The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Impact beyond price
  • Balanced & Comprehenisve
  • Costs of everyday low prices
  • Wal-Mart---Made in China
  • Good or Bad, Fishman makes you think
 The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy
Charles Fishman
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1594200769

Book Description

An award-winning journalist breaks through the wall of secrecy to reveal the many astonishing ways Wal-Mart's power affects our lives and reaches all around the world.

The Wal-Mart Effect: The overwhelming impact of the world's largest company--due to its relentless pursuit of low prices--on retailers and manufacturers, wages and jobs, the culture of shopping, the shape of our communities, and the environment; a global force of unprecedented nature. Wal-Mart is not only the world's largest company; it is also the largest company in the history of the world. Americans spend $26 million every hour at Wal-Mart, twenty-four hours of every day, every day of the year. Is the company a good thing or a bad thing? On the one hand, market guru Warren Buffett estimates that the company's low prices save American consumers $10 billion a year. On the other, the behemoth is the #1 employer in thirty-seven of the fifty states yet has never let a union in the door.

Though 70 percent of Americans now live within a fifteen-minute drive of a Wal-Mart store, we have not even begun to understand the true power of the company and the many ways it is shaping American life. We know about the lawsuits and the labor protests, but what we don't know is how profoundly the "Wal-Mart effect" is shaping our lives.

Fast Company senior editor Fishman, whose revelatory cover story on Wal-Mart generated the strongest reader response in the history of the magazine, takes us on an unprecedented behind-the-scenes investigative expedition deep inside the many worlds of Wal-Mart. He reveals the radical ways in which the company is transforming America's economy, our workforce, our communities, and our environment. Fishman penetrated the secrecy of Wal-Mart headquarters, interviewing twenty-five high-level ex-executives; he journeyed into the world of a host of Wal-Mart's suppliers to uncover how the company strong-arms even the most established brands; and journeyed to the ports and factories, the fields and forests where Wal-Mart's power is warping the very structure of the world's market for goods. Wal-Mart is not just a retailer anymore, Fishman argues. It has become a kind of economic ecosystem, and anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping our world today must understand the company's hidden reach.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Impact beyond price.......2007-09-24

Having spent the past 18 months researching and writing on the negative impact on the economy of poor customer service, go to ACSI research at University of Michigan School of Business, I have found that Wal-Mart's fanitical focus on price, and consumers that focus only on price are having a very negative impact on our country and society. Of all of the books I have read on Wal-Mart, Fishman presents the most detailed factual and insightful information on which to base an opinion on the impact Wal-Mart has made on our communities.

4 out of 5 stars Balanced & Comprehenisve .......2007-09-17

Like many, I begrudgingly shop at Wal-Mart familiar with the arguments of it's negative impact on locally owned business's, and it's poor wages and benefits--------trying in vain to strike a balance between social responsibility and self-interest. It's always struck me as large version of the beloved "five and dime" where I bought my baseball cards growing up. I marvel at the low prices, and the sheer variety of merchandise. Fishman has permanently purged me of the that nostalgia. His backstory on Wal-Mart is utterly convincing in it's pernicious effect on our economy. He ably tells the story of Wal-Mart's rise with it's hyperfocus on pricing. But he's after something bigger here, and that's corporate secrecy. Like many large corporations, Wal-Mart is a closed and secret society. Consumers are robbed of the information that would assist them in identifying the true cost of consumption. Fishman is saying that the rise of the mega-corporation, with their ability to dominate a whole sector of the economy, is both anti-free market and anti-consumer. Though vague, he argues that we must consider stronger governance and regulation. This is where his book left me wanting. I wanted to know what exactly that would look like. That said, this is a well-researched, balanced and important book for our times.

5 out of 5 stars Costs of everyday low prices.......2007-09-16

Wal-Mart's obsessive focus on a single core value - delivering low prices - created the largest and most powerful company in history. Employing over 1.6 million people, Wal-Mart is so large that it can often defy the laws of supply, demand and competition. However, the same core values are also responsible for low wages, enormous pressure on suppliers, cheap quality and continuous off-shoring. Charles Fishman provides an insightful look at the growth and the careful balancing act that Wal-Mart has engaged in most recently: trying to find profit while moving beyond the simple slogan of `everyday low prices'. Given the scarce resources available on the company, `Wal-Mart Effect' offers a great overview of the largest corporation to date.

5 out of 5 stars Wal-Mart---Made in China.......2007-09-02

An excellent book on the behind scenes of what shopping at Wal-Mart means to America and the world. Wal-Mart has sold out its fellow Americans for pure greed on its own behalf. Thousands of jobs lost to over-seas countries to cut costs and to bully the suppliers into submission. Everyone should think twice before shopping at Wal-Mart. A good DVD on this subject, "Is Wal-Mart Good For America"? by PBS Frontline.

5 out of 5 stars Good or Bad, Fishman makes you think.......2007-08-30

Simply stated, Charles Fishman throws forth ideas and makes you think. Some reviews will say the book is great because it demonstrates Wal-Mart's 'evil' business model. Other will say that Fishman is just another anti-capitalist. As with all reading, and information for that matter, The Wal-Mart Effect should be read with an open mind but through a filter.

A great teacher will make a student think. Fishman, doubtlessly, is impressed with Wal-Mart's efficiency. But he remembers to state that efficiency and lower production costs can have long term effects that may not be in the consumer's long term interests.

Take the book how you would like. The Wal-Mart effect, like the bible, can be read to say many things. But read both with an open mind and you will have more information with which to approach life.
The Wal-Mart Way: The Inside Story of the Success of the World's Largest Company
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Wal*Mart Way Principles
  • Insider's account of how Wal-Mart does business
  • Don Soderquist is a great American
  • Principle Driven Business
  • The growth prescription
 The Wal-Mart Way: The Inside Story of the Success of the World's Largest Company
Don Soderquist
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0785261192

Book Description

Since Sam Walton's death in 1992, Wal-Mart has gone from being the largest retailer in the world to holding the top spot on the Fortune 500 list as the largest company in the world. Don Soderquist, who was senior vice chairman during that time, played a crucial role in that success. Sam Walton said, "I tried for almost twenty years to hire Don Soderquist . . . But when we really needed him later on, he finally joined up and made a great chief operating officer." Responsible for overseeing many of Wal-Mart's key support divisions, including real estate, human resources, information systems, logistics, legal, corporate affairs, and loss prevention, Soderquist stayed true to his Christian values as well as Wal-Mart's distinct management style. "Probably no other Wal-Mart executive since the legendary Sam Walton has come to embody the principles of the company's culture-or to represent them within the industry-as has Don Soderquist," Discount Store News once reported.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Wal*Mart Way Principles.......2007-08-05

This would give you an idea about the book.. you dont wanna miss reading this one!!

1. Every successful venture begins with a dream that requires determination, passion, and the willingness to grow if it is to be fulfilled.

2. You must have a vision that allows you to see a bigger, better, stronger you in the future - while never taking your eyes off of who you are and now what you are doing today.

3. To build a great company, you must create a culture where everyone shares the same values, purposes and expectations of success.

4. True success is achieved in direct proportion to the degree that an organization treats its people with respect and dignity - and believes in them enough to help them grow.

