For those who might be unfamiliar with the Alien vs Predator franchise, here's what you need to know: Predators are a race of creatures who hunt anything and everything in the universe, and whose society is built for the greater glory of the kill. Aliens, on the other hand, have acid for blood, are vicious killing machines, and were created by Predators to be worthy opponents. The tagline of the Alien vs Predator movies is this: "Whoever wins, we lose."

Which is what came to mind this morning as I flipped through the Financial Times, which announced that Wal-Mart was going to roll out a new range of stores in Phoenix, Arizona under the brand name "Marketside", in an attempt to rip the throat out of the UK supermarket giant, Tesco. The British company is churning out "Fresh and Easy" stores that are, quite successfully, taking market share from Wal-Mart. ... read more »

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Posted on 14 January, 2008 - 18:06

The Financial Times carries a story in the King Kong Vs Godzilla vein. Wal-Mart, the world's largest private employer, is jumpy about the arrival of Tescos, the UK's largest supermarket chain, into the US market. The Walton empire is pondering how to develop new 'Wal-convenience' stores, along the same lines as the smaller 'Tesco Extra' stores in the UK, to fend off what is likely to be a very aggressive push from the UK firm. But just like the old Tokyo disaster movie, regardless of whether one or other side wins, the battleground is home to millions of ordinary people, whose architecture and lives are likely to be severely remodelled in the deathmatch. ... read more »

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Posted on 27 August, 2007 - 08:49