美国或者墨西哥的消费者一样被沃尔玛的折扣策略所吸引。经过了数年的亏损沃尔玛在2006年退出了德国和韩国。同时，它继续在其他地方寻找零售业的机遇，尤其是那些缺乏强大的本地竞争对手的发展中国家，那些它可以逐渐改变其购物文化成为它的优势的国家以及那些可以被它的低价策略所吸引的国家。 Recently, the centerpiece of its international expansion efforts has been china. Wal-mart opened its first store in china in 1996, but initially expanded very slowly, and by 2006 had only 66 stores. what Wal-mart discovered, however, was that the Chinese were bargain hunters, and open to the low price strategy and wide selection offered at wal-mart stores. Indeed, in terms of their shopping habits, the emerging Chinese middle class seemed more like Americans than Europeans. But to succeed in china, wal-mart also found it had to adaot its merchandising and operations strategy to mesh with Chinese culture. One of the things that wal-mart has learned is that Chinese consumers insist that food must be freshly harvested, or even killed in foront of them. Wal-mart initially offened Chinese consumers by trying to sell them dead fish, as well as meat packed in Styrofroam and Cellophane. Shoppers turned their noses up at what they saw as old merchandise . so wal-mart began to display the the meat uncovered, installed fish tanks into which shoppers could plunge fishing nets to pull out their evening meal, and began selling live turtles for turtle soup . Sales soared.
近年来，它努力进行国际扩张的核心一直是中国。沃尔玛在1996年在中国开了它的第一间店铺，但最初扩张很慢，直到2006年才只有66家店。然而，让沃尔玛意识到的是，中国人都是廉价的猎手，对于沃尔玛商店的低价策略和广泛的选择开放。事实上，就他们的购物习惯而言，新兴的中国中产阶级比起欧洲人
似乎更像美国人。但为了在中国取得成功，沃尔玛还发现它必须调整其商品化和经营策略，以配合中国文化。沃尔玛了解到的一个问题是，中国消费者坚持认为食物必须新鲜收割的，甚至在他们面前被杀死。沃尔玛最初得罪中国消费者是因为它试图向他们出售已经死了的鱼，以及装在塑料或者玻璃纸里的肉。消费者瞧不起他们所看到的旧商品所以沃尔玛开始展示没有包装的肉，安装那些能够使消费者自己使用捕鱼网并把他们的晚餐捞出来的鱼缸，并且开始卖可以用来做海龟汤的活海龟。销量猛增。
Wal-mart has also learned that in china , success requires it to embrace unions. In mid 2006 wal-mart broke with its long standing antagonism to unions and agreed to alow unions in its Chinese stores. Many believe this set the stage for wal-mart’s most recent move, the purchase in December 2006 of a 35% stake in the TRUST-MART chain, which has 101 hypermarkets in 34 cities across china. Now wal-mart has proclaimed that china lies at the center of its growth strategy. By early 2009 wal-mart had some 243 stores in the country, and despite the global economic slowdown, the company insists that it will continue to open new stores in china at a “double digit rate”.
沃尔玛还了解到，在中国，成功还需要它去接受工会。在2006年中期，沃尔玛打破了长期与工会的对立局面，同意在中国的商店中允许工会的加入。很多人认为这是为沃尔玛的最新举措做了铺垫，在2006年12月购买了在中国的34个城市里拥有101家大型超市的“好又多”大型连锁超市公司35%的股份。现在，沃尔玛已经宣布，中国正位于其增长战略的中心。2009年年初，沃尔玛在国内已经用了243家商店，尽管全球经济放缓，（沃尔玛）公司仍坚持宣布，它将继续以“两位数的速度”在中国开设新的商店。