http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/26ca4d4e-decd-11d9-92cd-00000e2511...

Walmart brought all kinds of weird american business ethics to Germany, like shouting the company's name every morning, an "ethics code" which disallowed employees to flirt with each other and a mandate to spy/report on colleagues. This was struck down in German courts and gave bad press. Together with a pro-union work force and cut throat competition of Aldi/Lidl/Metro Walmart did indeed fail miserably (and no one misses them).