An interview with Aeon CEO Motoya Okada:
Japan’s Answer to Wal-Mart?
Excerpt:
Q: So what can you do to resolve this?
A: Well, we will continue to enhance our supply chain and reduce costs, [so savings] can be passed back to our customers. We can also enhance our private brand.
Well, they’ve certainly got the corporate rhetoric down…
I personally think that most of the products marketed under Aeon’s TopValu brand is noticeably inferior to competing brands. They can’t even make decent green tea or dishsoap, which, as you might imagine, are fairly important items for the average Japanese consumer.
How hard is it to “be Walmart”? Just get the cheapest crap you can find in China and put it on the shelves.