Communities across the country have campaigned against new Wal-Mart stores, saying they devour green space, increase traffic congestion and drive competitors out of business. Activists have succeeded in blocking or delaying dozens.

WAL-MART UNIVERSITY?

In China, however, consumers can't seem to get enough. Stores here can draw 1.2 million people per month, and the retailer is constantly on the lookout for new locations.

The biggest challenge is finding staff.

Hatfield said he has asked Wal-Mart to set up a university degree program in China to train future employees to work in jobs ranging from master baker to accountant.

The retailer employs about 30,000 people in China, and Hatfield said he will need to hire 150,000 more as the expansion picks up steam. Wal-Mart has already started putting extra staff in stores so that they can learn on the job and be ready to manage newly opened locations.

Wal-Mart got off to a slow start here. Hatfield arrived in 1994, but it was nearly two years before the retailer opened its first stores. Growth has been modest since then, but China relaxed rules for foreign retailers at the end of 2004, making it easier to expand.

Hatfield spent his first months in China visiting other retailers to get a feel for shopping habits and tastes. As a result, outlets here may look like American megastores from the outside, but they carry a wide array of local delicacies such as sliced pig's ear, live fish and even crocodile.

Hatfield, 61, said he has no desire to leave, and hopes to stick around long enough to see the day when Wal-Mart China rivals the retailer's US operations. He tells co-workers he plans to work until he is 80.

And after that, he wants to be a Wal-Mart greeter, standing at the entrance to welcome shoppers.