Dunkirk?

Amazing what words have made it into the English vocabulary. I've never heard of "dunkirk" before - well, I have heard of "Dünkirchen", which is the German name of that town, of course - but I didn't know of it's usage in the English language.

Why did I actually call my post "Dunkirk" then...?

I just found it quite appropriate for the news about Walmart leaving Germany. After 8 years of struggling on the German market and big words of changing the German supermarket sector into a whole new super-service-oriented American idol sector, Walmart sold all it's markets to the Metro Group. I can only guess the faces of the American big bosses of Walmart when they heard Germans don't want Walmart. Priceless.
I'm not at war with the US economy or any other company of American origin here in Germany. It's just a little bit satisfiying to see, that the American way is not always the successful one.

In its 8 years in Germany Walmart managed to change its Germany CEO twelve times. Only one of those guys was German. And he actually managed to stay in power for 4 years.

But still, things like banning relationships between their employees or singing motivation songs in the morning role call may work everywhere else - but not here. One of the bosses even ordered tons of coal before christmas. For North Americans that might not sound strange, but in Germany nobody has a BBQ on christmas. (I actually didn't know myself that it is usual to grill outside on christmas.) And after all Germans want to bag their groceries themselves!

Bye bye Walmart...