Chapter 9 Chapter 08: Talking from Wal-Mart: The true face of foreign capital integrating China's industrial chain
Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism
The free market is becoming more and more a thing of the past, and monopoly syndicates and trusts are shrinking the market day by day... (Lenin: "Imperialism is the Highest Stage of Capitalism" People's Publishing House, April 2001, third edition, p. 73)
Why are we so afraid of foreign capital?
First of all, it is because there are some things that we find incomprehensible, and it is absolutely impossible to do such things within the scope of our abilities and cognition.
In fact, Wal-Mart competes in China, and we are not afraid of it raising prices.
After the integration is completed, the real means of competition is not to monopolize first and then raise prices as some of our experts said, but to monopolize first and then lower prices!
Wal-Mart is like a greedy snake. After eating the downstream, it eats the midstream, and after eating the midstream, it supports its own upstream.
Every day parity's strategy determines Wal-Mart's Achilles' heel: its high sensitivity to operating costs.
As soon as they hear the word "foreign capital", many people's ears will prick up unconsciously, as if whenever a foreigner walks on the street, it will always attract passers-by to watch.If you Google "foreign capital mergers and acquisitions", you will find that the attitude towards foreign capital on the Internet is either loud or sensational.But what does this outcry and hostility mean?What it shows is not how terrible foreign capital is really, but that we actually don't know what foreign capital is doing at all.It's like people are afraid of ghosts and gods. In fact, it's not really monsters with three heads and six arms, but because people are ignorant and ignorant, and they regard things they can't understand as ghosts and gods.What do we call foreigners in private?It is for this reason that they are called foreign devils.
American retail legend Sam?Walton founded Wal-Mart in Arkansas in 1962.Today's Wal-Mart has opened more than 7,800 shopping malls in 16 countries around the world, and receives 176 million customers every week, thus becoming the largest chain retailer in the world.After entering China in 1996, Wal-Mart opened its first Wal-Mart Supercenter and Sam's Club store in Shenzhen.After 13 years of development, Wal-Mart has opened 146 shopping malls in 89 cities across the country, including 138 Wal-Mart shopping malls, 3 Sam’s Club stores, and 2 community stores. It also owns 35% of Trust-Mart’s shares and 102 Trust-Mart stores.This figure exceeds the number of 136 stores of Carrefour, which entered China a year earlier than Wal-Mart. In 2008, Wal-Mart significantly accelerated the pace of opening stores in second- and third-tier cities in China.According to the analysis, Wal-Mart's accelerated strategic layout will lead to a further transfer of China's retail market share to foreign-funded retail companies.So, what is Wal-Mart's expansion strategy in China in the past 13 years, and what is Wal-Mart doing today?
Why are we so afraid of foreign capital?In fact, it is the same reason.First of all, it is because there are some things that we find incomprehensible, and it is absolutely impossible to do such things within the scope of our abilities and cognition.For example, on May 27, 2009, Wal-Mart opened its 148th branch in China in Changle, Fujian.And what about Chinese companies?Let’s make a comparison and take a look at Beijing Hualian, which is one of the 15 national large-scale retail companies supported by the Ministry of Commerce, and it is one of the best Chinese-funded retail companies in the country.But how does it compare to Walmart?Hualian has only about 80 large-scale comprehensive supermarkets with an area of more than 10,000 square meters across the country.This is still the result of key support. What would it be like without government support?Take a look at the catering industry. KFC has more than 2,100 branches in China, and McDonald's is on par, while Little Sheep has only 130 self-operated restaurants and 246 franchised restaurants across the country.Not to mention that the vast majority of Chinese companies are still not at the level of Little Sheep. There is no need for our Chinese companies to be afraid of foreign capital. In fact, the most important thing is not to fear or despise foreign capital, but to know ourselves and the enemy, and understand the competition methods of foreign capital.In fact, our Chinese entrepreneurs are far superior to their foreign counterparts in many aspects, whether it is their love for the industry, their dedication to technology, their proficiency in marketing methods, or their "exploitation" of employees.However, the advantage of foreign-funded enterprises lies in management, but also in thinking! It is thinking!The scariest thing is that whatever you think of is wrong!On the surface, Wal-Mart’s slogan is low prices every day, and you feel that Wal-Mart is engaged in a price war; on the surface, Wal-Mart says that it has been losing money, and you feel that Wal-Mart does not understand China’s national conditions, and this business model is not worth studying at all; On the surface, it seems that Wal-Mart does not allow the establishment of trade unions, and you feel that foreign-funded enterprises are really bad. Engage in a takeover war, so you think this is definitely a threat. Wal-Mart is using price wars to monopolize the market, and will raise prices aggressively in the future. Incorrect!All wrong!Anything you think of is wrong!In fact, Wal-Mart competes in China, and we are not afraid of it raising its prices, because it will lose its competitiveness and cannot beat our Chinese companies.You have to know that Chinese consumers are very "profit-seeking". Even if they boycott it, it will only be two or three days. In the end, they will buy things wherever they are cheap.In fact, what Wal-Mart is doing, I can 100% conclude that our experts and even domestic entrepreneurs must not know, and they will never think of it. In October 2008, Wal-Mart publicly stated in Beijing that it would benefit 1 million Chinese farmers by 2011 through the direct mining farm project.Just 2 months later, the unveiling ceremony of the "Wal-Mart Direct Purchase Base for Converting Ten Thousand Mu of Green Fruits into Organic Fruits" was held in Wafangdian City, Liaoning Province.Wal-Mart made it clear that they will establish a "green supply chain" covering all links such as suppliers, distribution centers, and stores.Perhaps consumers shopping at Wal-Mart will see environmentally friendly and economical fruits, but in the eyes of economists, Wal-Mart's "green supply chain" makes people feel nervous. Why is this?
Our Chinese companies can only endure hardships in the manufacturing and processing link, while Wal-Mart is taking advantage of the strong advantages of its own supply chain.Therefore, on the surface, it seems that they are all price wars. However, the Chinese food industry often loses money and makes money. Instead of losing money, Wal-Mart expands sales and improves inventory turnover, which will naturally make money. Originally, there were three upstream links, but now Wal-Mart directly contacts and even supports the most upstream planting link; on the other hand, there used to be three downstream links, and now Wal-Mart directly launches its own brand products.For example, in the past, a package of vegetables sold for 10 yuan, and it was 8 yuan to purchase from a wholesaler. In this way, Wal-Mart can only make 2 yuan. Now Wal-Mart bypasses the wholesaler and directly finds farmers. But where there is a large piece of cheap land, the price of buying a bag is 3 yuan, and the transportation is also done by yourself, directly from the vegetable field to the city, so that the cost of the circulation link is reduced from 5 yuan to 2 yuan.What is the cost price of Wal-Mart?Only 5 bucks!Even with a 10% discount and selling it at 9 yuan a pack, Wal-Mart's profit has doubled to 4 yuan! Specifically, in the upstream, Wal-Mart has recently been carrying out intensive deployment: choose a place with low prices, plant a large number of designated vegetable varieties, and then use the advantages of logistics to deliver to big cities at low prices. In September 2008, Wal-Mart set up a vegetable direct-harvesting base in Guiyang. The vegetables grown here were delivered in batches to 17 supermarkets in the southwest of Wal-Mart through Yudong Agriculture, a supplier of Wal-Mart.Similarly, in the North China and Northeast China markets, at the end of December 2008, Wal-Mart cooperated with Dalian Xingyeyuan Company and established the "Wal-Mart Green Fruit Conversion Organic Fruit Direct Purchase Base" in Wafangdian City, Liaoning Province. Green fruits are organically transformed and directly supplied to Wal-Mart stores in North China.Do you have any idea how big this whole project is?By 2011, Wal-Mart China plans to allow 1 million farmers to participate in the "Agricultural Supermarket Connection" project.At present, 100,000 farmers and 25,550 acres of farmland and orchards have participated in this "agricultural-supermarket docking" project. And what about downstream?As early as 2006, there were more than 40 private brands in Wal-Mart supermarkets, mainly in clothing and food. Wal-Mart hoped that by 2010, the share of its private brands would increase from 2.5% at that time to 20%.At present, Wal-Mart mainly has three private brands: Great Value (Huiyi), Mainstays and Simply Basic, with a total of 5,250 private-label products, accounting for more than 5% of its total 25,000 products.Usually, the price of private brands is 5%-20% lower than that of national brands, and some products are even 30%-50% lower. Wal-Mart has launched 80 new products so far in 2009, and began selling other private-label products starting in March, including Ol'Roy dog food and Equate health and beauty products. In this way, Wal-Mart integrates the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.After the integration is completed, the real means of competition is not to monopolize first and then raise prices as some of our experts said, but to monopolize first and then lower prices!From the end of 2008, Wal-Mart started the largest price reduction activity in history. Most of the price reductions involved in commodities can reach 20%, and some commodities can even drop by more than 40%. There will be themed promotions every month in the future.The magnitude and frequency of Wal-Mart's price cuts are close to the psychological bottom line of all retailers.Our previous example of vegetables can be replicated in a variety of products.On the surface, consumers have benefited because the price of the terminal has dropped, and farmers have also benefited because the business scale has continued to expand.However, in fact, Wal-Mart has crushed all the enterprises in the middle link of China's industrial chain, and this is only the first step! In the second step, when there are no other large middlemen and retailers, the relationship between Wal-Mart and suppliers has changed.At this time, it is no longer Wal-Mart seeking