h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I saw that "probably the largest" in there, so I poked around a bit and found that Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world, at least by sales volume. They sell US$165 billion worth of stuff a year.

Interestin'.

A few years back, doing Geography GCSE, I was somewhat surprised to learn that the biggest company in the world is one called 'General Motors', which has a bigger turnover than most countries.

I'd never heard of it, which just goes to show, hmmm?

26199

Warning: bunch of info you don't need to know.

Yeah, GM still is the largest company in terms of annual sales. They do make their name known, at least here in the US, but they don't sell any cars under that name alone. There is a truck brand of theirs in the US called GMC. Most of GM's divisions they've owned for decades. And unlike most of the other auto companies that sell globally, they have very little crossover going on. The US Chevrolets, Oldsmobiles, Buicks etc are different from the European Opels/Vauxhalls which are different from the Australian Holdens. They operate 7 car brands in the US, but only one in their other markets. Well, you can count Saab (which they now fully own) as an extra brand in all their markets, but it's only that way because Saab was so recently independent. Vauxhall, for instance, was purchased by GM in the 1930s. Opel has been theirs for a while as well. (Those model lines are now the same; the Vauxhall brand is used only in the UK.) GM also owns a controlling stake (but not completely) in Japan's Isuzu.

GM used to sell fully half the cars sold in the US, but these days their market share is under 30%. It's often seen as a behemoth that can't be changed quickly enough. Ford, for instance, the other US-based major global auto maker, can make more actual dollars of profit from less sales. They own some other companies, and cars are different some places, but they do use at least one recognizable brand everywhere in the world. Some of the cars are now the same all over as well. Ford sells 2 other US brands apart from the Ford name, plus they own Jaguar, Aston-Marton, Volvo and now Land Rover (only the Land Rover division, not the rest of Rover). And they've got a controlling interest in Mazda.

GM is biggest only in gross sales, though. The largest company based on stock value, for instance, is General Electric (the US one, not the UK GEC, now known as Marconi Plc.) It was Microsoft for a while. Microsoft passed GE for the first time last year. And later Cisco Systems passed it, leaving GE third. (These two companies are only about 25 years old at most. GE is the company founded on the work of Thomas Edison in the late 1800s.) Cisco was on top, in fact, for a few days. Now it's back to GE first, then Cisco, and Microsoft has slipped to third.

Other large companies that don't sell wares under their own name: Proctor & Gamble, Unilever (basically they don't; there are a few hints, like here they sell a soap called Lever 2000), the US tobacco companies pretty much all don't, particularly if you keep in mind the two largest each own a large food business as well, hm, I'm sure there are some more, those are just the ones off the top of my head.

Don't ask me why I know all this stuff. There's pretty much no good reason for it.

Anybody see/hear about the movie Where the Heart Is? The main character lives in a Walmart for over two months. Or maybe it's four. The scary think is that it's possible.

Yeah - I USED to work for 'em - they are the biggest, most ruthless,company I have ever seen in action when I got made redundant....not a care in the world for people...
Selling evrything from baked beans to wide screen tv's
98941

Yeah - I USED to work for 'em - they are the biggest, most ruthless,company I have ever seen in action when I got made redundant....not a care in the world for people...
Selling evrything from baked beans to wide screen tv's
98941

I've been in one once I think. Didn't particularly like it.

Wow and I've NEVER been in one!!!!! What AM I missing???

Not much, really. A combination of the supermarket and marshals

I don't know, they are really cheap and sell good quality items. I don't think it's that bad (Wal-Mart, I mean). In some towns it's the only place where you can buy retail, affordable goods. They are running the smaller retail stores out though.

One of the things I like about Wal-mart is the fact that it's open 24 hours - if you have nothing better to do, it's fun to walk in at 2 am and observe the kind of people who end up in there at that time...

It's not a particularly good place to go with a group of people, especially if you plan to separate at some point during your trip. You will spend twice as long trying to find the others as you did actually shopping.

The Wal-mart where I live was one of the biggest when it was built...I can remember when it first opened, some of the workers zipped around the store on rollerblades...I don't know why they ended that idea, unless maybe there were too many collisions

By the way, does anyone else out there call it 'Wally World' ? ...or is that just another central New York thing...

All I know is, now that we have Target, I rarely go into Wal-Mart any more. Target has better stuff, the same prices on identical stuff, and the store seems more upscale and always seems much tidier than Wal-Mart (and K-Mart, for that matter, which I swore off years ago because they truly suck). Wal-Mart's still bigger, and I think they will put stores in much smaller communities than Target does, but Target does that formula somewhat better than Wal-Mart. And the in thing to do is pronounce it Tar-jhay, as if the word were French.

I have heard the term Wally World. But not all are open 24 hours, and that SUCKS. Wally World is usually for the Super Wal-Marts, with groceries.

Glad to see my article getting a good response although I didnt expect it to generate an essay on car companies.

Last weekend I went to Wallmart I intended to buy just some shampoo and some sunscreen. I walked out with--

1. fishing rod and reel
2. lots of colourful bait lures which I will just look at.
3. shower gel
4. a sponge
5. an electric fan for room.
6. pack of Advil ( for headache I would get after passing checkout)
7. smelly thing for car
8. dvd copy of world is not enough (crap bond film. why did I buy it????)
9. sunscreen

When I got to my truck I realised that in my shopping frenzy I had forgotten the shampoo.

DOH.
One question for past Wallmart workers
If you work at Wall Mart is it in your contract to ----

1. have frizzy hair tied back into ponytail ( if your a girl).
2. have greasy hair (if your a guy)
3. lots of achne (especially if you work in tv section)
4. be extremely thin and gaunt looking
5. be german (only if working with bar code reader walking around store)

Are you really finding German folks working in your Wal-Mart in Kansas? I wouldn't think everyone would be too thin and gaunt looking either. The first three I think could apply anywhere. It always seems like there's a couple of teenage guys with lots of acne in the tv department.

And yes, spontaneous essays about the auto industry are my specialty.

I thought it was a very good essay

Sort of conspiracy-theory sort of interesting without actually being entirely made up, all this big-corporation stuff, y'know?

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Indeed. My attitude towards stores like that is that they should be viewed as playgrounds. There's a list of things to do when bored in walmart, but I don't have it handy. If I actually want to shop, I prefer to go somewhere horrible trendy, like Harvard Square, then walk two miles in any dirrection(except those that lead me into the river) and poke around in the little shops I find. I rarely wear the right shoes, however.

I believe GM does hold the current title for #1 company in the Fortune 500. But based on Wal-Mart's sales growth, GM should be losing that honor to Sam Walton in the next year or so.

Wal-Mart is currently growing at a rate more than most companies on that index make in a single year.

There was an email getting passed around a couple years ago about 50 things to do at walmart. Some of them were really fun, like have a game of softball in the children's section.

Or use funnels and bras to dress as Madonna...that might just be scary though. There was also one about looking around furtively when ever the loud speaker comes on and screaming about 'the voices'.