Wal-Mart army poised for global domination

Wal-Mart newest target: China. As a major supplier of its products, China is seen as a key region for its international store growth. It now has 56 stores in China with about 30,000 employees and plans to open 20 more stores this year with plans to hire up to 150,000 employees in China over the next five years, five times its current work force there, as it expands its number of stores.

The news comes less than a week after Wal-Mart moved to expand in another fast-growing region, Central America, by taking a majority stake in a regional retail chain that it first bought into last September. Wal-Mart took over Central American Retail Holding Co., also known as CARHCO, for an undisclosed price...

The region is a key part of Wal-Mart's strategy of growing internationally, where it is active in 15 countries including China, Japan and Korea in Asia, Britain and Germany in Europe, Canada, Mexico and eight countries in Latin America...

But Wal-Mart's international division is growing faster than its larger U.S. operations. In 2005, the international business saw net sales and operating income rise 11.4 percent, compared to 9.4 percent for sales and 8.2 percent for operating income at the U.S. division minus Sam's Clubs.

When the people of Beijing, Mexico City, London, Seoul, and Paris start looking exactly like the fat housewives from Wisconsin, sporting elastic mom-jeans, baggy cat sweaters and bedazzled fanny packs, then Wal-Mart has truly won.

(Thanks Maria for the tip.)