Wal-Mart Struggling in Germany

German employees at Wal-Mart don't seem to agree with Wal-Mart's new ethics manual.

the ethics-code fiasco shows that Wal-Mart is still prone to do things the Wal-Mart way without enough consideration to local customs. Rivals continue to chuckle about the customer reaction when, initially, Wal-Mart offered services such as grocery bagging. It turned out that Germans didn't want strangers handling their groceries. And when clerks followed orders to smile at shoppers, male customers took it as a come-on.

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also:

German courts have upheld the right of Wal-Mart employees to flirt at work. It has struck out sections of the retail giant’s employee code of conduct that barred "any kind of communication that could be interpreted as sexual