Word: wal
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Think of Hangxiao Steel Structure Co. as a scout on China's economic front line. Its 200 workers in Anhui province rivet together prefabricated structures for factory assembly lines, which churn out goods for stores like Wal-Mart. A year ago business was so brisk that the company imported 70 workers from distant Shandong province to keep up with demand. But the mainland's torrid investment in everything from automobile plants to office high-rises to railroads has boosted the price the company pays for its main raw material, steel, by 24% in just four months. Yet the company hasn...
...economic-research group that closely tracks consumer confidence, notes that the TV upgrades are typical of a purge-and-splurge shopping style that has emerged in the age of big-box discounters. "Consumers will trade up and buy down at the same time," Franco says. "They'll shop at Wal-Mart and buy a Lexus." With their relentless discount shopping and the occasional affordable luxury, consumers have kept the economic recovery going...
...action. Of course, war with a state that possesses nuclear weapons and a military of over 1.2 million soldiers is a grisly option; military intervention in North Korea should be avoided at almost any cost. Yet to do nothing while North Korea transforms itself into a nuclear Wal-Mart would be equally reckless. So would bribing the regime into disarmament with promises of economic aid—an idea the administration is now openly entertaining, and which would teach Kim and other unsavory dictators that nuclear saber-rattling pays...
Feld has targeted an additional 100 small markets to include on future Hometown tours. "I like to think of ourselves like Wal-Mart," he says. It's not a bad strategy. Wal-Mart may be the world's largest company, but it got that way by first dominating small towns. Indeed, in many places, heading to Wal-Mart is an evening's entertainment. Even with a smaller show, Feld figures he can top that. With reporting by Paige Bowers/Rome
...Wal-mart's Holdout