So in 2001 Walmex employees helped design, develop and set up Todo Dia stores in Brazil.
Formerly known as Cifra, Walmex has been controlled by Wal-Mart since September 1997.
Walmex is a bit pricey at 22 times expected 2008 earnings versus 18 for its American parent.
Walmex Chief Executive Eduardo Castro notes one big piece of the formula copycatted from the U.S.: logistics.
Walmex is the largest retailer in Latin America and, with 94, 700 employees, the largest private employer in Mexico.
If economic conditions deteriorate, he figures, more cost-conscious shoppers will head to Walmex.
One reason: There are still 190 Mexican cities with populations of 50, 000 or more that don't yet have a Walmex store.
Citigroup expects sales and profits at Walmex, as it's commonly known, to both increase a bit more than 10% this year.
Eduardo Castro-Wright, who was head of Walmex at the time of the alleged bribes, was once tipped to run the whole firm.
So Walmex can tinker with, say, the price of shampoo in one Mexico City store and get an instant read on the consumer response.
At the ten Walmex warehouses across the country most goods move in one side of the building and out the other on the same day.
The inventory management system enables both Walmex and its suppliers to figure out which goods sold how much in which stores on the previous day.
Walmex officials did not return phone calls but the Mexican press quoted spokespeople as saying the company had not received notice of a Mexican probe.
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These are modeled after Walmex's bare-bones, cut-price Bodega Aurrera store format.
This year Carrefour has pulled out of Japan and sold 29 hypermarkets in Mexico, where it could not compete with Walmex, the local version of Wal-Mart.
Despite the mediocre state of the Mexican economy, which grew just 0.9% last year and should grow 2.4% this year, Walmex is poised to keep expanding at a good clip.
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