wal-mart in China
...music CDs to shoes to fresh beancurd have the same determined look as its American patrons about them. More and more customers show their willingness to shop at Wal-Mart. It wins customers by a combination of conventional cost-cutting and sensitivity to demand conditions , as well as superior logistics and distribution systems. Although it is a later arriver and attains less sales volume now in China than Carrefour, the global retailer giant from France, and its development in China is summed as a slow boat (Forbes, November) due to spotty supply chain, strong local and foreign competition and lots of red tape, it has gained growing customer loyalty through the excellent reputation of good quality products at reasonable low price and being trustworthy and reliable. The purpose of this study is to identify profiles of the patrons to Wal-Mart with respect to factors that affect consumer’s store patronage (somewhere with the comparison with Carrefour and other retailers). Consumers’ decisions regarding where to shop are based on their attitude toward a store's merchandise mix as well as on the shoppers' own internal orientations, such as motives, needs or values (Finn and Louviere, 1996; Gentry and Burns, 1978). Thus, in this study tw...