A queasy feeling hits the stomach when you think of the millions of bazaar merchants it'll displace.
Telecom major Bharti and world's biggest retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Monday signed an agreement to form a joint venture for their wholesale cash and carry business.
Bharti Enterprises, which has tied-up with Wal-Mart, on Friday said discussions are on over business arrangement with the US firm for their retail venture.
Bharti Wal-Mart's plan to open its first cash-and-carry store in the country at Amritsar on Tuesday has been postponed because of law and order problem in Punjab following violence sparked by killing of a Dera leader in Austria. "Due to the situation in Punjab, Bharti Wal-Mart is postponing the launch of its cash-and-carry wholesale store 'Best Price Modern Wholesale'," the company said on Monday.
Wal-Mart chief S Robson Walton met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sharma last week and discussed the foreign direct investment scenario in the retail sector in India.
At a time when companies are cutting costs and jobs to tackle the economic downturn, global retail chain major Wal-Mart has doled out $933.6 million in bonuses to its workers.
Deciding to focus on the cash-and-carry segment in India, retail giant Wal-Mart plans to open 50 wholesale stores in the next four to five years to expand its footprint in the country.
The annual shareholders' meet resembled a rock concert in an indoor stadium with associates cheering like crazy fans.
It is, in fact, so big and so furtively powerful that it has become an entirely different order of corporate being.
Modi referred to the Lok Sabha polls as a "Kurukshetra (battle)" in which "there is development on one hand and 'vote jihad' on the other".
Bharti and Wal-Mart JV will be critical for the US giant to study the Indian scenario.
Federal authorities alleged that Wal-Mart did not have a programme in place and failed to train its employees on proper hazardous waste management and disposal practices at the store level.
Companies big and small feel the profit pinch when dealing with the retail behemoth.
Global retail giant Wal-Mart is in talks with several domestic textile firms for its Indian operation, which is expected to begin next year
Operating margins have been the primary driver of corporate earnings in India in recent quarters, despite revenue growth suffering from weak consumer demand. Companies across sectors have reported a sharp improvement in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) margins over the past two years, benefiting from lower commodity and energy prices. Higher margins more than compensated for slower revenue growth, resulting in double-digit growth in net profit for five consecutive quarters.
The much-awaited Wal-Mart-Bharti tie up will take some more time to be finalised as the world's largest retailer said it was not making any business announcement during the India visit of its vice chairman Mike Duke
The committee met the representatives of Walmart Asia as well as those of Bharti Walmart Private Ltd, the company's Indian joint venture with Bharti group, along with their counsel in New Delhi.
The country's leading retail chains have raised apprehensions that the collaboration between Bharti Enterprises and Wal-Mart could provide backdoor entry to the world's largest retailer.
Asked for comments about Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma informing the Rajya Sabha in September that Wal-Mart had made the investment in Cedar via its Mauritius arm but the RBI had no FDI data of the same, Mittal said: "I have no idea. We have given everything what is required".
After Wal-Mart, China National Petroleum is the second biggest employer with 1.61 million employees in 2008 followed by the State Grid with 1.53 million employees in the third place, followed by the US Postal Service with 765,088 employees in the fourth place, followed by Sinopec with 639,690 employees in the fifth place.
Wal-Mart at present runs wholesale operations in India in an equal partnership with Bharti Enterprises.
Wal-Mart CEO Michael T Duke, who would be visiting India later this month, is likely to meet Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and and discuss the country's FDI policy in retail.
It should have been much easier to find this farsan maker's premises given the number of two-wheelers that stream up to this address the day before Ganesh Chaturthi to collect armfuls of bags of laddus, chuda and other kind of chatpata namkeen stuff.
Wal-Mart's experience and sourcing skills will help Bharti roll out stores fast and sell at competitive prices.
The Bentonville-based retailing giant's statement comes in the wake of the Indian government considering easing norms for foreign direct investment in multi-brand retailing in India. Jain said the company wants the government to liberalise the FDI regime in retail in the country and has conveyed this to the concerned authorities several times.
Wal-Mart India said it will "engage and work" with the new government and continue to focus on the cash and carry business in the country in the backdrop of Narendra Modi led BJP getting mandate to come to power at the Centre.
The delay and faltering partnership mean Wal-Mart may miss out on the "first-mover" advantage in a country considered the last great frontier for global retailers.
To differentiate itself from Wal-Mart, Tesco, through its Fresh & Easy chain, has gone in for convenient neighbourhood stores which stock fresh foods, which is not a thrust area for Wal-Mart. But cost is one area where the two cannot avoid clashing, and this is where Tesco Hindustan Service Centre steps in.
Wal-Mart said in its annual report, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, that it could not estimate how much loss would come to because of the complexity of the related probes and internal review.
Shot-stoppers who turned into showstoppers during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Former Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana high court will submit report in three months.
Bonanza for customers in days of liberalisation.
Reliance Industries Ltd firm, Reliance Retail is making a top management rejig in its value format and will soon announce appointment of two ex-WalMart executives Rob Cissell and Shawn Gray to lead the operations.
Wal-Mart has accused Visa of excessively high card swipe fees, several months after the retailer opted out of a class action settlement between merchants and Visa and MasterCard Inc.
Meta Platforms Inc, the parent company of WhatsApp, will partner with Reliance JioMart for a service where WhatsApp users can buy groceries on the messaging platform from the Indian retail firm. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer (CEO) of Meta Platforms, said in a Facebook post, "[I am] Excited to launch our partnership with JioMart in India. "This is our first-ever end-to-end shopping experience on WhatsApp--people can now buy groceries from JioMart right in a chat." "Business messaging is an area with real momentum and chat-based experiences like this will be the go-to way people and businesses communicate in the years to come," he said in an announcement coinciding with the annual general Meeting (AGM) of Reliance Industries the parent company of JioMart.
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