Capitalism Marches On 2 Its Drumbeat

[Baba Ahmed]

China and McDonald's


It seems that nowadays nothing is more American than fast food; however, the "grand-opening" of a fast food joint, such as McDonald's, is a regular occurrence despite which part of the world you live in.

For example, Chinese cuisine, known for the essence of fine eating, has yielded to the rising popularity of fast food chains. In fact, residents of China are more likely to be seen munching on French fries or a Big Mac than Americans and Australians.

According to a survey -- which involved more than 14,000 adults in 28 countries -- researchers found that 41 percent of those surveyed who live in China eat in a fast food restaurant once a week, compared with 35 percent of people in the United States and 30 percent of people in Australia.

China is "Lovin' It"

McDonald's has most certainly had a profound affect on China. When the first McDonald's opened in Beijing a dozen years ago, 40,000 people lined up to observe a Big Mac and get their picture taken with the infamous Ronald McDonald. Not to mention:

McDonald's is growing faster in China than in the United States
McDonald's owns and operates more than 600 stores across 105 cities in China

More than 100 more McDonald's stores will be added annually to Chinese cities within the coming years

www.mercola.com/2005/Jan/12/mcdonalds_china.htm

[OKULAJA]

I'm sure Mao Tse Tung is turning in his grave right now.

[Insatiable]

There is a very interesting book on the globalization of American fast food, and the implications thereof.

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

by: Eric Schlosser

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

[Insatiable]

Wal-Mart is also tapping into the Chinese economy...

Wal-Mart's China inventory to hit US$18b this year

By Jiang Jingjing (China Business Weekly)

The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, says its inventory of stock produced in China is expected to hit US$18 billion this year, keeping the annual growth rate of over 20 per cent consistent over two years.

The trend is expected to continue, company officials revealed.

"We expect our procurement stock from China to continue to grow at a similar rate in line with Wal-Mart's growth worldwide, if not faster," said Lee Scott, the president and CEO (chief executive officer) of Wal-Mart.

An unnamed company official also stated the firm will extend its procurement base from South China's Pearl River Delta to the North and East China in the coming few years.

A market rumour says the retailer has its eyes on a 340,000-square metre warehouse at a logistics garden of the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Bonded Area.

Scott covertly visited the site earlier this month, and hopes to own the whole warehouse to accommodate the firm's further expansion in China.

At present, Wal-Mart has quite limited warehouse resources in East China.

Xu Jun, Wal-Mart China's director of external affairs, ruled out the rumour, saying the CEO has never visited that or any other site for a warehouse.

Nevertheless, he said China is Wal-Mart's most important supplier in the world. The overseas procurement home office in Shenzhen, a city of South China's Guangdong Province, has played a key role in the firm's global purchasing business.

Wal-Mart shifted its overseas procurement centre from Hong Kong to Shenzhen in February 2002 to better serve the purchasing and exporting business.

"If Wal-Mart were an individual economy, it would rank as China's eighth-biggest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada," Xu said.

By the end of September, 2004, the top seven trading partners to the Chinese mainland are the European Union, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), South Korea and China's Taiwan Province, state statistics from the Ministry of Commerce.

Last year, the firm bought US$15 billion products from China, half from direct purchasing, the other from the firm's suppliers in China.

More than 5,000 Chinese enterprises have established steady supply alliances with Wal-Mart.

Good quality and low price are the major attractions of the retailing giant.

Insiders point out Wal-Mart's imports from China have largely influenced the US trade deficit in China, which is expected to reach US$150 billion this year.

Xu declined to comment if the anti-dumpling measures of the US Department of Commerce have impacted the firm's procurement of textile commodities and household appliances in China, saying again that China is an important sourcing base for the firm.

So far, more than 70 per cent of the commodities sold in Wal-Mart are made in China.

Experts say Wal-Mart's plan of increasing its procurement from China has granted the firm a positive corporate reputation in the country.

"Buying more products in China means more job opportunities, which helps the firm win not only the government's hearts, but also the customers' appreciations," said Wang Yao, director of information department under the China General Chamber of Commerce.

In the United States, poor people find it possible to afford cheap "Made In China" products for their daily necessities, Wang said.

Wal-Mart, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, entered China in 1996. It has opened 39 stores, including supercenters, "Sam's Clubs" and neighborhood markets in 15 cities around China, including Beijing, Harbin and Dalian.

