The case on the entrance of Wal-Mart and Carrefour into the Asian retailing market shows some tendencies in the role of foreign vendors in the economies of a country. To answer the question concerning the reason why hypermarkets are more prevalent in some countries more than in others, I think it depends on the economic development of a state. According to Gillespie and Hennessey, small retailers are more important for emerging markets that are only starting their economic development.
Therefore, in countries with long-established active markets, small vendors are less influential, and hypermarkets become more common. They compete with local retailers, thus enhancing the development of the latter. Also, since people in more developed countries are more likely to spend more money buying a broad spectrum of goods available from a hypermarket, they contribute to the profit of a large retail store. Therefore, hypermarkets are less common in economically challenging states than in developed ones.