Wal-Mart in El Salvador


At the end of 2005, Wal-Mart entered El Salvador through its acquisition of CARHCO, a holding company for various retailers in Central America. Now known as Wal-Mart Central America, it is the largest retailer in Central America. According to the Wal-Mart site on its El Salvador operations, the company operates stores under 3 brands:

Despensa Familiar -- 31 stores
Despensa de Don Juan -- 32 stores
Hiper Paiz -- 2 stores

The company has 4163 employees in El Salvador. La Prensa Grafica reports this week that Wal-Mart plans to open at least 8 new Despensa Familiar stores a year for the next three years. Despensa Familiar is Wal-Mart's retailing concept where it sells out of small stores, but offering savings of up to 20% due to Wal-Mart's low cost of operations.

Comments

Anonymous said…
yeah i remember there's a despensa familiar in chalate, i actually went there and bought some groceries, i liked its atmosphere. overall i think it's good wal-mart is in el salvador, they offer good service at some of the most reasonable prices in today's market; i like it because it creates some jobs in the service sector and because it makes consumer items available to the public, if u have money of course. but in general, it may also add some credibility to el salvador's business environment. i say:
wal-mart, welcome to el salvador!
Anonymous said…
We visited the Dispesna Familiar in Santa Ana last year on our visit. Although we were told that it was run by Wal-Mart, we couldn't tell that from the store itself. But when one of the sales clerk's badges got turned around, we could see Wal-Mart printed on the back side. Otherwise, we might not have known for sure.

The store was clean, bright, and merchandise was easy to find. Sort of like a similar store here in the USA.
Anonymous said…
WELL I AM NOT SURE IS THE RIGHT DIRECTION FOR EL SALVADOR, WAL-MART, IS BECAUSE IS SELLING A LOT OF MADE IN CHINA MERCHANDISE, IF IT SO , THEN ALL THE SALVADOREAN PEOPLE END UP MAKING CHINA RICHER AND EL SALVADOR POOREST, EVEN IF YOU THINK THAT CREATES JOBS, OR YOU CAN BUY IT CHEAPER, AND THEN ALL THE EFFORT FOR SUBSTAIN OUR SELFS AND NOT BECOME AN SLAVE OF THE BIGGEST CORPORATIONS WILL END AND THERES WILL BE NOT MORE MADE IN EL SALVADOR AND BE PROUD, MAKING OUR PEOPLE HAVE SOME MONEY, YOU'LL SEE SOME ONE HAS TO STOP THIS!!!!!
Helen Romero said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said…
No good!!! Wal-Mart has been known in the US for exploiting our people, now, it's moving all over the word to do it. "Capitalizing," I feel bad for our economy, because when this large organizations move to our small, poor, third world countries, people feel compelled to spend their little money on this stores ignorant of the damage it does to our economy. I would rather go to the Mercado, and buy groceries or vegetables to la Dona Juana, that she probably needs this quarter to feed her children, or to buy medicine for a sick relative.

Think people!!!!

This is bad for our country!!!

It's true that our government is responsible for allowing this multi-billion industry populate our country with their too good to be true offers, but at the end we have the last word because, we spend our money there.

Conscious
Anonymous said…
The ignorance is so digusting,in fact only the commentor who signed as conscious and another anonymous really get the point.

Low prices anywhere for somehing that should be like expensive has tricks pulled so sweatshop workers earn $12 a week if lucky while Lee Scott gets $50 million

No nation is profiting in fact Wal-Mart earns more than El Salvador.Buying China made products ruins other economies and more people must work

There is a good reason Berkeley and other radical towms leave Wal-Mart out

- A conscious teenager
Anonymous said…
I went to the Despensa Familiar in Candelara del la Frontera last week. It was clean and organized, but really no different than other stores of that size in El Salvador. The only give away that it was walmart was the Equate brand merchandise on the shelves.
herman said…
I DON'T LIKE IT CAUSE THE PRICES ARE SO HIGH THE SAME OR HIGHER THAN PRICES IN THE UNITED STATES IN U.S.A WE MAKE AT LEAST $5 PER HOUR BUT IN EL SALVADOR IS $5 A DAY PLEASE STOP RIPPING OFF OUR POOR PEOPLE.