@david @stevendbrewer The crazy bit is that ASDA *was* competitive, as a major supermarket chain: WalMart couldn't improve on them, and meanwhile Tesco just did Tesco (cue background sound effects of a Roman legion marching past in lockstep)

@cstross @stevendbrewer
Gewurztraminer, or maybe a sweet Hungarian blaufränkisch red.
Don't know if the US has a domestic equivalent- maybe the reason for arrest was ostentatious drinking of a foreign wine?

@cstross @stevendbrewer Walmart took over Woolco here a few decades ago and are still going strong, and have moved into groceries as well. They’re still here, with an awful shopping experience. I generally avoid.

Then there was the Hudson’s Bay Company, founded in 1670, which went out of business last year after a run with American owners who were more interested in real estate games. Killing the oldest company on the continent is an achievement of some kind, I guess.

@cstross @david @stevendbrewer Do you remember Tesco's attempt to enter the US market? "Fresh & Easy" - except it turned out to be neither of those things.

@stevendbrewer @cstross The idea of stuff that was stocked in the US and didn't sell elsewhere has instilled in me the fear of the Endless depths of the cosmos.

@stevendbrewer
I think sake could work with both.
@cstross

@cstross Really, it's Florida, I'm surprised anyone noticed her.

@violanders @cstross Or shōchū?

@retech @cstross She was noticed because she’s not a senior citizen.

@cstross The best way to shop at Target is to know what you want, go in, buy it, and get out. Same for Walmart, but at double time.
Been boycotting both for the last year, or so, and have always avoided Walmart as much as possible.

@cstross https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Canada

We had ‘em, briefly, but nobody went. Though now The Bay is toast, if they tried again, it might be a different story.

@jbenjamint @cstross @david @stevendbrewer Walmart attempted the same in Germany, lasting 10 years from the mid Nineties and burning through a few $bn.
Retail in Europe is really hard.

@david

Pales in comparison to how spectacularly #Walmart failed in #Germany.

The U.S.A. management managed to fall afoul of regulations that were meant to prevent the Stasi from happening again.

They instituted policies of forced smiling at customers, group cheer sessions, and employees required to report any employees who dated other employees.

Reporting on people's personal lives to the authorities is a bit of a no-no in modern Germany.

German upholds rights of Wal-Mart staff

(www.ft.com)

@cstross @stevendbrewer

@jbenjamint @cstross @david @stevendbrewer @jsl

1/ Yeah, that was amusing.

"Hey, let's enter one of the biggest retail shark tanks on the planet without doing any market research! I am sure nothing can go wrong with this plan!

Also, let's make the employees sing corporate songs like we do in the USA. I'm sure the Germans will love that!"

@jbenjamint @cstross @david @stevendbrewer @jsl

2/ Also, telling employees to constantly smile at German customers is a bad idea. Because the reaction of the average German will be:

"Who is this creepy weirdo, and what do they want from me?"

@cstross Are you sure this thing does not exist in Japan? Feels very close to quantum internet pornography…

@jsl @cstross @jbenjamint @david @stevendbrewer It is. I was looking recently to buy some Muji drawer units, and discovered that there’s no way to get them in Sweden. (They pulled out of their joint venture with a Swedish department store, and their delivery service only handles smaller items.)

On a tangent, one of my wishes is for Daiso to expand to the EU.

@cstross Real possum-in-a-doughnut-box “do as you must, I have already won” energy.

@edavies

You joke but we have a local pizzeria that also does food from their home country. Some of it has cinnamon in it so if you are lucky, the meat fried on the same surface for the pizzas will taste cinnamon. We do not eat pizza there but love their other food

Cinnamon does not quite work with meat or fish, the (western) brain gets confused. "Is this desert or main corse? Both?"

@cstross
Walmart did try and bring some US style practises to the UK but mostly on the management side - I heard stories of having to sing a corporate song in morning meetings, which didn't sit well in Leeds. Their lasting legacy might be the amount of Halloween crap they introduced.
@stevendbrewer