suppliers, but suppliers have to supply to Wal-Mart for the sake of scale.According to Guo Biao, owner of Yaguang Home Textile Co., Ltd., the company mainly deals with foreign orders and has cooperated with Wal-Mart in China for many years, but the annual supply to Wal-Mart is about 14% to 15% of the total sales. It is the main source of profit". "Many factories are in a downturn now, and some factories even cannot receive orders and are forced to suspend production. As long as there are orders, they can make money." A Wal-Mart food supplier said: "Even for large enterprises, under the current consumption situation, there will be Inventory, idle production capacity, if Wal-Mart's promotion can solve these problems, it is also willing." Wal-Mart has not announced its third-step plan, but after reading the above analysis, can readers guess?That's right, we found that there is at least one link that has not been eaten by Wal-Mart, and that is the most upstream planting link.Why is this?This is because our country has a policy that agricultural land is not allowed to be transferred, and mortgage auctions are not allowed.Therefore, Wal-Mart can only sign contracts with farmers to purchase vegetables grown on their own land from them.But now there is a risk that the state is gradually releasing this control out of various considerations, especially to protect the interests of farmers.What happens when you let it go completely?That is, Wal-Mart lent money to vegetable suppliers, and the suppliers came forward to buy the land, and then handed it over to farmers for planting, thus repeating the history of plantations in South America and Africa, and even the profits of the planting process were completely eaten up.Some of the things Wal-Mart is doing now can objectively achieve this transition. For example, Wal-Mart is trying to help suppliers find different banks to provide loans for capital investment. In this way, Wal-Mart, suppliers and banks cooperate with each other, and Wal-Mart provides long-term benefits to suppliers. Cooperation orders, suppliers and banks for capital loan cooperation. What is the most important thing in the above business model?That is, if Wal-Mart does it by itself, it can really reduce the cost of the circulation link from 5 yuan to 2 yuan.This is simply a fantasy for Chinese companies. In fact, it is very difficult even for other retail companies in the United States.Economist Dr. Stone found in a study of American retail companies that among the three major retail companies in the United States, the proportion of commodity logistics costs to sales is 1.3% in Wal-Mart, 8.75% in Kmart, and 8.75% in Seale. Sri Lanka is 5%.In other words, in the United States, Wal-Mart costs less than 2 yuan, Kmart costs 8 yuan, and Sears costs 5 yuan.Assuming annual sales of $25 billion, Wal-Mart's logistics costs are $1.8625 billion lower than Kmart's and $425 million lower than Sears', which is an astonishingly large difference.This difference is the first capital for Wal-Mart to fight the price war. On December 11, 2004, China fully opened its retail market, and foreign retail giants expanded aggressively. Wal-Mart and Carrefour are two of the most representative ones.The opening of the market has led to the rapid development of China's retail industry, and ordinary consumers have experienced the benefits and convenience brought by large supermarkets.However, ordinary consumers may seldom think about what is happening behind the "everyday low price" is an unprecedentedly fierce and far-reaching commercial competition.So, how should we examine such an opening of the retail industry, and how should we view Wal-Mart's business strategy?
How exactly?Wal-Mart does not want suppliers to deliver goods to the door, but builds a very large logistics center near the expressway in the suburbs, and then uses it as a base to distribute goods to all branches in the business circle with a radius of 320 kilometers. The goods are directly from the lowest cost places all over the world. What is the practice of our Chinese enterprises?We are completely opposite, hoping that the best thing is that the supplier will deliver the goods to the door, so that even the money invested in logistics will be saved.Then how do you make money?It does not make money by retailing the products themselves, but by charging channel fees to suppliers to make money. Which of these two business models is simpler?Obviously the second.Before the emergence of Wal-Mart, American retailers basically did the same thing. Half of the goods were delivered by suppliers.The first model is so troublesome. It has to build a large database, arrange a global supply chain, buy a lot of trucks, and hire a lot of truck drivers.In the second model, the supermarket is the warehouse, but in the first model, Wal-Mart has to build a central logistics warehouse, and then replenish frequently.It’s troublesome to think about it. If you adopt the second model, as a big boss, you can manage a dozen people and run a supermarket well. According to Wal-Mart’s approach, a supermarket needs hundreds of people. So where does Wal-Mart's advantage come from?Take the recently opened Changle store in Fujian as an example. Wal-Mart has to recruit about 500 employees at a time, and the start-up capital is more than ten times that of ordinary supermarkets.But you have to know that these 500 people are very important. With these 500 people, it is easy for Wal-Mart to open one or two more stores within a radius of 320 kilometers.Because each new store can get the strong support of this center, for example, how to set the price of goods?Just transfer the person in charge of this work from the previous store.For another example, do the local people like soybean oil or rapeseed oil?Just ask someone from the previous store.Also, what local newspaper would be most effective in advertising?The people in the previous shop already knew about it. In other words, don't think that Wal-Mart is not worth mentioning because it seems that Wal-Mart doesn't make much money, and it doesn't capture much territory and occupy our market share.In fact, the assembly call has not sounded yet, what they are doing now is to occupy strongholds one by one, and all the people recruited now are officers.This is like Germany after the First World War. At that time, Germany had to disarm. Germany's strategy was to lay off only soldiers, not officers. In this way, although the number of disarmament stipulated in the armistice treaty has been reached, the army system is still intact.When the Second World War began, an officer recruited hundreds of soldiers, and the entire army recovered quickly, and the combat command ability was still excellent.In other words, there may be only one company now, but it can instantly become a legion.This is the true strength of Wal-Mart. Comparing the situation of Wal-Mart in China and the United States today will make it clear.Now Wal-Mart only has more than 140 stores in China, and more than 100 of them are integrated from Trust-Mart. Wal-Mart itself actually has about 40 stores.This number is equivalent to the number of Wal-Mart distribution centers in the United States more than ten years ago.In the United States, Wal-Mart's logistics distribution center is generally set up in the central location of more than 100 retail stores, that is to say, the distribution center is set up in the main sales market.Such a distribution center can meet the needs of more than 100 sales outlets in surrounding cities. The radius of transportation is relatively short and relatively uniform. Basically, a distribution center is established with a business district of 320 kilometers.The order information of each Wal-Mart branch is transmitted to the distribution center through the company's high-speed communication network. After the distribution center is integrated, the order is formally placed with the supplier.Suppliers can deliver items directly to the store where the order was placed, or to a distribution center.Someone described Wal-Mart's distribution center like this: "The average area of these giant buildings exceeds 110,000 square meters, which is equivalent to the size of 24 football fields; it contains all kinds of goods that people can think of, from toothpaste to TV sets, From sanitary napkins to toys, there are more than 80,000 types of products.” Wal-Mart has more than 62 distribution centers in the United States, serving more than 4,000 stores.These centers are carefully deployed according to the trade area of each place. Usually, starting from any center, a car can reach the store it serves within a day. What's more important is that Wal-Mart's strategy is to fight with large armies, while Chinese companies are just doing small things, not even guerrilla warfare, because you have nowhere to hide, and how long you can live depends on when people open their stores. across from you.It is definitely not an exaggeration to say that Wal-Mart is a large army. In fact, the efficiency of Wal-Mart's distribution center is really not much lower than that of the US Army! One end of the distribution center is the loading platform, which can be loaded by 130 trucks at the same time; the other end is the unloading platform, which can park 135 trucks at the same time.The distribution center operates 24 hours a day, receiving an average of more than 200 trucks loading and unloading goods every day.Wal-Mart uses a truck as large as possible to deliver goods, about 16 meters long container, longer or taller than container transport trucks.You can often see such convoys on American roads. Wal-Mart’s trucks are all owned by Wal-Mart, and the drivers are also Wal-Mart employees. be full, which helps to save costs.All of Wal-Mart's more than 6,000 transport trucks are equipped with satellite positioning systems. The headquarters can see at a glance where each vehicle is, what cargo it is carrying, and where its destination is.Therefore, at any time, the dispatch center can know where these vehicles are, how far they are from the store, and also know where a certain product has been transported, and how much time is left to transport it to the store.For this, Walmart is accurate to the hour.If employees know that the convoy is delayed due to weather, roads, etc., the stevedores can arrange other work instead of waiting. The reason why Wal-Mart can achieve today's commercial status is closely related to the almost strict cost control that the company has always pursued, which has also caused problems between corporate profits and employee benefits. On April 26, 2006, the American Victory Alliance, representing 6 million American workers, organized rallies in 35 cities across the United States to protest Wal-Mart's policies of no medical insurance and low wages.In recent years, American labor unions have repeatedly filed lawsuits against Wal-Mart on similar issues in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.For the commercial retail industry, there is the most direct relationship between cost reduction and commercial competitiveness, which is not only reflected in employee welfare expenses, but also in the intermediate links of logistics.So, what level has Wal-Mart's logistics cost compression reached?