5. You will succeed when you make a commitment to help your customers succeed first.

6. Achieving excellence becomes a reality when you set high expectations, humbly face and correct your mistakes, stay optimistic, and avoid the quicksand of complacency.

7. Your success is in direct proportion to your ability to plan, monitor, and ultimately execute all phases of your business.

8. To build a great company, you must actively and continually seek out, evaluate, and invest in the tools that best serve people and aims of your organization.

9. The most basic operations in your company represent tremendous opportunities for improvement, growth and savings. Dont overlook the obvious.

10. When you create win-win relationships with your business partnerships based on trust and open communications, you maximize your potential for growth.

11. The ongoing sucess of your organization is in direct proportion to your ongoing commmitment to grow.

12. When you cultivate a spirit of charitable giving and civic involvement within your organization, you exponentially increase your tangible and intangible returns - including the personal character of your team.

4 out of 5 stars Insider's account of how Wal-Mart does business.......2006-09-18

Author Don Soderquist, Wal-Mart's retired Vice Chairman and COO, writes passionately about the company its founder, the late Sam Walton and its corporate culture. Once dubbed 'keeper of the culture,' he is not here to write a balanced, objective corporate biography. Instead, his admiration and respect for Walton and Wal-Mart shine from every line. He examines the company's workings from its humble beginnings to its rapid, phenomenal expansion. Soderquist describes Wal-Mart's commitment to its customers and employees, and describes its cost-cutting zeal. He details its use of new technology to revolutionize internal systems. These insights from the inside are very interesting, but - perhaps because the author was in the highest ranks of the company's leadership - the tone is so pro-Wal-Mart that it has the taste of public relations. However, if you seek immersion in this distinctive corporate culture and want to emulate the principles that worked for it, we stand beside the big glass doors and welcome you to Wal-Mart. Do you need a shopping cart?

5 out of 5 stars Don Soderquist is a great American.......2006-07-19

Reading this book you get to know a humble, God-fearing man who pursues excellence in everything he does. Don Soderquist would never say so, but he is a great American and a role model for any young businessman.

And Wal*Mart is proof that the strong American work ethic is really what makes our corporations so successful. Not the 'exploitation' schtick that the demented newscasters constantly try to peddle.



5 out of 5 stars Principle Driven Business.......2006-04-30

For me, this book wasn't primarily about Wal-Mart. It was about a man who took his principles to work with him and became incredibly significant. In a world severly lacking in principle driven living, it shines as a beacon. Here's an example:

The closest competitor prices a product at $19.95. Wal-Mart prices it at $14.86. Why doesn't Wal-Mart raise their price to $17.95, beating the competition but earning $3 more on every unit? Answer: Because Wal-Mart believes it holds a fair profit margin at $14.86 and wants the customer to have the lowest possible price. (Page 94) That's principle driven marketing.

I learned about the ten foot rule: When a Wal-Mart associate comes within ten feet of a customer, he or she is to look up, look the customer in the eye, and speak to the customer. If the customer asks where something is, the associate does not tell the customer, but takes the customer to the product. (page 91) That's principle driven customer service.

The development of corporate culture as a combination of shared vision, shared values, shared purposes, and shared expectations was helpful to me (Page 25). It was interesting to see how the corporate culture was promoted in Wal-Mart.

I believe I can apply these principles in my life, so this book really speaks to me. Forget about your pre-judgments of Wal-Mart, good or bad, and harvest a gold mine of life principles from these pages. I would use this as required reading in a college leadership class.

George A. Goolde

5 out of 5 stars The growth prescription.......2006-01-20

Wal-Mart is simultaneously admired, feared, loved and hated depending on from which perspective one looks at this giant retailer. In this book, the author's view is that of an insider, one who is passionately involved with the company's growth for over two decades and who has lived by the core principles and beliefs of the company and finally reaching the position of COO and vice-chairman.

This book is not a business story of Wal-Mart or a biographical outline of its founder. However, background knowledge of the world's biggest company will help in understanding the basic principles that helped it reach the current position rapidly with a clear vision and determination.

Frankly, my admiration for Wal-Mart has substantially increased after reading this book. This is not because I am in complete agreement with what can perhaps be termed as one-sided view for the author. The difference lies in the listing of the 12 core principles on which the company has been built and continues to grow rapidly even after reaching the magic figure of World # 1.

In terms of its global sourcing strategy, Wal-Mart procures aggressively from low cost locations especially China. This has resulted in reduced prices and abundant supply of merchandise in America. This practice is often accused as taking away of jobs from America and instead creating sweat shops in China. The book challenges these allegations and explains the global supply chain strategies that need to be emulated by any multinational.

What I found more interesting about the book is that about certain assumptions that we may make about business strategy. For example, in simple economic terms, price elasticity of demand means lower prices would ensure higher sales for most merchandise. However, Wal-Mart is driven by customer satisfaction and the commitment to putting an extra dollar into the average American consumer's pocket as the drivers and enablers that increase sales. Price reduction is the effect and not the bait.

The incident where a lady customer is given a free frying pan by the manager of a Wal-Mart store, just based on her declaration that she had lost the one she bought in the parking lot while taking it home is a good example of how much the employees are driven primarily by customer satisfaction and not just by sales targets.

Learning from competitors is another great trait that has been well explained.

Wal-Mart not only excels in customer service within its stores. Its truck drivers for example have helped many people who needed help on the roads especially women struck with vehicle breakdowns during late evening hours. What more can customers expect. No wonder they keep coming back again and again to what is now and will remain the planet's biggest company as long as it continues to pursue its 12 core principles in action and in spirit.
In Sam We Trust: The Untold Story of Sam Walton and Wal-Mart, the World's Most Powerful Retailer
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Wow!
  • A tale of two Wal-Marts
  • A fascinating History of America
  • A book everyone should read
  • Good Business History, Good Muckraking - bad mix of the two
 In Sam We Trust: The Untold Story of Sam Walton and Wal-Mart, the World's Most Powerful Retailer
Bob Ortega
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0812932978
Release Date: 2000-03-21

Book Description

If bigger is better, Wal-Mart has rightfully won its leading position in the pantheon of international institutions. With more than 100 million customers a week, Wal-Mart is by far the world's largest retailer. It is the biggest private-sector employer in North America, and one of the most dominant and influential corporations anywhere. Sam Walton's company prides itself on being a paragon of service, integrity, and frugality to its customers. But all is not well in the many areas where people have been "Wal-Martized" and have faced Wal-Mart's controversial business practices.

In Sam We Trust is the true, unvarnished story of the Wal-Mart colossus at work, and of how its remarkable success illustrates the glory as well as the underbelly of American capitalism. A flinty workaholic obsessed with his stores at the expense of his personal life, Walton established the ruthlessly efficient strategy that enabled Wal-Mart to surpass Sears, outsmart Kmart, and crush small-town mom-and-pop stores. Bob Ortega, a veteran reporter who covered Wal-Mart extensively for The Wall Street Journal, has written an illuminating and authoritative account of the world's most powerful store, and of how Sam Walton's way of thinking is transforming America's -- and the world's -- business practices, workplaces, and communities.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Wow!.......2005-01-03

I read this after seeing the PBS Frontline story on Walmart. I had never realized how much of an effect this store has on American communities, workers and manufacturing. As the book explains well, Walmart is not the only one to blame for the negative trends, but it is the biggest and was a trendsetter for this style of megabusiness whose only goal is to grow and eliminates all concerns except the bottom line.

