Wal-Mart, Bharti delay first India store opening

In the Indian city of Amritsar, violence just in the last 10 days caused an apparent and immediate slowdown in commercial activity, just in time to spoil Wal-Mart's new store opening launch there. The Wal-Mart/Bharti relationship was widely criticized in India when it was announced in 2006 on fears that such an alliance would hurt small retailers. Well, India -- join the club. The U.S. has seen Wal-Mart do precisely that and the retailer will continue facing obstacles on trying to grow larger. But now, global pockets of violence are another threat to Wal-Mart's international expansion plans as well.

Opening stores in India and other promising markets won't see anything close to the battles Wal-Mart faces in certain parts of the U.S. where it has yet to have a retail presence. It will be harder. Although there are no economies that exist where consumers don't love bargains, overcoming established retailers and fighting violence in any form will keep Wal-Mart on its international toes. Other large retailers have announced intentions to open locations in India as well to compete for a piece of that country's $300 billion business pie. It just won't be as easy as some of them calculated.