By Stephen Evans BBC North America business correspondent

Wal-Mart and Germany has not exactly been a love affair made in heaven: it has not been bliss down the shopping aisles there for the world's biggest supermarket.

Wal-Mart has found it heavy going in Germany

Wal-Mart's purchase of two local store chains for $1.6bn in 1997 has left a trail of red ink.

Apart from anything else, the company has often failed to understand German culture - what works in Arkansas has flopped in Aachen.

Wal-Mart's founder, Sam Walton, liked the idea of "greeters" at the doors to his stores so the concept was instituted in America and then the rest of the world.

The Germans, though, balked.

They didn't warm to the homely friendliness of an elderly man or woman greeting them as they entered the store, so the idea was dropped, uniquely on the planet, in Germany.

Flirt points

But Wal-Mart may now have come up with a good idea to inject a little warmth into the cool relationship.

It has started what it calls (under a formally registered trademark) "Singles Shopping" where particular nights are designated for shoppers who are single but eager not to be.

Can shoppers find romance as well as their weekly groceries?

In Dortmund, for example, single people get given trolleys with a red bow tie on the front.

"Flirt points" have been set up where shoppers can take a breath and a glass of wine and a bit of a peek at the potential.

There is a bulletin board where people can put up pictures and biographies of themselves.

Growing dating agency

It seems to be working.

Wal-Mart says that up to 300 extra shoppers get attracted to the store on Fridays between 6 and 8pm.

The idea has been taken up by all the Wal-Mart supercenters in Germany.

It seems to play well with older single people who wouldn't have the front to date on the internet.

The idea has now been brought up at the weekly meeting of top executives on Saturday morning at Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville and may be extended.

Culture clash

Whether it transforms the company's fortunes in Germany remains to be seen.

In truth, many of its difficulties may be beyond a bit of dating over the trolleys.

Lidl is one of Wal-Mart's main challengers in Germany

It started from a poor position because the two chains it bought were small, accounting for less than 3% of the market (in contrast, for example, to Asda's 8% share in the UK when Wal-Mart bought it).

It was also up against Aldi and Lidl, two big, established, efficient chains which could give Wal-Mart a run for its money in any market - and may well yet do so.

Moreover, Wal-Mart culture and German business culture don't mesh easily (in contrast, again, to British business culture).

Love

There are heavy constraints to selling goods below cost price in German superstores so "loss leaders" are banned. In 2000, Wal-Mart found itself in court for selling long-life milk at less than its cost.

Wal-Mart's non-union policy was also at odds with German union loyalty.

Yet Wal-Mart hasn't given up.

It has built a big store in Berlin and it's introducing new products throughout its German stores like the George clothing line that Asda pioneered in Britain.