From p. 7:

Table 1: The World’s Top Retailers (2001)
Rank Company Country Revenues
($ billion)
1 Wal-Mart Inc. USA 217,8
2 Carrefour France 62.2
3 Royal Ahold Netherlands 59.6
4 The Kroger Co. USA 50.0
5 Metro Germany 44.3
6 Albertson’s Inc. USA 38.2
7 Kmart Corp. USA 34.6
8 Safeway Inc. USA 34.3
9 Costco Wholesale Corp. USA 34.1
10 Tesco United Kingdom 34.1
11 Rewe Group Germany 33.6
12 Aldi Group Germany 29.0*
…
16
Edeka/AVA Group
Germany
25.1
…
18
Tengelmann Group
Germany
23.1
…
25
Schwarz Group
Germany
16.7*
Source: Lebensmittelzeitung (Internet edition) (2002a) (* = Estimates)
A

And, jwbe, I can only imagine–you pointed out a very clear privilege in the U.S. and one that was pretty much invisible at least to me prior. I personally haven’t even seen men and women in Canadian or Mexican uniform in the U.S. I am sure both nations have seen the U.S. uniform in their homelands… When people enlist in the military here, many get options of “which” nations they would like to be in-they (the recruiters) are like used-car sales men. And if I were to travel abroad and see U.S. troops in other nations (particularly nations at peace, such as Germany) I would have taken it for granted in a sense–it would not have suprised me in any way as I know Germany is one of the countries our troops are stationed at–in this sense, I would not have critically questioned it. Why would I have more than likely not of questioned it? Either way, or both ways (never seeing foreign troops on U.S. soil or visiting another nation and seeing U.S. troops on foreign soil–regardless of how much I were to either support or be in opposition of their presence–or simply neutral), it’s invisible privileges for me/us.

I don’t know–but thank you nonetheless for pointing out invisible privileges we have in the U.S.–even though, it was very obvious for you. I hope you will continue to keep on doing so. Thank you

the problem is that Germany has its own chains like Lidl or Aldi, not truly better than Wal Mart I think.

>I have never seen a person wearing a non-U.S. uniformed. I don’t know how I would feel or what I would think if I were to see something like that.

Every time I think about it I become angry. I could manage it to never make contact with US soldiers here in Germany, I know other Germans who find it “cool” or whatever to go where the American soldiers are, to a certain degree for me this is a sell-out or perhaps also a not truly thinking about it what it means that a foreign nation does have the power to station its military here.

As terrible as it may be, I do on occasion even find myself in Wal-Mart here for various reasons. But the majority of my shopping is done at other retailers or local establishments. Over the last few years I think it is mainly because I’ve been in more rural areas. But I try not to support that corporation. So an embarrasing confession on my part here….

And you pointed out a privilege that we have in the U.S. that I had never really thought about before–the fact that we don’t have other nations occupying our territory. I have never seen a person wearing a non-U.S. uniformed. I don’t know how I would feel or what I would think if I were to see something like that. But at the same time, it is almost as if this nation should have their own complexes here if they are our allies? Or any nation we occupy, they should likewise have infantry here? It’s all one sided. The U.S. is a very paranoid nation and cannot fathom the notion of reciprocity. It’s about greed and capitalism. Employers exploit their workers to very high degrees, many do not have any pension plans or health insurance, get vacations, etc. And oddly enough, many of those same people are heavily anti-union. It’s a backwards nation. It’s nice to see that other nations are fighting and resisting it and not allowing the same trends to infect their own nations. It says a lot for those who are in power over there, and of the people. It’s very neat. So I guess a belated congrats, really!