If you ask the owner of a small supermarket: Do you know how many bottles of soy sauce your store sells every day?He definitely can't answer.Why?How do you know who is out of soy sauce in your community today.If you ask him how many bottles he can sell in a month, he may not be able to tell.But what if you have 100 stores across the city?You will be surprised to find that this total is regular!This is the law of large numbers in statistics.When your scale is large enough, many random variables will have some regular characteristics.In this way, Wal-Mart has an advantage, because it does not have to put money on the goods.A small supermarket can only sell one box of soy sauce a month. If a box costs 500 yuan, it can only sell 6,000 yuan a year.And Wal-Mart can sell a box of soy sauce a day, cost 500 yuan on the goods, and earn 180,000 yuan a year.Even if everyone does not fight price wars, the profit margin is 10%. If you invest 500 yuan in a small supermarket, you can only earn 600 yuan a year, but if you invest in Wal-Mart, you can earn 18,000 yuan.That's the difference!The key here is the turnover rate of the goods, that is to say, how fast the money put on the inventory turns.The capacity of Wal-Mart is about five times that of its American competitors. In China, because the stores have not yet been built, it is temporarily lower. However, it is objectively estimated that this capacity is about ten times or even dozens of times that of its Chinese competitors. Let's take this example one step further.If Wal-Mart says, I don’t want so much money, I set the price lower, and the profit margin is cut in half, and I can still easily earn 9,000 yuan.If Wal-Mart calculates carefully, it will find that the bargaining power of large-scale purchases is very high. In the past, a box of soy sauce cost 500 yuan, which was the wholesale price at which the supplier was responsible for delivery. It can be reduced to 290 yuan.In addition, the cost of doing logistics by yourself is very low, which may be less than 10 yuan. Even if half of the profit is used to build the logistics system and IT system, you still have a profit of more than 5,000 yuan.And the soy sauce sold in your supermarket is now 36% off! This logistics cost data is not something we came up with casually.Walmart's fulfillment costs are 2% of sales, half that of competitors.Compared with the research data in China, logistics costs generally account for about 10% of the total sales, and some food industries even reach 20% or 30%.So now if the retail price of a box of goods in China is 500 yuan, about 100-200 yuan of it is the logistics cost. If the wages of the porters and the cost of inventory management are included, it may cost 200-250 yuan.This part of the cost is not included in the supplier's original factory price.And what is the concept of Wal-Mart's 2%?That is, the price is multiplied by 2%, so 10 yuan may be too much. Why do you say this way?Because the cost of Wal-Mart's porters is very low, and 800 employees work in 24-hour shifts to load, unload, move, and deliver.The wages of Wal-Mart's workers are not high, because these workers are basically junior high school and high school students, but they have only received special training from Wal-Mart.It is precisely because these workers have low education that Wal-Mart dares to bully employees and refuses to pay insurance for employees.In the United States, it is unimaginable for employers not to pay employees for medical insurance.But what about Wal-Mart?Wal-Mart currently has 3,700 stores in the United States with 1.3 million employees. According to data in January 2009, only 610,000 employees enjoy medical insurance, accounting for 49% of Wal-Mart's employees in the United States.Only 20% of Walmart's employees in Washington state receive public medical insurance assistance, and other employees have to pay for medical insurance and other expenses out of their own pockets.It is even more difficult for Walmart's more than 400,000 overseas employees to enjoy this kind of benefits.So don't think that the benefits of foreign-funded enterprises must be good. In fact, foreign-funded enterprises may be more cruel in this regard.Don’t be filled with national inferiority complex when you hear that Wal-Mart is unwilling to establish a trade union in China. Wal-Mart also firmly opposes the establishment of a trade union in the United States. The most important reason is that the trade union has 2% of the union fee every year.So why has it now agreed to unionize in China?It's not because it's afraid of the Chinese government, it's not even afraid of the US government!The real reason is that it found that China’s trade union fees are actually returned to workers in the form of activities or benefits, and China’s trade unions are not like American trade unions. Negotiate wages with employers on behalf of workers, etc. Where did Wal-Mart get so much money for such a big acquisition and opening of stores?In fact, compared with the money it earns, the money is just a drop in the bucket. What are more than 16,000 transport trucks and 62 distribution centers with an area equivalent to 24 football fields?Not to mention that Wal-Mart has its own satellites and large-scale servers all over the world. It is difficult for Chinese companies to emulate the fact that each of Wal-Mart's cargo transportation vehicles has a satellite mobile computer system.Similarly, the IT investment and upgrade management costs of maintaining this huge network are not something most enterprises can afford.The higher the threshold, the smaller the chance of being overtaken by Chinese companies in the future!That's why I say, wake up all Chinese companies, don't just look at the superficial things of others, think about the hard work behind them! What exactly is this kung fu?Sun Wukong relies on seventy-two changes to subdue demons and eliminate demons, and his strategy is flexible and changeable.For example, fighting against Erlang God, there is nothing else, just keep changing, technology and strategy complement each other, so every battle is victorious, until you meet the Tathagata Buddha who responds to all changes without change.So, what about Walmart China?In the final analysis, satellites, servers, and fleets are all the same technology-supply chain management.Therefore, the best strategy should be to maximize the advantages of the supply chain.That is to offset the impact of low gross profit margin with efficient turnover rate and implement the strategy of greatly parity with supply chain advantages.So Wal-Mart is like a greedy snake. After eating the downstream, it eats the midstream, and after eating the midstream, it supports its own upstream.This strategy can be said to be constant in the United States until it encounters the Chinese market, which is in constant change.Every day parity's strategy determines Wal-Mart's Achilles' heel: its high sensitivity to operating costs. This weakness has unfortunately encountered three unprecedented challenges in China: first, land rent is no longer friendly; second, high logistics costs; third, competitors are better than blue. Wal-Mart was really bullish when it first came to China.Of course, it has capital bullishness. After all, until today, Wal-Mart is still one of the only stocks in the S&P 500 Index that has not fallen but risen since the financial tsunami. In 2000, Wanda negotiated with Wal-Mart, thinking that the overall situation had been settled and a contract could be signed, but Wal-Mart would only issue a letter, which meant "we are interested in your project".Wanda could only hold this letter and construct according to the strict requirements of Wal-Mart.When Wal-Mart completed the inspection and acceptance of the project and was about to sign the contract, Wanda discovered that the contract was originally a condition issued by the US headquarters. The terms were very strict and there was no room for bargaining. This is just a matter of attitude. The real key behind the attitude is the ground rent.Wal-Mart's model is a hypermarket, so land rent is the most sensitive issue.Of course, this is not a problem in the United States. Every family has two or three cars, and the land is sparsely populated. It is easy to find large land plots with cheap land rent near the entrance and exit of expressways in the suburbs.But it is different in China. Most of the general consumers that Wal-Mart faces do not have private cars.Therefore, this kind of mass merchandise store is definitely not as good as community stores, or at least in terms of quantity, the development space of mass merchandise stores is relatively limited.This is not the most terrible thing. The most important thing is that the land rent in the wilderness of the United States usually does not change for more than ten years. Anyway, there are many such land.When Wal-Mart first arrived in China, it was directed overseas by the US headquarters, and there was not a single director on the board of directors who had done business in the Far East, so they took it for granted that China