stores every week around the globe, proving that low prices is a message clearly understood in any language.