The book was a pageturner for me. Really interesting and well written. I'd like to see a new edition that is updated with info from the last 6 years. Walmart has grown ALOT in 6 years!

4 out of 5 stars A tale of two Wal-Marts.......2002-06-19

Organizations reflect the people in charge. IN SAM WE TRUST by Bob Ortega tells how, after the death of founder Sam Walton, Wal-Mart department stores lost its way with both employees and the public.

According to IN SAM WE TRUST, Sam Walton made Wal-Mart employees and customers feel as though he cared about them even when his business practices said otherwise. With at least false hope, those people continued working and shopping at Wal-Mart.

Sam Walton died in 1992, and, as IN SAM WE TRUST tells it, subsequent Wal-Mart leadership did not care nor pretend to care about people. The book's final chapters document just how cold Wal-Mart headquarters became.

Everyday low prices? Yes. Everyday people? Only on Sly Stone's greatest hits album. Read IN SAM WE TRUST.

5 out of 5 stars A fascinating History of America.......2001-11-26

This is an excellent book. It's not merely the account of a powerful businessman and how he sahped a company. It's also an account of modern American socio-economic history. Ortega expalins hoe Sam Walton maanged to take advantage of changes that were occurring in demographic distribution, technology and savvy business techniques from those who taught him and his competitors. Ortega provides a history of retailing in the USA from the late 19th century and explains the success of the modern outlet store in terms of its roots in the catalogue stores, department stores and demographic distribution. The history of the WalMart company is told by focusing on its relentless founder Sam Walton. ortega reveals Walton's hiring processes, the reasons that led him to develop the worker profit-sharing programs and how the ideas of the cheer and other details, now familiar to any Wal Mart shopper, came to be. Ortega does not set out to accuse Walton, he lets the story speak for itself and the reader can decide whether or not they wish to continue shopping there. All in all this Business profile is well worth reading.

5 out of 5 stars A book everyone should read.......2001-05-17

I started reading this book when I was looking for a topic for one of my term papers (I had thought about writing a paper on Wal-Mart). When I decided to do my paper on sweatshops, I still used the book for reference purposes --especially on the infamous Kathie Lee Gifford/Wal-Mart/sweatshop scandal. However, I couldn't put it down. I would read a few pages and then I would need to know what happened before and what happened after. The book is very informative and well-written but I think the writing is accessibly to most people. It's an interesting book that offers a view of Wal-Mart that most of us don't get to see. It doesn' bash the retail-giant, but it provides us with a perspective of a business built by a determined man and what that business has meant to the country since it's beginning. I really enjoyed reading this book and I think a lot of you out there would as well.

4 out of 5 stars Good Business History, Good Muckraking - bad mix of the two.......2000-10-05

Anyone with an interest in business history has to be fascinated by the story of Wal-Mart. Starting from a single store in an obscure Southern town, the company expanded relentlessly over the course of thirty-five years to become the most powerful retailer in the world. At the center of this story stands the enigmatic figure of Sam Walton, a folksy and sincerely genial man who ran the single store back in the mid -1950's and still controlled the burgeoning corporate empire at the time of his death in 1992, having by then amassed the largest personal fortune in America. Bob Ortega has done a workman-like job in telling the story of both the company and its founder. However, Ortega is an investigative journalist by trade, not a biographer or business historian. His interest in Wal-Mart began with a series of muckraking reports he did on the company during the 1990's, and he devotes the last half of "In Sam We Trust" to rambling through much of this material, focusing on Wal-Mart's longstanding compliance with abusive and illegal labor practices on the part of its suppliers, and on it ruthless real-estate practices that have for the last three decades steam-rollered over what remains of the cultural ethos of small-town America. Ortega is a good writer and a conscientious journalist, laboring hard to stick to facts and avoid sensationalism. And given his obvious distaste for what Wal-Mart has become, it speaks well of his literary integrity that the historical and biographical portions of this book are objectively told. Sam Walton himself is portrayed with his all positive personal qualities intact - he's rather likeable - and his flaws, while apparent, aren't blown out of proportion either. The fascination with him, which is well-presented, lies in the paradox of such an amiable fellow possessing a ruthless competitive drive rivaling that of the any of the legendary 19th century Robber Barons. The problem with Ortega's book is that the biographical and historical half doesn't fit together very cohesively with the muckraking half, even though both portions are well-enough done in their own terms. Anyone wanting business history here is going to get a little bored with the repetitive accounts of third-world sweatshops and anti-Wal-Mart community action drives. I recommend the book, but many readers should be prepared skim over portions of it.
Wal-Smart: What It Really Takes to Profit in a Wal-Mart World
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Find the "And": This Is Not a Zero-Sum Game
  • Wal-Smart: What It Really Takes to Profit in a Wal-Mart World
  • WAL-SMART is a worthwhile read!
 Wal-Smart: What It Really Takes to Profit in a Wal-Mart World
William H. Marquard
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Strategy & CompetitionStrategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0071475168

Book Description

THE SECRET OF WAL-MART'S SUCCESS-AND YOURS

Wal-Smart is not just a book about Wal-Mart. It's about the principles of leadership in a Wal-Mart economy. No matter what industry you work in, Wal-Mart influences the way you do business. In providing a new level of convenience, discount pricing, and efficiency, Wal-Mart has changed the rules of the global economy, the customer expectations for every business-and the ways your organization must deliver to keep up. Is it even possible to thrive in a world ruled by this, and other, industry giants?

Yes, it is possible-if you're “Wal-Smart,” says Bill Marquard. The architect of Wal-Mart's first-ever strategic planning process, Marquard takes you on a rare tour of what's really driving Wal-Mart's success, from its powerful process disciplines to its hidden management “DNA” to its simple, but elegant, productivity loop.

Wal-Smart answers our most gut-wrenching question as business leaders in any industry: Now that we're immersed in the Wal-Mart world, what are we going to do about it? Marquard prescribes the smart choices you need to make in every aspect of your business: as competitors, suppliers, employers, and community members.

Throughout are stories of triumph-and of defeat-that distill the critical strategic choices you must make to win in the shadow of any giant of industry . . . or to become a giant yourself. Wal-Smart equips leaders, managers, and anyone in the business community with the essential strategies that really work to survive and thrive in this brave, new Wal-Mart world.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Find the "And": This Is Not a Zero-Sum Game.......2007-05-07


When I began to read this book, I incorrectly assumed that William H. Marquard would focus his attention almost entirely on Wal-Mart when, in fact, his objective is to suggest what lessons can be learned from this extraordinary successful company, lessons that could be of substantial value to almost all other companies, regardless of size or nature. As Marquand observes, the primary message of Wal-Smart is that "we all must make smart choices - intentionally and explicitly - to profit in a global marketplace that is dominated not only by Wal-Mart but also by many [other] giants of industry. The message in short is: Choose or lose."