was the same as the US.At that time, Wal-Mart had many partners to choose from, and the rental conditions they offered were very favorable.For example, the first six projects that Wal-Mart cooperated with Wanda all had a half-year rent-free period, and the monthly rent per square meter was about 20 yuan. But what about today?Even though Wanda has very low rent requirements for anchor stores, the average ground rent has risen to 50 yuan per square meter per month.However, this kind of cooperation of Wanda has its own considerations, that is, the main store must bring enough passenger flow to its commercial land, which will bring up the land rent and housing prices around the main store, thereby bringing Wanda bigger gains.However, Wanda soon discovered that Wal-Mart may not be able to do this, or it may not be the best.Therefore, in early 2004, Wanda began to contact Wal-Mart's competitor, Carrefour.Then there was a dramatic scene. On the first day, Wanda contacted Carrefour, and on the second day, Wal-Mart took the initiative to send a letter to Wanda to discuss cooperation matters.In Harbin, Wanda chose to cooperate with RT-Mart, while Wal-Mart was abandoned. If you want to stay, it is not difficult. Anyway, the rent-free period has passed, and the preferential period has also passed, so let’s pay the rent according to the market price.It doesn't matter if Wal-Mart is unwilling. Wanda opened the "Wan Chamber of Commerce" in 2007, and more than 30 supermarkets came to register. It doesn't matter if Wal-Mart is unwilling. There are so many companies lining up to enter.After all, it was a store customized according to Wal-Mart's strict requirements back then. The hardware and detailed design are all top-notch. In addition, Wal-Mart has cultivated business circles and customer traffic there for many years. It is no wonder that so many companies are salivating. Many survey data show that in Beijing, Wal-Mart is obviously not as popular as Carrefour.where is the problem?Site selection?I'm afraid not.The problem is not complicated, and it can be summed up in a well-known saying: do not understand customers.It is indeed more difficult than in the United States to understand the habits of Chinese consumers, and it is much more difficult.In hypermarkets in the United States, food and deli products usually only account for less than 10% of the store; while in Chinese supermarkets, this ratio is about 50%.Small habits, big problems, this is what makes Wal-Mart China a success in logistics, and a failure in logistics. Americans have very simple meals, and Chinese who are new to North America may be intimidated.Their breakfast is very simple, just cereal with milk.The difference is minimal, at most the difference between oatmeal or cornflakes, oatmeal cubes, and instant cereal.Milk is even simpler, which is the difference between skim milk and whole milk.What about dinner?Just ask McGrady and Yao Ming, who also play in the NBA, and you will know how big the difference is.Maddy's favorite food is the pasta cooked by his mother. If it can be served with the sauce made by his grandmother, he will be so excited that he will cry.What about Yao Ming?Of course it is Shanghai cuisine, and my favorite is Lao Huo Liang Soup. This personal attention is not an excessive requirement for consumers, but it is a headache for Wal-Mart.It's easy to do in the United States. The shelf life of cereals is very long, and those brands are the ones that consumers buy the most.It’s troublesome in China. Yao Ming’s mother may cook fish soup today, winter insects and summer leather the next day, and old duck soup the day after tomorrow...every day for a week.And every time I have to choose a lot of ingredients, if any one is missing, Yao Ming's mother simply doesn't buy any of them, and uses another recipe instead.The problem is that there are tens of thousands of families in Shanghai and Beijing, and the daily menu depends on the mood, which can neither be predicted nor prepared.Wal-Mart said, then I will only buy the ones that consume the most.I'm sorry, Yao Ming's mother didn't buy anything, she went to the Carrefour next door, or she would rather go a few steps to the vegetable market. What is Wal-Mart best at?It is to count and predict the consumption of cereals in the United States, accurate to the weekly or even daily consumption, and then negotiate with the manufacturer to determine the production plan for which factory in the world, and then transport it to several distribution centers in the United States, frequently for the Replenishment at each branch.What good is that?The sales of cereal at one Wal-Mart store are erratic and fluctuating, but the total sales of dozens of stores in a state tend to be very stable and predictable because they cancel each other out this uncertainty. It's called the law of large numbers.Therefore, the demand for each commodity in the distribution center is very stable, and the total inventory is very low.It doesn't matter if individual stores are out of stock, because the distribution center will replenish the stock within two days.Due to saving a lot of order money and inventory, the inventory turnover rate, capital turnover rate and even asset turnover rate of the entire enterprise are very high.And once the scale is formed, it can basically be invincible.In this case, since Wal-Mart's order scale is already very large, the cost can be kept very low, coupled with the high turnover rate, a gross profit margin of one percentage point is enough for Wal-Mart to earn.And what about the other competitors?The order size is not so large, and the turnover rate is not so high. It is like a seesaw. If you want to maintain the same return on capital as Wal-Mart, you can only rely on increasing gross profit margins. The result of this is that you will never be able to compete with Wal-Mart in terms of price. .If, on the other hand, the price is the same as that of Wal-Mart, the company can only lose money, and the larger the scale, the worse the loss, and finally it can only close down. However, Wal-Mart's set of tools has encountered unprecedented challenges in front of countless Chinese consumers like Yao Ming's mother.Can you estimate exactly how many fish are consumed in Shanghai every day?就算你能，那么你怎么能确定今天姚明妈妈是想煮鲫鱼，还是鲈鱼？是在你这里买，还是去对面买呢？说到底，我们是“民以食为天”的国度，消费需求太细化了。美国人吃牛肉无非就是牛排，而中国人却要分成牛眼肉、牛腩、牛尾骨等等部分。猪肉就更是麻烦，我们要分成里脊、排骨、鲜肉、五花肉、后臀尖、猪头肉、猪舌头、猪耳朵、猪软骨、猪下水等等，不新鲜肯定没人买，可是分得这么细，得有多少货品要因为过期被处理掉？别的不用说，光跟美国总部汇报怎么解决跟猪肉相关的进货问题就得翻译半天，因为美国人没有这种习惯。所以，中国人这种孜孜不倦的饮食艺术，几乎要了沃尔玛模式所依赖的大数法则的命。更要命的是，超市里的货品一半都是食品，食品里又有一半是鲜活的，这就必须依靠短途供应链，配货中心的效率反而不如供货商提供的物流有效。你想想双汇冷鲜肉，就是这么回事。 沃尔玛解决不了的问题，却难不倒中国的本土企业。现在几个内资超市的鲜活产品的确做得比沃尔玛好，集外资和本土经验于一身的台资超市更是独占优势，大润发、好又多都是其中的代表。而且沃尔玛的高调进入还给大家提供了难得的借鉴学习的机会。以前大家可能不知道沃尔玛的物流系统是怎么搭建的，也不清楚沃尔玛的配送频率是什么样的，现在好了，沃尔玛开在你对面了，天天盯着看也能学个八九不离十了。不知道怎么培训中层管理人员？等沃尔玛培训好了，挖过来就是了。最难的应该是沃尔玛灵魂的IT系统，不过这也难不倒中国本土企业。外资IT咨询公司也跟着进入中国了，成套系统买过来就是了。于是几乎在一夜间，我们发现中国大大小小的超市都开始用货架而不是柜台了，开始用扫码器来结账了，开始跟银行合作搞购物卡了，开始统一形象、统一服装了，客户服务部的态度也越来越好了。沃尔玛和家乐福一样，都是鲇鱼，激活了市场，却没有吃掉整个市场。 那么，沃尔玛该怎么办？只能针对这三个问题做出必需的调整。而调整的基础自然要立足于沃尔玛现有的优势：第一，沃尔玛的物流管理系统仍然独具优势，只是现在适合中国人饮食习惯的物流问题没有解决；第二，沃尔玛作为标准普尔500指数中为数不多的抗金融海啸绩优股，其融资成本非常低。 既然物流成本降不下来，那么就只能有两个出路。第一个是横向并购，以扩大规模，重新拾回大数法则的利器。这就是为什么沃尔玛要收购整合好又多。第二个是纵向并购，把其他环节的物流成本都省下来，这样全产业链竞争，充分分摊物流管理成本。考虑到外资企业并购的诸多不便，沃尔玛改为扶持自己可以控制的合作伙伴，从而实现向上游的扩张。 这时，沃尔玛的融资成本优势就显示出来了。试想一下，如果一家国内的超市企业决定贷款融资来组建自己的物流企业，新业务至少要取得6%的投资回报率才可行。而沃尔玛呢？2009年沃尔玛发行11亿日元的浮息债券，融资成本仅仅是伦敦浮息利率加上60个基点。以9月份的平均伦敦日元浮息利率估计，这个融资成本仅为0.8%。换言之，新业务只要取得1%的投资回报率，沃尔玛就赚了。同样一个超市集团，现在可以用来支付利息的现金流是1亿元，假设融资方要求的覆盖率都是2倍，如果你是中国企业，最多只能融资8.3亿元（有兴趣的读者可以用1亿元除以2再除以6%就可得出8.3亿元）；而如果你是沃尔玛呢？你最多可以融资62.5亿元（用1亿元除以2再除以0.8%就可得出62.5亿元）。何况沃尔玛的融资方并不会要求那么高的覆盖率。说得简单一点，对着烧钱，烧到10个亿的时候你已经破产了，根本没有现金周转了，而沃尔玛手里还握着50个亿没动呢，正好把你低价买下来。 这样总结起来，你才会发现沃尔玛的可怕。你不要忘了，到今天为止，中国市场在沃尔玛的全球总销售额中不过是可有可无的一部分，可以赔钱也可以赚钱，可以收购也可以卖掉。实际上沃尔玛已经退出了德国市场，收回来的钱用来拓展中国市场和拉美市场。而对于中国本土企业而言，你如果丢掉了这个市场，就什么都没有了。