It has recently announced the opening of its first store in Shanghai, slated for the middle of next year.

The firm has a total of 4,900 stores in 10 countries worldwide.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english...ent_395728.htm

[Insatiable]

Wal-Mart in China exemplifies unabashed capitalism

By Bronwyn Lance Chester
VIRGINIAN-PILOT

SHENZHEN, China - The Wal-Mart greeters wearing red button-down shirts and bright smiles look familiar. So do the yellow "Everyday Low Prices" signs hanging over racks of coats and displays of soap.

But similarities end there in Shenzhen's Wal-Mart SuperCenter, an outpost of American capitalism in communist China. This bustling boomtown of 5 million residents about 45 minutes from Hong Kong hosts nine Wal-Mart entities in all, including a Sam's Club that set the company's single-day sales record of $1.7 million two years ago.

Suffice it to say that Wal-Mart has caught on in China. The low-price, high-selection retailer now has 31 stores and 15,000 employees across the People's Republic, offering something new to Chinese customers long accustomed to dour salespeople, long lines and limited choices. While that's a far cry from the company's 2,650 outlets in America, Wal-Mart is a growing presence in China.

The selections are distinctly Chinese, of course. After all, Wal-Mart is in the business of making money. The Shenzhen Wal-Mart's meat department features tanks of eels and boxes of live crabs just an aisle away from trays of golden honeycombed tripe and strings of mysterious sausages suspended on red wires.

Adjacent to the pharmacy and beauty department, where Halle Berry's smiling face advertises Revlon, is the "traditional medicine" section. There, a white-coated pharmacist weighs and dispenses dried sea horses - "for joint pain," he said - dried cuttlefish "for lung problems" and dried turtle heads whose curative powers elude me.

For those who swallow Wal-Mart's red-white-and-blue "Buy American" patriotism, agree with the company's moral nannying or believe that Wal-Mart promotes American products abroad, a visit to Wal-Mart China will be an eye-opener.

For one, Chinese Wal-Marts aren't havens for American goods. Along with the aforementioned Revlon, Froot Loops cereal and Tide detergent, the only other American products are booze, Budweiser and - warming the heart of rednecks everywhere - Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, selling for about 25 cents per can.

Hard to believe this is the same moralizing company that hides the covers of Cosmopolitan and Redbook magazines in America.

And playing to Chinese patriotism, Wal-Mart China's Web site touts the fact that 95 percent of its merchandise is Chinese-made, saying, "In the future, the company is expected to substantially increase the volume of buying local." So much for the rah-rah rhetoric here at home.

I asked Wal-Mart spokesman Bill Wertz about this marketing strategy. "We always try to buy locally where we are. And we have to stock stores with merchandise that customers want," he said. One exception to that buy-local policy is the U.S. of A., where foreign-made products strain the shelves, many from - you guessed it - China. Ten percent of all U.S. imports from China go to Wal-Mart.

Wertz wouldn't give out Wal-Mart China's profit figures from last year, saying they were incorporated in the company's astonishing $244.5 billion sales in 2003.

In a speech Sunday, Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott highlighted China as the country where the low-price retailer could most closely duplicate its success in America. And with a billion potential customers and an expanding Chinese middle class, he may be right.

But anyone who buys into Wal-Mart's clever flag-waving marketing strategy in America is at best naive. Sure, its employees and executives are probably patriotic folks. But Wal-Mart is a global giant, with stores in 10 countries. And it wants to make money in all of them. Touting Chinese-made goods in Chinese Wal-Marts is just a derivative of that strategy.

One thing's for sure: Wal-Marts around the world stand for unabashed capitalism. Shenzhen's SuperCenter book aisle contains not a single copy of Mao Tse-tung's red book of quotations.(emphasis added) Instead, the shelves are chock-a-block with success-in-business tomes, many with Bill Gates' smiling face on the cover.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democ...on/7729181.htm

[IfasehunReincarnated]

I was reading some passages out of African Holistic Health today and thought about how keen Baba Liala is about charging europeans with using food and health as a weapon against people. I find it really disappointing to hear that a people that have been largely shielded from pass produced, highly synthetic foods are now crowding around to get a piece of American "apple spy". This food will bring high blood pressure, heart disease, cholestrol, hypertension, depression, anxiety, diabetes, cancer, strokes and weak immune systems to China. Welcome to 1st World living.