Walmart Took Over Chile In Only Three Years And Other Countries Are Terrified

Business Insider
September 24, 2012

Three years after entering Chile, Walmart controls a staggering 34 percent of the entire market.

Walmart entered Chile in 2009 when it acquired D&S, a leading food retailer there. It promptly changed its name to “Walmart Chile” and built off the existing infrastructure.

[...] And the control it has in the country:

“In urban Chile, when modern retail arrived in the early 1990s, a large number of small shops went out of business in the span of just a few years. As reported in ICRIER’s May 2008 report, between 1991 and 1995, “15,777 small shops went out of business, mainly in Santiago, a city of 4 million, “representing”21-22% of small general food, meat and fish shops, 25% of deli/meat shops and dairy shops, and 17% in produce shops. Chile’s food retail sector has continued the process of consolidation to the point of negatively impacting free competition. In December 2011, government competition authorities announced an investigation of Chile’s highly concentrated grocery sector, where Walmart is the largest player with 33.4% market share, for possible price collusion of basic products including meats and detergents.”

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This article was posted: Monday, September 24, 2012 at 10:00 am

Tags: economics, food, foreign affairs, government corruption

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