Why are we so afraid of foreign capital?In fact, it is the same reason.First of all, it is because there are some things that we find incomprehensible, and it is absolutely impossible to do such things within the scope of our abilities and cognition.For example, on May 27, 2009, Wal-Mart opened its 148th branch in China in Changle, Fujian.And what about Chinese companies?Let’s make a comparison and take a look at Beijing Hualian, which is one of the 15 national large-scale retail companies supported by the Ministry of Commerce, and it is one of the best Chinese-funded retail companies in the country.But how does it compare to Walmart?Hualian has only about 80 large-scale comprehensive supermarkets with an area of more than 10,000 square meters across the country.This is still the result of key support. What would it be like without government support?Take a look at the catering industry. KFC has more than 2,100 branches in China, and McDonald's is on par, while Little Sheep has only 130 self-operated restaurants and 246 franchised restaurants across the country.Not to mention that the vast majority of Chinese companies are still not at the level of Little Sheep. There is no need for our Chinese companies to be afraid of foreign capital. In fact, the most important thing is not to fear or despise foreign capital, but to know ourselves and the enemy, and understand the competition methods of foreign capital.In fact, our Chinese entrepreneurs are far superior to their foreign counterparts in many aspects, whether it is their love for the industry, their dedication to technology, their proficiency in marketing methods, or their "exploitation" of employees.However, the advantage of foreign-funded enterprises lies in management, but also in thinking! It is thinking!The scariest thing is that whatever you think of is wrong!On the surface, Wal-Mart’s slogan is low prices every day, and you feel that Wal-Mart is engaged in a price war; on the surface, Wal-Mart says that it has been losing money, and you feel that Wal-Mart does not understand China’s national conditions, and this business model is not worth studying at all; On the surface, it seems that Wal-Mart does not allow the establishment of trade unions, and you feel that foreign-funded enterprises are really bad. Engage in a takeover war, so you think this is definitely a threat. Wal-Mart is using price wars to monopolize the market, and will raise prices aggressively in the future. Incorrect!All wrong!Anything you think of is wrong!In fact, Wal-Mart competes in China, and we are not afraid of it raising its prices, because it will lose its competitiveness and cannot beat our Chinese companies.You have to know that Chinese consumers are very "profit-seeking". Even if they boycott it, it will only be two or three days. In the end, they will buy things wherever they are cheap.In fact, what Wal-Mart is doing, I can 100% conclude that our experts and even domestic entrepreneurs must not know, and they will never think of it. In October 2008, Wal-Mart publicly stated in Beijing that it would benefit 1 million Chinese farmers by 2011 through the direct mining farm project.Just 2 months later, the unveiling ceremony of the "Wal-Mart Direct Purchase Base for Converting Ten Thousand Mu of Green Fruits into Organic Fruits" was held in Wafangdian City, Liaoning Province.Wal-Mart made it clear that they will establish a "green supply chain" covering all links such as suppliers, distribution centers, and stores.Perhaps consumers shopping at Wal-Mart will see environmentally friendly and economical fruits, but in the eyes of economists, Wal-Mart's "green supply chain" makes people feel nervous. Why is this?
Our Chinese companies can only endure hardships in the manufacturing and processing link, while Wal-Mart is taking advantage of the strong advantages of its own supply chain.Therefore, on the surface, it seems that they are all price wars. However, the Chinese food industry often loses money and makes money. Instead of losing money, Wal-Mart expands sales and improves inventory turnover, which will naturally make money. Originally, there were three upstream links, but now Wal-Mart directly contacts and even supports the most upstream planting link; on the other hand, there used to be three downstream links, and now Wal-Mart directly launches its own brand products.For example, in the past, a package of vegetables sold for 10 yuan, and it was 8 yuan to purchase from a wholesaler. In this way, Wal-Mart can only make 2 yuan. Now Wal-Mart bypasses the wholesaler and directly finds farmers. But where there is a large piece of cheap land, the price of buying a bag is 3 yuan, and the transportation is also done by yourself, directly from the vegetable field to the city, so that the cost of the circulation link is reduced from 5 yuan to 2 yuan.What is the cost price of Wal-Mart?Only 5 bucks!Even with a 10% discount and selling it at 9 yuan a pack, Wal-Mart's profit has doubled to 4 yuan! Specifically, in the upstream, Wal-Mart has recently been carrying out intensive deployment: choose a place with low prices, plant a large number of designated vegetable varieties, and then use the advantages of logistics to deliver to big cities at low prices. In September 2008, Wal-Mart set up a vegetable direct-harvesting base in Guiyang. The vegetables grown here were delivered in batches to 17 supermarkets in the southwest of Wal-Mart through Yudong Agriculture, a supplier of Wal-Mart.Similarly, in the North China and Northeast China markets, at the end of December 2008, Wal-Mart cooperated with Dalian Xingyeyuan Company and established the "Wal-Mart Green Fruit Conversion Organic Fruit Direct Purchase Base" in Wafangdian City, Liaoning Province. Green fruits are organically transformed and directly supplied to Wal-Mart stores in North China.Do you have any idea how big this whole project is?By 2011, Wal-Mart China plans to allow 1 million farmers to participate in the "Agricultural Supermarket Connection" project.At present, 100,000 farmers and 25,550 acres of farmland and orchards have participated in this "agricultural-supermarket docking" project. And what about downstream?As early as 2006, there were more than 40 private brands in Wal-Mart supermarkets, mainly in clothing and food. Wal-Mart hoped that by 2010, the share of its private brands would increase from 2.5% at that time to 20%.At present, Wal-Mart mainly has three private brands: Great Value (Huiyi), Mainstays and Simply Basic, with a total of 5,250 private-label products, accounting for more than 5% of its total 25,000 products.Usually, the price of private brands is 5%-20% lower than that of national brands, and some products are even 30%-50% lower. Wal-Mart has launched 80 new products so far in 2009, and began selling other private-label products starting in March, including Ol'Roy dog food and Equate health and beauty products. In this way, Wal-Mart integrates the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.After the integration is completed, the real means of competition is not to monopolize first and then raise prices as some of our experts said, but to monopolize first and then lower prices!From the end of 2008, Wal-Mart started the largest price reduction activity in history. Most of the price reductions involved in commodities can reach 20%, and some commodities can even drop by more than 40%. There will be themed promotions every month in the future.The magnitude and frequency of Wal-Mart's price cuts are close to the psychological bottom line of all retailers.Our previous example of vegetables can be replicated in a variety of products.On the surface, consumers have benefited because the price of the terminal has dropped, and farmers have also benefited because the business scale has continued to expand.However, in fact, Wal-Mart has crushed all the enterprises in the middle link of China's industrial chain, and this is only the first step! In the second step, when there are no other large middlemen and retailers, the relationship between Wal-Mart and suppliers has changed.At this time, it is no longer Wal-Mart seeking suppliers, but suppliers have to supply to Wal-Mart for the sake of scale.According to Guo Biao, owner of Yaguang Home Textile Co., Ltd., the company mainly deals with foreign orders and has cooperated with Wal-Mart in China for many years, but the annual supply to Wal-Mart is about 14% to 15% of the total sales. It is the main source of profit". "Many factories are in a downturn now, and some factories even cannot receive orders and are forced to suspend production. As long as there are orders, they can make money." A Wal-Mart food supplier said: "Even for large enterprises, under the current consumption situation, there will be Inventory, idle production capacity, if Wal-Mart's promotion can solve these problems, it is also willing." Wal-Mart has not announced its third-step plan, but after reading the above analysis, can readers guess?That's right, we found that there is at least one link that has not been eaten by Wal-Mart, and that is the most upstream planting link.Why is this?This is because our country has a policy that agricultural land is not allowed to be transferred, and mortgage auctions are not allowed.Therefore, Wal-Mart can only sign contracts with farmers to purchase vegetables grown on their own land from them.But now there is a risk that the state is gradually releasing this control out of various considerations, especially to protect the interests of farmers.What happens when you let it go completely?That is, Wal-Mart lent money to vegetable suppliers, and the suppliers came forward to buy the land, and then handed it over to farmers for planting, thus repeating the history of plantations in South America and Africa, and even the profits of the planting process were completely eaten up.Some of the things Wal-Mart is doing now can objectively achieve this transition. For example, Wal-Mart is trying to help suppliers find different banks to provide loans for capital investment. In this way, Wal-Mart, suppliers and banks cooperate with each other, and Wal-Mart provides long-term benefits to suppliers. Cooperation orders, suppliers and banks for capital loan cooperation. What is the most important thing in the above business model?That