Passage 2
When Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) began expanding outside North America in the 1990s, its toughest rival was the French retail chain Carrefour. After opening the world’s first big-box superstore in 1963, Carrefour spent three decades spreading its combination grocery-and-general-merchandise stores across Europe, South America, and Asia. Today, the retailer is in trouble around the globe. On Oct. 13, Carrefour issued its fifth profit warning in less than a year as it reported slumping third-quarter sales in key Western European and Asian markets. Chief Executive Officer Lars Olofsson, recruited from Nestlé in 2009, is the company’s third CEO in seven years, and four top executives have been replaced in the past 12 months.
Carrefour shares have plunged nearly two-thirds since 2007, when LVMH Moёt Hennessy Louis Vuitton CEO Bernard Arnault along with U.S. real estate investment group Colony Capital spent $5.5 billion on a 9.8 percent stake. That investment is now worth less than $2 billion. They “got the timing wrong” on Carrefour, says Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) analyst Justin Scarborough. “The markets they’re in have come under huge amounts of pressure since 2008 and lots of those pressures aren’t going to go away. ” Arnault and Colony declined interview requests.
That means Carrefour has fallen far behind $467 billion Wal-Mart. Though they have about the same number of retail locations (9,667 for Wal-Mart, vs. Carrefour’s 9,631), Wal-Mart’s international sales now top $109 billion, almost surpassing Carrefour’s total $114 billion in revenues. While Wal-Mart has generated roughly 7.5 percent operating margins in recent years, Carrefour managed only 5.5 percent. In profits, the divide is particularly acute: Walmart last year logged net income of $7,804 per employee while Carrefour earned just $1,260.
21.Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) is now in trouble around the globe.
A、True
B、False
【正确答案】：B
【名师解析】:选项B是正确的。根据文章内容，Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) 并没有遇到全球范围内的困难，而是Carrefour这家法国零售连锁店在全球范围内遇到了问题。文章提到Carrefour在关键的西欧和亚洲市场第三季度销售额下滑，并且公司已经发布了第五次利润预警。此外，文章还指出Wal-Mart的国际销售额达到了1090亿美元，几乎超过了Carrefour的总收入1140亿美元，并且Wal-Mart的运营利润率和每位员工的净利润都远高于Carrefour。因此，选项A "Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) is now in trouble around the globe" 是错误的。
