ABSTRACT
When Wal-Mart decides to enter a market, local competitors soon realize that their future prospects are clearly under threat. Both at home and abroad, Wal-Mart has both the resources and the reputation for sucking the air (and the customers) out of any local market it enters. Few can compete against the merchandise giant on price. Within ten years of entering the Mexican market, Wal-Mart (referred to as “Wal-Mex” by its competitors) had captured half of all supermarket sales in the country. 1 It now boasts more than six hundred stores and wholesale outlets nationwide and annual sales of more than $10 billion.