is, if Wal-Mart does it by itself, it can really reduce the cost of the circulation link from 5 yuan to 2 yuan.This is simply a fantasy for Chinese companies. In fact, it is very difficult even for other retail companies in the United States.Economist Dr. Stone found in a study of American retail companies that among the three major retail companies in the United States, the proportion of commodity logistics costs to sales is 1.3% in Wal-Mart, 8.75% in Kmart, and 8.75% in Seale. Sri Lanka is 5%.In other words, in the United States, Wal-Mart costs less than 2 yuan, Kmart costs 8 yuan, and Sears costs 5 yuan.Assuming annual sales of $25 billion, Wal-Mart's logistics costs are $1.8625 billion lower than Kmart's and $425 million lower than Sears', which is an astonishingly large difference.This difference is the first capital for Wal-Mart to fight the price war. On December 11, 2004, China fully opened its retail market, and foreign retail giants expanded aggressively. Wal-Mart and Carrefour are two of the most representative ones.The opening of the market has led to the rapid development of China's retail industry, and ordinary consumers have experienced the benefits and convenience brought by large supermarkets.However, ordinary consumers may seldom think about what is happening behind the "everyday low price" is an unprecedentedly fierce and far-reaching commercial competition.So, how should we examine such an opening of the retail industry, and how should we view Wal-Mart's business strategy?
How exactly?Wal-Mart does not want suppliers to deliver goods to the door, but builds a very large logistics center near the expressway in the suburbs, and then uses it as a base to distribute goods to all branches in the business circle with a radius of 320 kilometers. The goods are directly from the lowest cost places all over the world. What is the practice of our Chinese enterprises?We are completely opposite, hoping that the best thing is that the supplier will deliver the goods to the door, so that even the money invested in logistics will be saved.Then how do you make money?It does not make money by retailing the products themselves, but by charging channel fees to suppliers to make money. Which of these two business models is simpler?Obviously the second.Before the emergence of Wal-Mart, American retailers basically did the same thing. Half of the goods were delivered by suppliers.The first model is so troublesome. It has to build a large database, arrange a global supply chain, buy a lot of trucks, and hire a lot of truck drivers.In the second model, the supermarket is the warehouse, but in the first model, Wal-Mart has to build a central logistics warehouse, and then replenish frequently.It’s troublesome to think about it. If you adopt the second model, as a big boss, you can manage a dozen people and run a supermarket well. According to Wal-Mart’s approach, a supermarket needs hundreds of people. So where does Wal-Mart's advantage come from?Take the recently opened Changle store in Fujian as an example. Wal-Mart has to recruit about 500 employees at a time, and the start-up capital is more than ten times that of ordinary supermarkets.But you have to know that these 500 people are very important. With these 500 people, it is easy for Wal-Mart to open one or two more stores within a radius of 320 kilometers.Because each new store can get the strong support of this center, for example, how to set the price of goods?Just transfer the person in charge of this work from the previous store.For another example, do the local people like soybean oil or rapeseed oil?Just ask someone from the previous store.Also, what local newspaper would be most effective in advertising?The people in the previous shop already knew about it. In other words, don't think that Wal-Mart is not worth mentioning because it seems that Wal-Mart doesn't make much money, and it doesn't capture much territory and occupy our market share.In fact, the assembly call has not sounded yet, what they are doing now is to occupy strongholds one by one, and all the people recruited now are officers.This is like Germany after the First World War. At that time, Germany had to disarm. Germany's strategy was to lay off only soldiers, not officers. In this way, although the number of disarmament stipulated in the armistice treaty has been reached, the army system is still intact.When the Second World War began, an officer recruited hundreds of soldiers, and the entire army recovered quickly, and the combat command ability was still excellent.In other words, there may be only one company now, but it can instantly become a legion.This is the true strength of Wal-Mart. Comparing the situation of Wal-Mart in China and the United States today will make it clear.Now Wal-Mart only has more than 140 stores in China, and more than 100 of them are integrated from Trust-Mart. Wal-Mart itself actually has about 40 stores.This number is equivalent to the number of Wal-Mart distribution centers in the United States more than ten years ago.In the United States, Wal-Mart's logistics distribution center is generally set up in the central location of more than 100 retail stores, that is to say, the distribution center is set up in the main sales market.Such a distribution center can meet the needs of more than 100 sales outlets in surrounding cities. The radius of transportation is relatively short and relatively uniform. Basically, a distribution center is established with a business district of 320 kilometers.The order information of each Wal-Mart branch is transmitted to the distribution center through the company's high-speed communication network. After the distribution center is integrated, the order is formally placed with the supplier.Suppliers can deliver items directly to the store where the order was placed, or to a distribution center.Someone described Wal-Mart's distribution center like this: "The average area of these giant buildings exceeds 110,000 square meters, which is equivalent to the size of 24 football fields; it contains all kinds of goods that people can think of, from toothpaste to TV sets, From sanitary napkins to toys, there are more than 80,000 types of products.” Wal-Mart has more than 62 distribution centers in the United States, serving more than 4,000 stores.These centers are carefully deployed according to the trade area of each place. Usually, starting from any center, a car can reach the store it serves within a day. What's more important is that Wal-Mart's strategy is to fight with large armies, while Chinese companies are just doing small things, not even guerrilla warfare, because you have nowhere to hide, and how long you can live depends on when people open their stores. across from you.It is definitely not an exaggeration to say that Wal-Mart is a large army. In fact, the efficiency of Wal-Mart's distribution center is really not much lower than that of the US Army! One end of the distribution center is the loading platform, which can be loaded by 130 trucks at the same time; the other end is the unloading platform, which can park 135 trucks at the same time.The distribution center operates 24 hours a day, receiving an average of more than 200 trucks loading and unloading goods every day.Wal-Mart uses a truck as large as possible to deliver goods, about 16 meters long container, longer or taller than container transport trucks.You can often see such convoys on American roads. Wal-Mart’s trucks are all owned by Wal-Mart, and the drivers are also Wal-Mart employees. be full, which helps to save costs.All of Wal-Mart's more than 6,000 transport trucks are equipped with satellite positioning systems. The headquarters can see at a glance where each vehicle is, what cargo it is carrying, and where its destination is.Therefore, at any time, the dispatch center can know where these vehicles are, how far they are from the store, and also know where a certain product has been transported, and how much time is left to transport it to the store.For this, Walmart is accurate to the hour.If employees know that the convoy is delayed due to weather, roads, etc., the stevedores can arrange other work instead of waiting. The reason why Wal-Mart can achieve today's commercial status is closely related to the almost strict cost control that the company has always pursued, which has also caused problems between corporate profits and employee benefits. On April 26, 2006, the American Victory Alliance, representing 6 million American workers, organized rallies in 35 cities across the United States to protest Wal-Mart's policies of no medical insurance and low wages.In recent years, American labor unions have repeatedly filed lawsuits against Wal-Mart on similar issues in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.For the commercial retail industry, there is the most direct relationship between cost reduction and commercial competitiveness, which is not only reflected in employee welfare expenses, but also in the intermediate links of logistics.So, what level has Wal-Mart's logistics cost compression reached?
