How big can it grow?

摘要

At a recent retail-industry convention, Wal-Mart's boss, Lee Scott, was asked whether his firm was trying to take over the world. "I don't think so," Mr Scott replied with a smile on his face. "All we want to do is grow." How big can Wal-Mart grow? With $256 billion in sales in the year to January 31st, the firm is already the world's biggest company by that measure. Its nearest retailing rival, a French supermarket chain called Carrefour, is less than half Wal-Mart's size. In America, Wal-Mart manages nearly 3,000 giant discount stores and hypermarket "supercentres". Abroad, it has ventured into Mexico, Britain, Japan, Canada, Germany and China, as well as making smaller investments elsewhere. Eight out of ten American households shop at Wal-Mart at least once a year. Worldwide, more than loom customers visit Wal-Mart stores every week. Photographs circulated over the internet and purporting to come from the Exploration Rover show NASA'S recent discovery of a Wal-Mart on Mars.