An ailing store needs fresh blood

This is absurd, perhaps The Economist would like to ask Walmart about whether its expansion into CHina means that the hypermarket is obsolete.

"Growth in Asia cannot make up for flops at home."

That's statement is not entirely accurate. Couple of years ago GM sold more cars in China than in the US and it did help them (along with hefty bail-out from Obama administration) to stay afloat.

Also, that assessment of hypermarkets as something outdated is probably applicable more to French market rather than to North American one. Who doubts that should try to shop on a weekend in Target or Wall Mart to see multitudes of shoppers in their Brownian motion across the floor and sometimes fairly long lineups to the tills (automatic and otherwise). And this is the country where Amazon.com puts so much pressure on traditional retail.

There were a number of reasons, from falling sales, to demographic composition that are described as the cause of the hypermarkets decreasing profitability, moving to emerging markets was not touted as one of them.

I love this store. I discovered here in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and it is the closest thing to home, decent products, food, and reasonable prices.

Online shopping is a long way from beating Carrefour.