If you ask the owner of a small supermarket: Do you know how many bottles of soy sauce your store sells every day?He definitely can't answer.Why?How do you know who is out of soy sauce in your community today.If you ask him how many bottles he can sell in a month, he may not be able to tell.But what if you have 100 stores across the city?You will be surprised to find that this total is regular!This is the law of large numbers in statistics.When your scale is large enough, many random variables will have some regular characteristics.In this way, Wal-Mart has an advantage, because it does not have to put money on the goods.A small supermarket can only sell one box of soy sauce a month. If a box costs 500 yuan, it can only sell 6,000 yuan a year.And Wal-Mart can sell a box of soy sauce a day, cost 500 yuan on the goods, and earn 180,000 yuan a year.Even if everyone does not fight price wars, the profit margin is 10%. If you invest 500 yuan in a small supermarket, you can only earn 600 yuan a year, but if you invest in Wal-Mart, you can earn 18,000 yuan.That's the difference!The key here is the turnover rate of the goods, that is to say, how fast the money put on the inventory turns.The capacity of Wal-Mart is about five times that of its American competitors. In China, because the stores have not yet been built, it is temporarily lower. However, it is objectively estimated that this capacity is about ten times or even dozens of times that of its Chinese competitors. Let's take this example one step further.If Wal-Mart says, I don’t want so much money, I set the price lower, and the profit margin is cut in half, and I can still easily earn 9,000 yuan.If Wal-Mart calculates carefully, it will find that the bargaining power of large-scale purchases is very high. In the past, a box of soy sauce cost 500 yuan, which was the wholesale price at which the supplier was responsible for delivery. It can be reduced to 290 yuan.In addition, the cost of doing logistics by yourself is very low, which may be less than 10 yuan. Even if half of the profit is used to build the logistics system and IT system, you still have a profit of more than 5,000 yuan.And the soy sauce sold in your supermarket is now 36% off! This logistics cost data is not something we came up with casually.Walmart's fulfillment costs are 2% of sales, half that of competitors.Compared with the research data in China, logistics costs generally account for about 10% of the total sales, and some food industries even reach 20% or 30%.So now if the retail price of a box of goods in China is 500 yuan, about 100-200 yuan of it is the logistics cost. If the wages of the porters and the cost of inventory management are included, it may cost 200-250 yuan.This part of the cost is not included in the supplier's original factory price.And what is the concept of Wal-Mart's 2%?That is, the price is multiplied by 2%, so 10 yuan may be too much. Why do you say this way?Because the cost of Wal-Mart's porters is very low, and 800 employees work in 24-hour shifts to load, unload, move, and deliver.The wages of Wal-Mart's workers are not high, because these workers are basically junior high school and high school students, but they have only received special training from Wal-Mart.It is precisely because these workers have low education that Wal-Mart dares to bully employees and refuses to pay insurance for employees.In the United States, it is unimaginable for employers not to pay employees for medical insurance.But what about Wal-Mart?Wal-Mart currently has 3,700 stores in the United States with 1.3 million employees. According to data in January 2009, only 610,000 employees enjoy medical insurance, accounting for 49% of Wal-Mart's employees in the United States.Only 20% of Walmart's employees in Washington state receive public medical insurance assistance, and other employees have to pay for medical insurance and other expenses out of their own pockets.It is even more difficult for Walmart's more than 400,000 overseas employees to enjoy this kind of benefits.So don't think that the benefits of foreign-funded enterprises must be good. In fact, foreign-funded enterprises may be more cruel in this regard.Don’t be filled with national inferiority complex when you hear that Wal-Mart is unwilling to establish a trade union in China. Wal-Mart also firmly opposes the establishment of a trade union in the United States. The most important reason is that the trade union has 2% of the union fee every year.So why has it now agreed to unionize in China?It's not because it's afraid of the Chinese government, it's not even afraid of the US government!The real reason is that it found that China’s trade union fees are actually returned to workers in the form of activities or benefits, and China’s trade unions are not like American trade unions. Negotiate wages with employers on behalf of workers, etc. Where did Wal-Mart get so much money for such a big acquisition and opening of stores?In fact, compared with the money it earns, the money is just a drop in the bucket. What are more than 16,000 transport trucks and 62 distribution centers with an area equivalent to 24 football fields?Not to mention that Wal-Mart has its own satellites and large-scale servers all over the world. It is difficult for Chinese companies to emulate the fact that each of Wal-Mart's cargo transportation vehicles has a satellite mobile computer system.Similarly, the IT investment and upgrade management costs of maintaining this huge network are not something most enterprises can afford.The higher the threshold, the smaller the chance of being overtaken by Chinese companies in the future!That's why I say, wake up all Chinese companies, don't just look at the superficial things of others, think about the hard work behind them! What exactly is this kung fu?Sun Wukong relies on seventy-two changes to subdue demons and eliminate demons, and his strategy is flexible and changeable.For example, fighting against Erlang God, there is nothing else, just keep changing, technology and strategy complement each other, so every battle is victorious, until you meet the Tathagata Buddha who responds to all changes without change.So, what about Walmart China?In the final analysis, satellites, servers, and fleets are all the same technology-supply chain management.Therefore, the best strategy should be to maximize the advantages of the supply chain.That is to offset the impact of low gross profit margin with efficient turnover rate and implement the strategy of greatly parity with supply chain advantages.So Wal-Mart is like a greedy snake. After eating the downstream, it eats the midstream, and after eating the midstream, it supports its own upstream.This strategy can be said to be constant in the United States until it encounters the Chinese market, which is in constant change.Every day parity's strategy determines Wal-Mart's Achilles' heel: its high sensitivity to operating costs. This weakness has unfortunately encountered three unprecedented challenges in China: first, land rent is no longer friendly; second, high logistics costs; third, competitors are better than blue. Wal-Mart was really bullish when it first came to China.Of course, it has capital bullishness. After all, until today, Wal-Mart is still one of the only stocks in the S&P 500 Index that has not fallen but risen since the financial tsunami. In 2000, Wanda negotiated with Wal-Mart, thinking that the overall situation had been settled and a contract could be signed, but Wal-Mart would only issue a letter, which meant "we are interested in your project".Wanda could only hold this letter and construct according to the strict requirements of Wal-Mart.When Wal-Mart completed the inspection and acceptance of the project and was about to sign the contract, Wanda discovered that the contract was originally a condition issued by the US headquarters. The terms were very strict and there was no room for bargaining. This is just a matter of attitude. The real key behind the attitude is the ground rent.Wal-Mart's model is a hypermarket, so land rent is the most sensitive issue.Of course, this is not a problem in the United States. Every family has two or three cars, and the land is sparsely populated. It is easy to find large land plots with cheap land rent near the entrance and exit of expressways in the suburbs.But it is different in China. Most of the general consumers that Wal-Mart faces do not have private cars.Therefore, this