He carefully organizes his material as follows: Within the first half of the book, he suggests "why we ended up in a Wal-Mart world by explaining the elements of Wal-Mart's success that few people see...it is what's behind the scenes that really makes the difference in creating [various] visible advantages" such as its efficient logistics, low cost structure, and everyday-low-price perception. Then in the second half, Marquard responds to a challenge which all business leaders face: "Now that we are enmeshed in the Wal-Mart world, what are we going to do about it?" he prescribes a number of "compelling strategies" that can guide and inform "smart choices" as competitors, suppliers, employers, and community members. More specifically, Jacquard suggests how to examine options, how to choose the right ones, and how to "win" (if necessary) a second chance to succeed. "Smart choices" must be (as they continue to be within the Wal-Mart organization) explicit and intentional, then executed them consistently to increase the chances of success.

Marquard asserts that the first step in the decision-making process is to choose what not to do -- and that includes (for nearly all organizations) not competing directly with Wal-Mart - before choosing what to do. Once these decisions are made, it is imperative to sustain their implementation throughout the given enterprise with a firm commitment and sufficient resources. Long ago, I decided that strategies are analogous with hammers and that tactics are analogous with nails. The former drive the latter and, if (huge "if") well-chosen, should remain constant whereas the latter may need to be modified or even replaced to accommodate changes within the competitive marketplace.

With all due respect to the importance of what Marquard calls "intentionality" of purpose, decision-makers must also be both willing and able to piece together wisdom from diverse and often disparate places. "Effective strategies come from making connections, from synthesizing, from melding choices in ways that no other company has - or can. When make one choice [begin italics] and [end italics] link it to another [begin italics] and [end italics] link it to another, we eventually craft a mosaic that evokes a more compelling, more complete image than any strategic piece taken individually ever could." When making explicit, intentional choices, therefore, find the "and" which connects all strategies so that they can work effectively together.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check our Ram Charan's Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't, Lynda Gratton's Hot Spots: Why Some Teams, Workplaces, and Organizations Buzz with Energy - And Others Don't, Robert J. Herbold's Seduced by Success: How the Best Companies Survive the 9 Traps of Winning, Jagdish N. Sheth's The Self-Destructive Habits of Good Companies...and How to Break Them, Charles G. Koch's The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World's Largest Private Company, Jack Alexander's Performance Dashboards and Analysis for Value Creation, Michael Useem's The Go Point: When It's Time to Decide--Knowing What to Do and When to Do It, and Enterprise Architecture As Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson.

5 out of 5 stars Wal-Smart: What It Really Takes to Profit in a Wal-Mart World.......2007-03-09

Bill provides great insight into the challenges and opportunities for competing in the 21st century. I appreciate the easy-to-read style and practical examples. I recommend the book to all.

5 out of 5 stars WAL-SMART is a worthwhile read!.......2007-02-14

Bill's brilliantly written book, WAL-SMART, sheds new light on Wal-Mart's business culture DNA and how companies can profit in the Wal-Mart world we live in.

Marquard reasons Wal-Mart has changed the business landscape not just now -- but forever. And if competing businesses fail to recognize how Wal-Mart has changed the rules of doing business, then Marquard says these businesses are choosing to lose. Businesses choose to lose because they fail to address how Wal-Mart has conditioned new expectations from competing businesses, suppliers/distributors, employees, and local communities.

If you are responsible for managing business activities of any retailer or any supplier/distributor, I implore you to read WAL-SMART. It's chock-full of smart strategy musings which will help you better compete against any big dog dominant company in your competitive set. WAL-SMART is a worthwhile read!
The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Boring and Easily Summarized
  • fast, excellent packaging: perfect!!!
  • Wal-Mart Revolution
  • Uhh..It's Called Reality, Folks.
  • A fascinating discussion of the actual history of Wal-Mart, the retail trade, and Wal-Mart's critics
 The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy
Richard Vedder , and Wendell Cox
Manufacturer: AEI Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0844742449

Book Description

Wal-Mart is under attack--from labor unions, urban planners, globalization critics, and community activists. The company's detractors argue that Wal-Mart reduces living standards, hurts retail trade, causes unemployment, and relegates Third World workers to poverty. In the Wal-Mart Revolution, Richard Vedder and Wendell Cox examine Wal-Mart's true role in the economy. The authors look briefly at the history of retailing in America and the contributions made by James Penney and Frank Woolworth. Looking specifically at Wal-Mart, they review conditions before and after Wal-Mart entered a local market and look more broadly at Wal-Mart's impact on wages, productivity growth and inflation. Vedder and Cox show that the retailer has been a force for good.

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars Boring and Easily Summarized.......2007-07-09

The authors begin by using other peoples' data to estimate at least $55 '05 benefit per consumer, double that if Wal-Mart practices adopted by competitors is included. (My own experience, buying both grocery and non-food items at Wal-Mart, suggests a much higher figure - about $600.)

As for negatively impacting producers, the authors use arcane and skimpily covered methods to estimate that the net benefit is still about $110/year. Again, I suspect the negative impact on American workers is much greater than the authors contend.

Regardless, "The Wal-Mart Revolution" then adds on charitable giving - as though the Mom and Pop stores it often replaces never made charitable gifts.

Many blame Wal-Mart for hiring workers at relatively low pay and offering skimpy benefits. Wal-Mart is not the source of the problem, however. The real problem is our government allowing such extensive outsourcing that employees are left with no choice but to accept such positions. If Wal-Mart didn't do it, others would - and to a large extent they do.

Look at the packaging on boxes being brought into department stores and specialty shops - far too often they show the same "Made in China" printing that is found on Wal-Mart merchandise. Lately we have even learned that much of our food is also produced by China.

Bottom Line: Don't blame Wal-Mart for offering the best deal while protecting itself from others. Blame the American government and short-sighted economists that think losing millions of jobs to outsourcing is a good thing.

5 out of 5 stars fast, excellent packaging: perfect!!!.......2007-05-28

I received the book fairly quickly. I was new and looked great1

5 out of 5 stars Wal-Mart Revolution.......2007-05-12

If you favor truth and empirical observation regarding Wal-Mart rather than the hyperbolic PR of green advoacates and union web sites this is required reading. It is excellently documented and the authors have no particular axe to grind since they are not affliated with Wal-Mart in any way.

1 out of 5 stars Uhh..It's Called Reality, Folks........2007-03-18

Is this book a joke? What planet are these authors living on?

It is an undeniable fact that Wal-Mart's "success" is achieved through predatory pricing, union busting, and forcing workers to work off the clock. One example of many: In March 2005, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $11 million to settle allegations that it had failed to pay overtime to janitors, many of whom worked seven nights a week. [Arkansas Democrat Gazette, 11/7/05, Forbes, 10/10/05]

Not only that, but Wal-Mart is the indirect beneficiary of billions of taxpayer dollars. In many states, like California, the average Wal-Mart "associate" makes only $17, 114. How do these associates survive on such a salary? By collecting welfare benefits from the state in the form of low-income housing assistance, food stamps, low-income energy assistance and Medicaid.

