Russia's New Consumer Nation: Wal-Mart Drools

BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS/MSNBC - Wal-Mart is moving closer to a possible expansion into Russia with the appointment of an experienced European executive to scope out possibilities in a vast retail market worth more than $140 billion a year in food sales alone.

From a related Reuters article, Wal-Mart Chief Executive Lee Scott said at the company's analyst meeting last October that Wal-Mart hoped to be in Russia "at some point in the future." Scott called Russia a "growing consumer nation," and he said consumers there have shown a propensity to spend while in other developing countries they tend to save.

MP: If you thought the oil and gas markets are booming in places like Russia, check out the consumer and retail sector stock index in Russia compared to the oil/gas sector stock index in Russia (see graph above, data available here)! From what we heard in Russia at visits to both Ford and GM headquarters in Moscow, Russia will probably overtake Germany this year as both Ford and GM's #1 European market for vehicle sales.