kind of mass merchandise store is definitely not as good as community stores, or at least in terms of quantity, the development space of mass merchandise stores is relatively limited.This is not the most terrible thing. The most important thing is that the land rent in the wilderness of the United States usually does not change for more than ten years. Anyway, there are many such land.When Wal-Mart first arrived in China, it was directed overseas by the US headquarters, and there was not a single director on the board of directors who had done business in the Far East, so they took it for granted that China was the same as the US.At that time, Wal-Mart had many partners to choose from, and the rental conditions they offered were very favorable.For example, the first six projects that Wal-Mart cooperated with Wanda all had a half-year rent-free period, and the monthly rent per square meter was about 20 yuan. But what about today?Even though Wanda has very low rent requirements for anchor stores, the average ground rent has risen to 50 yuan per square meter per month.However, this kind of cooperation of Wanda has its own considerations, that is, the main store must bring enough passenger flow to its commercial land, which will bring up the land rent and housing prices around the main store, thereby bringing Wanda bigger gains.However, Wanda soon discovered that Wal-Mart may not be able to do this, or it may not be the best.Therefore, in early 2004, Wanda began to contact Wal-Mart's competitor, Carrefour.Then there was a dramatic scene. On the first day, Wanda contacted Carrefour, and on the second day, Wal-Mart took the initiative to send a letter to Wanda to discuss cooperation matters.In Harbin, Wanda chose to cooperate with RT-Mart, while Wal-Mart was abandoned. If you want to stay, it is not difficult. Anyway, the rent-free period has passed, and the preferential period has also passed, so let’s pay the rent according to the market price.It doesn't matter if Wal-Mart is unwilling. Wanda opened the "Wan Chamber of Commerce" in 2007, and more than 30 supermarkets came to register. It doesn't matter if Wal-Mart is unwilling. There are so many companies lining up to enter.After all, it was a store customized according to Wal-Mart's strict requirements back then. The hardware and detailed design are all top-notch. In addition, Wal-Mart has cultivated business circles and customer traffic there for many years. It is no wonder that so many companies are salivating. Many survey data show that in Beijing, Wal-Mart is obviously not as popular as Carrefour.where is the problem?Site selection?I'm afraid not.The problem is not complicated, and it can be summed up in a well-known saying: do not understand customers.It is indeed more difficult than in the United States to understand the habits of Chinese consumers, and it is much more difficult.In hypermarkets in the United States, food and deli products usually only account for less than 10% of the store; while in Chinese supermarkets, this ratio is about 50%.Small habits, big problems, this is what makes Wal-Mart China a success in logistics, and a failure in logistics. Americans have very simple meals, and Chinese who are new to North America may be intimidated.Their breakfast is very simple, just cereal with milk.The difference is minimal, at most the difference between oatmeal or cornflakes, oatmeal cubes, and instant cereal.Milk is even simpler, which is the difference between skim milk and whole milk.What about dinner?Just ask McGrady and Yao Ming, who also play in the NBA, and you will know how big the difference is.Maddy's favorite food is the pasta cooked by his mother. If it can be served with the sauce made by his grandmother, he will be so excited that he will cry.What about Yao Ming?Of course it is Shanghai cuisine, and my favorite is Lao Huo Liang Soup. This personal attention is not an excessive requirement for consumers, but it is a headache for Wal-Mart.It's easy to do in the United States. The shelf life of cereals is very long, and those brands are the ones that consumers buy the most.It’s troublesome in China. Yao Ming’s mother may cook fish soup today, winter insects and summer leather the next day, and old duck soup the day after tomorrow...every day for a week.And every time I have to choose a lot of ingredients, if any one is missing, Yao Ming's mother simply doesn't buy any of them, and uses another recipe instead.The problem is that there are tens of thousands of families in Shanghai and Beijing, and the daily menu depends on the mood, which can neither be predicted nor prepared.Wal-Mart said, then I will only buy the ones that consume the most.I'm sorry, Yao Ming's mother didn't buy anything, she went to the Carrefour next door, or she would rather go a few steps to the vegetable market. What is Wal-Mart best at?It is to count and predict the consumption of cereals in the United States, accurate to the weekly or even daily consumption, and then negotiate with the manufacturer to determine the production plan for which factory in the world, and then transport it to several distribution centers in the United States, frequently for the Replenishment at each branch.What good is that?The sales of cereal at one Wal-Mart store are erratic and fluctuating, but the total sales of dozens of stores in a state tend to be very stable and predictable because they cancel each other out this uncertainty. It's called the law of large numbers.Therefore, the demand for each commodity in the distribution center is very stable, and the total inventory is very low.It doesn't matter if individual stores are out of stock, because the distribution center will replenish the stock within two days.Due to saving a lot of order money and inventory, the inventory turnover rate, capital turnover rate and even asset turnover rate of the entire enterprise are very high.And once the scale is formed, it can basically be invincible.In this case, since Wal-Mart's order scale is already very large, the cost can be kept very low, coupled with the high turnover rate, a gross profit margin of one percentage point is enough for Wal-Mart to earn.And what about the other competitors?The order size is not so large, and the turnover rate is not so high. It is like a seesaw. If you want to maintain the same return on capital as Wal-Mart, you can only rely on increasing gross profit margins. The result of this is that you will never be able to compete with Wal-Mart in terms of price. .If, on the other hand, the price is the same as that of Wal-Mart, the company can only lose money, and the larger the scale, the worse the loss, and finally it can only close down. However, Wal-Mart's set of tools has encountered unprecedented challenges in front of countless Chinese consumers like Yao Ming's mother.Can you estimate exactly how many fish are consumed in Shanghai every day?就算你能，那么你怎么能确定今天姚明妈妈是想煮鲫鱼，还是鲈鱼？是在你这里买，还是去对面买呢？说到底，我们是“民以食为天”的国度，消费需求太细化了。美国人吃牛肉无非就是牛排，而中国人却要分成牛眼肉、牛腩、牛尾骨等等部分。猪肉就更是麻烦，我们要分成里脊、排骨、鲜肉、五花肉、后臀尖、猪头肉、猪舌头、猪耳朵、猪软骨、猪下水等等，不新鲜肯定没人买，可是分得这么细，得有多少货品要因为过期被处理掉？别的不用说，光跟美国总部汇报怎么解决跟猪肉相关的进货问题就得翻译半天，因为美国人没有这种习惯。所以，中国人这种孜孜不倦的饮食艺术，几乎要了沃尔玛模式所依赖的大数法则的命。更要命的是，超市里的货品一半都是食品，食品里又有一半是鲜活的，这就必须依靠短途供应链，配货中心的效率反而不如供货商提供的物流有效。你想想双汇冷鲜肉，就是这么回事。 沃尔玛解决不了的问题，却难不倒中国的本土企业。现在几个内资超市的鲜活产品的确做得比沃尔玛好，集外资和本土经验于一身的台资超市更是独占优势，大润发、好又多都是其中的代表。而且沃尔玛的高调进入还给大家提供了难得的借鉴学习的机会。以前大家可能不知道沃尔玛的物流系统是怎么搭建的，也不清楚沃尔玛的配送频率是什么样的，现在好了，沃尔玛开在你对面了，天天盯着看也能学个八九不离十了。不知道怎么培训中层管理人员？等沃尔玛培训好了，挖过来就是了。最难的应该是沃尔玛灵魂的IT系统，不过这也难不倒中国本土企业。外资IT咨询公司也跟着进入中国了，成套系统买过来就是了。于是几乎在一夜间，我们发现中国大大小小的超市都开始用货架而不是柜台了，开始用扫码器来结账了，开始跟银行合作搞购物卡了，开始统一形象、统一服装了，客户服务部的态度也越来越好了。沃尔玛和家乐福一样，都是鲇鱼，激活了市场，却没有吃掉整个市场。 那么，沃尔玛该怎么办？只能针对这三个问题做出必需的调整。而调整的基础自然要立足于沃尔玛现有的优势：第一，沃尔玛的物流管理系统仍然独具优势，只是现在适合中国人饮食习惯的物流问题没有解决；第二，沃尔玛作为标准普尔500指数中为数不多的抗金融海啸绩优股，其融资成本非常低。 既然物流成本降不下来，那么就只能有两个出路。第一个是横向并购，以扩大规模，重新拾回大数法则的利器。这就是为什么沃尔玛要收购整合好又多。第二个是纵向并购，把其他环节的物流成本都省下来，这样全产业链竞争，充分分摊物流管理成本。考虑到外资企业并购的诸多不便，沃尔玛改为扶持自己可以控制的合作伙伴，从而实现向上游的扩张。 这时，沃尔玛的融资成本优势就显示出来了。试想一下，如果一家国内的超市企业决定贷款融资来组建自己的物流企业，新业务至少要取得6%的投资回报率才可行。而沃尔玛呢？2009年沃尔玛发行11亿日元的浮息债券，融资成本仅仅是伦敦浮息利率加上60个基点。以9月份的平均伦敦日元浮息利率估计，这个融资成本仅为0.8%。换言之，新业务只要取得1%的投资回报率，沃尔玛就赚了。同样一个超市集团，现在可以用来支付利息的现金流是1亿元，假设融资方要求的覆盖率都是2倍，如果你是中国企业，最多只能融资8.3亿元（有兴趣的读者可以用1亿元除以2再除以6%就可得出8.3亿元）；而如果你是沃尔玛呢？你最多可以融资62.5亿元（用1亿元除以2再除以0.8%就可得出62.5亿元）。何况沃尔玛的融资方并不会要求那么高的覆盖率。说得简单一点，对着烧钱，烧到10个亿的时候你已经破产了，根本没有现金周转了，而沃尔玛手里还握着50个亿没动呢，正好把你低价买下来。 这样总结起来，你才会发现沃尔玛的可怕。你不要忘了，到今天为止，中国市场在沃尔玛的全球总销售额中不过是可有可无的一部分，可以赔钱也可以赚钱，可以收购也可以卖掉。实际上沃尔玛已经退出了德国市场，收回来的钱用来拓展中国市场和拉美市场。而对于中国本土企业而言，你如果丢掉了这个市场，就什么都没有了。