As far as Wal-Mart suddenly going "organic" to satisfy consumer demand, as the book suggests, the company gets its organic products from places like China. Why? The whole concept of organic is not simply buying foods free of pesticides. It also involves supporting LOCAL farmers and insuring sustainable wages for local farming communities. THIS is how localities would be benefited by companies like Wal-Mart. China has a horrible human rights record and is able to supply cheap goods to Wal-Mart by banning independent labor unions and "employing" millions of workers as virtual slaves. How are workers kept in this bondage? By an authoritarian state apparatus that "free market" adherents like Vedder have somehow made peace with.

This is the real world, folks! The free market does not exist-- except in the fevered imaginations of capitalist hacks.

Leftists are not opposed to "success", as a reviewer suggests below. What we're opposed to are parasites that live off the backs of working people. Leftists support all types of companies--very successful ones, I might add, that place people before profits. Companies like Whole Foods, Working Assets, Ben and Jerry's, Seventh Generation, Gateway Inc., Office Max, etc.

Free market ideologues will scoff at this assertion, claiming that it's just a bunch of Marxist drivel, that Wal-Mart provides jobs for thousands of people that they otherwise wouldn't have, offers low prices for poor people, blah blah...

However, what these people doesn't understand is that labor is not just a commodity to be treated like any other commodity. It is much more than that.

For more information on this subject, check out "Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor of the Social Sciences" by Steve Keen. Also, check out "No One Makes You Shop At Wal-Mart: The Suprising Deceptions of Individual Choice" by Tom Slee.

5 out of 5 stars A fascinating discussion of the actual history of Wal-Mart, the retail trade, and Wal-Mart's critics.......2007-02-25

One of the worst aspects of politics is that the issues politicians use are too often used to commit people one way or the other based on emotions rather than reason or a set of facts. In recent years, with the advent of very accurate polling, politicians and those dependent on them for government largesse have found it convenient to pick out a "bad guy" (the "bad guy" only has to be someone they can smear, not someone who is actually guilty of bad behavior) and then blame a popular set of ills on them that the politician will claim to "fix".

For example, the Clintons went after the "profiteering vaccine makers", as noted in many newspapers in 1993. (The calculating nature of this attack is discussed in Bob Woodward's "The Agenda".) The result? They all but killed off the domestic vaccine industry. Good job! But it got them something to rant about, divert attention from their early political blunders once in office and the ability to garner some votes in the next election. No matter that they made people worse off. The GOP tends to pull out the flag-burning amendment whenever they need to divert attention from some unpleasant political reality they stepped into, although that is getting a bit worn.

Wal-Mart has been taking any number of hits from unionists, mostly Democrat politicians, community activists, and anti-globalization folks. This book is a very helpful way to get some clarifying information about what is actually going on in the retail industry and Wal-Mart's place in it. The authors also consider the validity of criticisms leveled against the world's largest retailer.

In the preface the authors head off the criticism that will inevitably be made of anyone who fails to go along with the criticisms made against Wal-Mart, that the writer is a company stooge. The authors note that while Wal-Mart has made a modest contribution to the AEI, they knew nothing at all about it until after the book was completed and had little contact with Wal-Mart while writing the book. The introduction sets the stage for the book, which consists of twelve chapters divided into four parts.

Part I is "Why Wal-Mart Matters" and provides a simplified explanation of how innovation and efficiency in retail makes customers better off through consumer surplus, the positive and negative externalities caused by changes in the marketplace, public attitudes towards the retail trade in America, the criticisms leveled against the company, and who these critics are.

Part II is "The Wal-Mart Revolution". It begins with a fascinating discussion of the history of retailing. When the first chain stores began putting the local shops out of business, people were just as upset as they claim to be today and yet shopped at the more efficient stores with the lower prices, as they do today. Here is a quote from the speaker of the Indiana house: "The chain stores are undermining the foundations of our entire local happiness and prosperity." Sounds quite familiar, doesn't it?

The authors also provide a history of Wal-Mart as well as its competitors and imitators. I found the charts on pages 47 and 48 quite fascinating. The retail trade in America has grown from around $250 billion in 1960 to around $800 billion in 2004. However, the retail trade for all those years has stayed at right around 8% of a growing GDP. It is interesting to note how these imitators and competitors are all more similar than different. Why? Because they are constrained by the marketplace and its competitive forces. People have only so much discretionary income and want to get the most for it. Therefore, those who offer the most equivalent goods (as perceived by the consumer) at the lowest cost will almost certainly be the winner in the marketplace. This has been proven out multiple times over the past century and more.

In Part III the authors consider "Wal-Mart: Good or Bad". They look carefully at the employment information available, the impact the store has on communities, its cost/benefit to the taxpayer, its impact on the poor, the impact of the big box revolution on productivity and compare what is known to the claims and assertions made by the company's critics. The claims are often over blown or unsubstantiated. However, even when they do have a point stated more or less fairly, they fail to balance the negative with the positives.

Part IV looks at Wal-Mart's future. It notes the impact the criticisms of Wal-Mart have had on its behavior, how it is faring in its moved outside the borders of the United States (mixed), and further evaluation of the critics of Wal-Mart and a consideration of what "we should do about Wal-Mart".

I found this to be a breath of fresh air and a helpful source of information to balance the popular notions all too often that Wal-Mart is a force for evil in our economy. While this negative image cannot be squared with the reality of consumer and employee behavior, it is one that is too often accepted and discussed as if it were a fact. If you are interested in this public discussion and want to know the other side of the issue and get a more balanced view of the situation, then please read this book. It is not very long, easy to read, and I found it very interesting.
Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle For Workers' Rights At Wal-Mart
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Incredulous
  • Unfortunately, this book is fabulous
  • Always Lower Prices - but at what cost?
  • informative and shocking
  • Struggles for justice
Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle For Workers' Rights At Wal-Mart
Liza Featherstone
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0465023169
Release Date: 2005-09-06

Book Description

On television, Wal-Mart employees are smiling women delighted with their jobs. But reality is another story. In 2000, Betty Dukes, a fifty-two-year-old black woman in Pittsburg, California, became the lead plaintiff in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, a class action, representing 1.6 million women. In her explosive investigation of this historic lawsuit, journalist Liza Featherstone reveals how Wal-Mart, a self-styled "family-oriented," Christian company:

Deprives women (but not men) of the training they need to advance.

Relegates women to lower-paying jobs like selling baby clothes, reserving the more lucrative positions for men.

Inflicts punitive demotions on employees who object to discrimination.

Exploits Asian women in its sweatshops in Saipan, a U.S. commonwealth.

Featherstone goes on to reveal the creative solutions that Wal-Mart workers around the country have found, like fighting for unions, living-wage ordinances, and childcare options. Selling Women Short combines the personal stories of these employees with superb investigative journalism to show why women who work these low-wage jobs are getting a raw deal, and what they are doing about it. A new preface to the paperback edition will reflect on Wal-Mart's response to this lawsuit and its critics-including this one.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Incredulous.......2006-11-10

How is it possible that this book (and this class action suit) hasn't made a bigger impact in the American people? My eyes were opened and I accepted the Wal-mart propaganda and brainwashing for what it was. But I believe boycotting will only hurt these women- instead join the grassroots campaigns and unionizations Featherstone talks about. Once you've purchased this amazing book, pass it on to a friend. Or better yet, walk into a Wal-mart and hand it to a female employee. This *should* be required reading.

