So
From a NYT article about Walmart's failure to penetrate other countries' markets, in parts due to cultural misunderstandings:
In Germany, Wal-Mart stopped requiring sales clerks to smile at customers - a practice that some male shoppers interpreted as flirting - and scrapped the morning Wal-Mart chant by staff members.
“People found these things strange; Germans just don’t behave that way,” said Hans-Martin Poschmann, the secretary of the Verdi union, which represents 5,000 Wal-Mart employees here.
Having lived in Germany, no, they definitely don't. But I have to ask - are stupid corporate chants and smile-laws more American? I'd think they'd be almost as alien (except perhaps for the tendency to smile at all! :) to us.
In Germany, Wal-Mart stopped requiring sales clerks to smile at customers - a practice that some male shoppers interpreted as flirting - and scrapped the morning Wal-Mart chant by staff members.
“People found these things strange; Germans just don’t behave that way,” said Hans-Martin Poschmann, the secretary of the Verdi union, which represents 5,000 Wal-Mart employees here.
Having lived in Germany, no, they definitely don't. But I have to ask - are stupid corporate chants and smile-laws more American? I'd think they'd be almost as alien (except perhaps for the tendency to smile at all! :) to us.