Carrefour

Carrefour is an international retail giant that entered China in the 1990s alongside Walmart, Metro, and Lawson as foreign investment restrictions in retail were gradually loosened . In the early era of Chinese brand-building, it served as a key offline distribution channel—companies would run CCTV ads and then stock shelves at Carrefour, 7-Eleven, and similar outlets . By 2009, however, RT-Mart had overtaken Carrefour and Walmart to become China's largest foreign supermarket chain . More recently, Carrefour has struggled: a 2023 峰瑞资本 column noted it was "massively closing stores" even as Walmart posted strong China growth, with Walmart's Q4 FY2023 net sales rising 13.5% . The divergence, per that analysis, reflects how Walmart's Sam's Club positioning shielded it from the price competition that undermined Carrefour's mainstream supermarket model .