5 out of 5 stars Unfortunately, this book is fabulous.......2006-06-25

It's so unfortunate that a book like this has to be written. It's even more upseting that every word is true. The book, strictly speaking, is awesome! Why isn't every newspaper and TV show talking about it? The situations in the book are true I'm sure. The reason I'm sure is because I'm an Assistant Manager and I've lived every one of those situations during my short term in management, and more. Oh the horror stories I could tell! I can't even count how many times my husband has had to be restrained from leaving the house to go have a "chat" with my Store Manager out back of the store. The treatment of women, actually associates in general and especially female managers, by this company is wrong. It's downright criminal. It's also why I'm resigning and giving up. Is Liza writing another book or an update? Is there a way to join the lawsuit? Is there a way to contact Liza? I would really like to know these things because I also have a story to tell. My email is walmartassistantmgr@yahoo.com.

4 out of 5 stars Always Lower Prices - but at what cost?.......2006-02-01

This is the central question in Featherstone's treatment of the Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. class action lawsuit. Focusing on depositions, sworn testimony and direct personal interviews, Featherstone gets right to the heart of her subject in the first chapter. The anecdotal evidence, supported by ample statistics, demonstrates that something is, indeed, awfully wrong with Wal-Mart and the disparate ways in which it treats its workers.

As important as the gender discrimination issue is the consideration of how Wal-Mart has, and will continue to, build its fortune off the backs of the working poor. Given enough time, it is entirely possible that certain areas of the country will be economically drained, committed to an addiction of buying at and working for Wal-Mart. It is the low-price panties version of a Super Size Me world. Worst of all, however, is the company's documented practice of referring its own workers to social service agencies, to apply for benefits they need because Wal-Mart neither provides sufficient benefits nor pays employees enough to afford them. Puts a whole new spin on the phrase "corporate welfare." Where is the politicians' indignation over this abuse of the welfare system?

Well researched and well documented with references and notes. One latter chapter does tend to slow down with emphasis on legal citations and stats, but this is necessary to put a factual basis behind the personal stories. Whether you are against Wal-Mart, a Wally-World fan or a blissfully unaware consumer, you cannot read this book and remain unaffected in some manner. If it does not turn you completely away from shopping there, it should at the very least give you pause before opening your wallet.

4 out of 5 stars informative and shocking.......2005-10-06

Anyone living in the 21st century will be amazed at the content of Selling Women Short; the anecdotes shared by current and former Wal-Mart employees are like something out of Gloria Steinem's worst nightmare circa 1975. Even in the current litigious climate of corporate America, Wal-Mart manages to succeed at completely indoctrinating its "associates" to believe in the "values" of the company, which are as "good ole boy" as they can get. Liza Featherstone's account of the Dukes vs. Wal-Mart class action lawsuit (now certified, still unresolved), the largest in U.S. legal history, makes up for in content what it may lack in an elegant writing style (it's a bit bare bones and stilted at times). The women involved in the lawsuit aren't the typical bleeding-heart liberals that would be easy for Wal-Mart to discredit; they are by and large very religious, relatively conservative women who are trying to get by on very low wages and zero respect. The consistency with which women have been kept to the lowest paying, lowest power positions within the company is nothing less than appalling; using both ample statistics as well as countless personal interviews, Featherstone assaults the reader with a barrage of terrible realities. Many of the employees at Wal-Mart cannot afford to spend 50% of their income on the company health plan, so they end up on state or federal assistance. Women are discouraged from applying to management positions. If this reading this book does not convince you to boycott Wal-Mart, it would be surprising.

5 out of 5 stars Struggles for justice .......2005-07-20

"Selling Women Short" by Liza Featherstone is an engaging book about the historic 'Betty Dukes vs Wal-Mart Stores Inc' class action lawsuit that alleges Wal-Mart's institutionalized discrimination of its female employees. Skillfully weaving anecdotes and profiles of key plaintiffs and their claims of sexism with research about Wal-Mart and its Orwellian corporate culture, the book provides an excellent critique of the company's numerous illegal behaviors and a humane narrative of its female employees' struggle for justice.

Interestingly, Ms. Featherstone's analysis suggests that the company's paradigmatic success is attributable to its parasitical relationship with the declining fortunes of the working class. Wal-Mart cynically promotes itself as a pro-family, pro-American company even as it offers poverty-level wages and imports most of its wares from foreign, low-wage countries. In this manner, Ms. Featherstone explains that Wal-Mart both contributes to and profits from the exploitation of marginalized female laborers.

Ms. Featherstone is careful to discuss the limitations of the lawsuit as a tool to effect systemic change at Wal-Mart. She contends that it is probably equally important for the public to become educated about the inequities at Wal-Mart in order to create a media firestorm that might pressure the company to change its ways. However, Ms. Featherstone describes the difficulties that unions and interest groups have had trying to organize labor and shoppers in the struggle with Wal-Mart, contending that our consumer culture tends to set aside worker's rights issues in favor of shopping expediency. Nevertheless, as the lawsuit moves forward the author is hopeful that Wal-Mart may soon feel the need to make significant changes in order to avert a court-imposed solution and/or a public relations catastrophe.

I highly recommend this outstanding book to everyone.
Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-First-Century Capitalism
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Sure Wal-Mart is swill ,but this book is dry and boring
  • THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM MUST STOP HERE
  • very very useful academic perspective
  • Good Insights!
 Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-First-Century Capitalism

Manufacturer: New Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1595580212

Book Description

An indispensable introduction to the company that will define the twenty-first century economy.

Edited by one of the nation's preeminent labor historians, this book marks an ambitious effort to dissect the full extent of Wal-Mart's business operations, its social effects, and its role in the U.S. and world economy. Wal-Mart is based on a spring 2004 conference of leading historians, business analysts, sociologists, and labor leaders that immediately attracted the attention of the national media, drawing profiles in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the New York Review of Books. Their contributions are adapted here for a general audience.

At the end of the nineteenth century the Pennsylvania Railroad declared itself "the standard of the world." In more recent years, IBM and then Microsoft seemed the template for a new, global information economy. But at the dawn of the twenty-first century, Wal-Mart has overtaken all rivals as the world-transforming economic institution of our time.

Presented in an accessible format and extensively illustrated with charts and graphs, Wal-Mart examines such topics as the giant retailer's managerial culture, revolutionary use of technological innovation, and controversial pay and promotional practices to provide the most complete guide yet available to America's largest company.

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars Sure Wal-Mart is swill ,but this book is dry and boring.......2006-10-01

Before commenting on this very boring,badly written junk book I think it is necessary to comment on some of the political diatribes that herein pass for "reviews"of this volume...Everyone knows that at wal-mart prices are low because the company is cut-throat,doesn't pay its workers well,and has as it's primary goal the intention to drive as many of its competitors out of business as possible..so what else is new?In an era that allows a brainless twit like George W.Bush to have two terms as president,that has seen repeated tax give-aways to the rich but no increase in the federal minimum wage for the poor,that allows government to step on the constitution and trash the bill of rights,one can only wonder at the self-righteous fulminating to be found in reviews that say more about liberal anger than about how badly written this book is...Hey!Wal-Mart thrives for the same reason that George W.Bush remains president,and for the same reason thatthe rich get richer while the poor remain poor;BECAUSE A MAJORITY OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN !
This book is written is an ultra-dry,statistical style,apparently designed for someone other than the average reader...If the people responsible for this book thought that with its publication a spark would be ignited that would burn wal-mart to the ground they were-and are-mistaken...while poring over the data in this volume may indeed show wal-mart to be the predatory corporate villian that we all already accept as fact,it is not likely that many will take the time and the effort necessary to do so..and effort is needed,as reading through most of what is contained in this volume is about as entertaining as reading the phone-book cover to cover.

