fifs2 said:
Sorry, but Carrefour belongs to a French conglomerate. The company is so abusive with their suppliers that two people I know refuse to sell through it and sell through Coto and Disco instead.
Whilst I know Carrefour is French and I mostly agree with your comments(especially Baby Milk scandal which is well know) I squirm at the sentiment that foreign companies come here to do what they can`t do in their own countries..I guess I`m just sick of hearing it after the Botnia case and imagine the truth (and guilt) is somewhere in the middle as usual.
Carrefore, Jumbo, Falabella and other foreign owned companies do not come to AR to do things which they can't do at home. They come because locals do not invest in many home grown enterprises that require major capital and there is an opportunity to do business and earn a profit. Where the formula begins to degenerate is local management does not understand or care about doing things in a way that raises the bar and sets higher standards. Jumbo seems intent on raising the bar but their market footprint is rather small compared to Disco, which seems to be on every corner.
Thus Carrefore corporate simply watches the bottomline and and allows the brand to degenerate on a local level. I think if you transported one of these stores back to France it would have zero customers in a week.
Same is true with others like Citi Bank. If you walked into a Citi in the US or Europe and stood in line for an hour and the ATM was empty and the teller snarled at you, would you put up with it?
Unfortunately brands can be left to degenerate at the local level. Conversely, Mickie D, BK and Starbuck do a pretty fair job of delivering on the brand image and the customers expectations.