Walmart's woes

Thirteen Walmart (WMT:NYSE) stores were closed this week and 37 of its employees detained as the US supermarket chain was accused of mislabelling ordinary pork as organic pork in its southwest Chongqing stores. Further, on Oct 17, Walmart China's CEO, Ed Chan, stepped down citing personal reasons along with Clara Wong, senior vice president of the group's China human resources division. Chongqing authorities ordered Walmart to close its regional stores for 15 days and fined it Rmb 3.65m ($572,900, £363,242, €416,427). The Chongqing authorities alleged the company sold mislabelled pork for nearly two years.

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Other Articles on this Issue

• Financial China

  Wenzhou – where the bailouts start

  Selected Financial Charts

• Macro View

  Rescue ahoy!

• Consumer China

  Grocery retail – The Great Land Grab

  Renrenle – struggling to conquer the lower tiers

  Lianhua – supermarket expansion drags on performance

  Yonghui – fresh food and direct-sourcing drive rapid expansion

  Sun Art – leveraging lower-tier city growth

• The Best of Chinese Commentators

  The US currency bill

• Rural China

  Cracking the hybrid rice code

  Rural wealth creation boom picks up in September

• The Big Call

  Transport investment stalls

• View issue