4 out of 5 stars THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM MUST STOP HERE.......2006-06-10

This may not be the book of essays that finally gets people up in arms against the Wal-Martization of the world but it contains much useful information for those are interested in that perspective.

This writer has just received news that the Massachusetts Federation of Teachers (MFT) has voted to support the Wal-Mart boycott. Thus, the MFT joins a growing number of other unions union federations nationally and internationally in support of this first step in the struggle to organize Wal-Mart. Every militant is obliged to and must support this boycott as a first step in the struggle against this greedy mega-corporation. To list the egregious labor practices of this corporation is like reading pages from the history relating the sweatshop conditions of the American labor movement at the turn of the 20th century. These essays detail that exploitation. Whatever piddling savings one might receive by shopping at Wal-Mart is negated by the degradation of its labor force. It is high time for the labor movement to move on this outfit and move hard. The race to the bottom stops here.

Whatever the practical effect of the boycott it can only be a first step in the ultimate union organization of Wal-Mart. A boycott is not enough! A consumer boycott, as has been shown by past practices, is only as effective as the diffuse shopping public is aware of it. In general, a consumer boycott has little or no effect at all. In any case it is not decisive. There is no short-cut to effective organization at the point of production and, particularly in the case of Wal-Mart, distribution. The leadership of the organized American labor movement (now centered in the AFL-CIO and Change to Win Coalition) has chiefly used to the tactic of boycott to avoid the hard struggle to unionize the workforce. In the final analysis only organization in the field will bring unionization.

To organize Wal-Mart means there must be the will to organize Wal-Mart. It is necessary to go all out to win once the decision has been made to organize this monster along industrial lines, like the automobile industry in the 1930's. Previous local efforts (such as in Quebec and Texas) to organize particular stores have shown that this strategy (or lack of strategy) has been a failure. Wal-Mart is just too big and powerful to be taken on piecemeal. This writer has seen estimates that the number of field organizers necessary to effectively organize Wal-Mart is at least 3000. Militants must call on the organized labor movement to fund and sent out that number en masse. The time is now.

Those even slightly familiar with the Wal-Mart operation know that the corporation has a fleet of at least 7000 trucks to transport and deliver goods to its various locations. This should make every militant salivate at the prospect of organizing that fleet. Militants must demand that the Teamsters International Union to organize the fleet. Know this, if the trucks, the key to the distribution process are unionized that is a very powerful argument in the workers' favor if a showdown with other parts of the Wal-Mart workforce is necessary. This writer suggests that militants read Teamster Rebellion and Teamster Power by Farrell Dobbs; a central organizer of the successful Teamster union drives in Minneapolis and later over the road drivers in the 1930's. (These books have been reviewed elsewhere in this space) One thing is sure, if it took practically a civil war to bring the relatively loosely organized trucking company bosses to their knees in the 1930's it will be 1000 times harder to do so against this monolithic giant. But the victory will be sweeter.



4 out of 5 stars very very useful academic perspective.......2006-01-26

Neither a polemic nor a whitewash, this book is critical yet strives to be fair. Its perspective is predominantly historical and a bit too academic, but it is well written and simply fascinating.

Sam Walton was a natural salesman, passionate about building his retail business. When founded Wal-Mart in 1962, he did not entertain any dream of becoming the wealthiest man in America or creating the world's largest company. Instead, he wanted to bring big-city discounting to his corner of the rural American South, which would cut about 20% off the prices in local stores. But he wanted the discounts to be offered every day, rather than by one-time sales promotions of selected items. He chose to expand locally, opening stores in his native Arkansas and spreading slowly into Oklahoma, Missouri, and Louisiana. Thus, as the book points out, Wal-Mart's culture reflects where it was born, where its salaries were viewed as fair and people could live reasonably well on them and in a context without strong unions or organized workers.

Walton's strategy was simple: to make up for his low profit margins, he would have to sell in higher volumes of sales in a large number of stores. In addition, his company developed a relentless drive to lower costs by going directly to manufacturers and constantly increasing worker productivity, which often translated into low salaries for a high-turnover work force. He also paid close attention to the competition as well as trained Wal-Mart workers to treat customers with courtesy and consideration of their needs. It was a phenomenal success. In 1985, with just under 1,000 stores, he was named by Forbes Magazine as the richest man in America. By 1991, Wal-Mart was recognized as America's largest retailer as it began to expand overseas. It was repeatedly hailed as the most admired company in America.

In the aftermath of Walton's death, the expansion of the company accelerated with a combination of new technologies (the "logistics revolution") and the globalization of its operations. By 2004, Wal-Mart was number one on the Fortune 500 list, as both the world's largest corporation and the largest non-governmental employer.

From the mid-1990s, Wal-Mart became a pioneer in technology-driven productivity enhancement. Elements included: 1) point-of-sale data collection, enabling managers to track inventory and demand in real time; 2) data mining in order to exploit trends to boost sales via novel merchandising techniques, e.g. placing diapers and six packs of beer near store entryways on Fridays, to exploit a spike in demand for both items at the end of the workweek; 3) the establishment of a just-in-time delivery system, which suppliers and distributors were obligated to participate in and obey, in effect joining Wal-Mart's data network. According to a widely cited estimate by McKinsey and Co., Wal-Mart alone was responsible for 25% of the "gain in productivity" of the U.S. economy from 1995 to 1999! Many of these efficiency gains, the company claimed, were passed directly on to consumers in the form of lower prices. Wal-Mart, the company said, saved U.S. consumers over $100 billion per year.

Combined with its sheer size (Wal-Mart accounts for approximately 10% of all retail sales in the U.S.!) these technological capabilities enabled Wal-Mart to exert an unprecedented degree of control not only over its business partners (independent manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors), but over its employees as well.

On the one hand, this represents a fundamental shift of market power to the retailer, which traditionally had served as outlets for manufacturers. In practical terms, this meant that Wal-Mart could force its partners to set prices at whatever levels that the retailer deemed desirable, which translated into direct control of both their marketing through Wal-Mart stores and in many cases, even the manufacturers' brand. Given the imperative of cost containment, this tends to cut their profit margins to the bone. In the case of Vlasic pickles, for example, some have argued that Wal-Mart's insistence that the company lower prices led to its bankruptcy as well as derailed its brand strategy for high quality at slightly higher prices. One the other hand, managers in Wal-Mart headquarters are able track the productivity of workers in its individual stores, allowing them to push for "improvements", allegedly as unpaid over-time and refusal to take breaks, which many critics charged were degrading and often illegal.

Wal-Mart's size and reach attracted many critics, who condemn its practices and began to mount protest campaigns against the company. Their tactics include grassroots campaigns to block the establishment of new Wal-Mart Supercenters, targeted consumer boycotts, a barrage of media attacks (in films and television, on the internet, and in print), and efforts to unionize Wal-Mart associates. In addition, the company became the object of a growing number of lawsuits (on average two per hour, 365 days per year!) from both current and former employees and customers, including many class-action suits.

