In the mid-1990s, Walmart tried with a large financial investment to get a foothold in the German retail market. In 1997, Walmart took over the supermarket chain Wertkauf with its 21 stores for DM 750 million[196] and the following year Walmart acquired 74 Interspar stores for DM 1.3 billion.[197][198] The German market at this point was an oligopoly with high competition among companies which used a similar low price strategy as Walmart.