Does China own Wal-Mart or does Wal-Mart own China?”
Wal-Mart is a publicly listed US company. As of the NYSE close on 6/20/08, Wal-Mart (or ticker symbol WMT) had a market cap of $222 billion. Wal-Mart Headquarters, Bentonville, Arkansas China is Wal-Mart’s biggest supplier; but, given the relative strength of the Yuan, inflationary pressures, higher energy costs, higher labor costs and lower tax rebates, Wal-Mart is looking to alternative sources to China to bring its costs down. Wal-Mart, in part because of its size and in part due to its culture, is probably the toughest company in the world in terms of negotiating deals with suppliers and vendors. So Wal-Mart certainly doesn’t own China literally or figuratively. And, China may be losing some of Wal-Mart’s business to suppliers in other parts of the world.