Wal-Mart's critics argue passionately that the company had to change in a variety of ways. First, they believe, Wal-Mart had to somehow lessen its impact on the communities that it entered. As it stood, they charge, Wal-Mart not only destroys local "mom and pop" stores that could not compete on price, which sometimes turn traditional downtown shopping areas from vital social centers into ghost towns, but also generate such second-hand effects of increased traffic, reduced demand for other local businesses such as newspapers, additional infrastructure costs that create new tax burdens. Second, Wal-Mart's labor practices, which they believe are brutal and unfair, have to change. The company, they demand, should allow associates to unionize, offer better wages and health insurance benefits, and treat them more humanely. Moreover, critics claim, Wal-Mart's labor practices were dragging down those of its unionized competitors, who were asking employees to "bargain away" their higher salaries, pension plans, and other benefits in order for the companies to survive. Third, they argue, Wal-Mart has to provide a more equitable management of its supply chain, from "sweatshop" workers in China to the company's truckers as well as its manufacturing partners. This often means that the company should pay more for the goods and services it buys.

This criticism amounts to nothing less than a fundamental repudiation of Wal-Mart's business model, which in the words of one critic in this book, "can flourish only by externalizing many of its most important social and economic costs, which are displaced onto a relentlessly squeezed supply chain, an underpaid retail work force, and those many thousand communities...which have been forced to absorb so many intangible expenses..." Even worse, evidence suggests that the criticism resonated with a growing portion of the public. In a 2004 confidential McKinsey & Co., it was reported, between 2 and 8% of the public had ceased to shop at Wal-Mart due to the "negative press" about the company. Most alarming to Wal-Mart executives, however, was the disapproval of more affluent, middle class consumers in urban areas, that is, the group that the company had identified as the market that it must next enter if its growth rates were to improve or even be sustained.

This is about where the book stops, which is unfortunate given the things that have happened recently. As media campaigns against the company grew in 2004, Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott decided to mount a counter-offensive. In its aim respond directly to the claims of critics, this represented a new departure for the company. After hiring the public relations firm Edelman, the company created a rapid-response "war room" in summer, 2005. Among the tasks of the group was the cultivation of a more positive image of the company - as environmentally aware and more worker friendly - in the minds of the "swing voters" who had not yet decided against shopping at Wal-Mart. It wants to be viewed as a good guy again, which in my opinion is a dubious proposition.

The next phase of the story is whether or not this new PR will work. The company certainly got lots of praise for its Katrina relief efforts, and deservedly so if you ask me. But the opposition to the company will persist. My advice is: hold onto your seats because it's gonna be a heckuva ride. For example, just after Scott announced some progressive measures, such as a new health care plan and some environmental initiatives, foes of the company released a leaked internal memo (on strategies to keep employees off the company health care plans) with perfect political timing: the vilification was intense, focusing on how the leopard may not really have changed its spots. These opposition groups are media-savvy and driven - and they will not stop. I have interviewed some of them, and to say the least, they are passionate about their mission, which is not just to block Wal-Mart but on how to shape the direction in which their communities will develop. Instead of asking "how many jobs", they are looking at what kinds of jobs are being created. In my view, this represents a fundamentally new kind of social movement and Wal-Mart had better take heed.

Recommended as the best book I have yet read on the company. While it is predominantly historical, it explains many useful things about the company that are unavailable elsewhere. Also, there are wonderful histories about the retail trade.

4 out of 5 stars Good Insights!.......2005-12-06

The book begins by summarizing the 10/11/03 lockout/strike of 59,000 Southern California grocery workers from 850 supermarkets in an effort to maintain wages and healthcare insurance the UFCW had negotiated over 50 years. The lockout/strike ended Feb./Mar. of '04 with a decisive defeat for grocery workers - the new contract slashed starting pay and capped health insurance payouts. The one point of agreement was that the struggle was initiated by industry management trying to prepare for expected competition from Wal-Mart in their area. (Some experts see Wal-Mart becoming the nation's leading grocer by '08.)

Wal-Mart is attributed to bring over 230,000 shipping containers across the Pacific each year - approximately 100 containership loads, and about 10-20% of transhipped through Southern California. Its overseas suppliers employ up to 65,000 at a single facility (Huyen-Binh-Chanh in VN).

Discounters' labor costs average about 15% of sales (about half that of department stores); Wal-Mart's are another 25% less. One means of selling its low wages is to also offer profit-sharing - however, few take advantage because qualifying requires two years' employment to qualify (40%+ turnover/year). Only 7% of its employees try to support a family with children on a single Wal-Mart income -> reduced need for benefits. A 32-hour week is considered "standard" at Wal-Mart (some employees do work 40 hours. It probably has a higher percentage of managers start in low-paying jobs and lacking a college/university degree than any other large company in the world.

Adding groceries to Wal-Mart's existing stores typically increased sales of non-food items 30%.

Wal-Mart's "Plus One" principal: - each product's price should be lowered or its quality improved each year. Over 500 large vendors have a permanent sales office near Wal-Mart's headquarters. It requires suppliers to open their books and undergo detailed cost analyses; trade-promotions and direct-marketing campaign costs are deducted from the wholesaler's price. Vendors can access saels data directly, providing the ability to test new products more easily/quickly, and to simply product production and setting inventory levels.

Providing national brands helps Wal-Mart document its status a a low-price leader; store brands (abouat 40% of the total) appeal to the more price conscious shoppers.

Methods of Controlling Labor Costs: Making indenpendent contractors out of truckers bringing containers out of port prevents them from trying to organize or join a union - would bring anti-trust suits; in addition, a large portion are immigrants - particularly difficult to organize. Staffing distribution centers with temporary agencies/employee-leasing firms allows a quick change if organizing develops.

Wal-Mart originally incorporated each store separately, thus allowing sales/store to fall under levels that would require paying the minimum wage - this was stopped by a court-ruling in '67. (K-Mart took the concept a step further - licensing out different departments within a store to different companies.) A computer staffing system dictates lower staffing/sale as sales levels increase; people are sent home early when sales fall. Managers are pushed to "beat yesterday" to retain their position and earn bonuses.

The rest of the book is taken up with general retail history, a summary of the class-action suit claiming Wal-Mart discriminates against women in promotion decisions, and background on Wal-Mart's foray into Mexico.

My opinion is that blaming Wal-Mart for low wages/benefits is misplaced - Wal-Mart would not be able to do this if the economy were better. Thus, the weak economy is the problem, and Wal-Mart provides a preview of how life will be for more and more Americans as international competition increases.
The Wal-Mart Decade: How a New Generation of Leaders Turned Sam Walton's Legacy Into the World's #1 C
Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
  • Watch CNBC piece on Wal-Mart instead
  • Average but the only book that does a real business analysis
  • Quick Read Intro to Wal-Mart as a Business
  • A perceptive view
  • This book is available for sale at Wal-Mart, nuff said
 The Wal-Mart Decade: How a New Generation of Leaders Turned Sam Walton's Legacy Into the World's #1 C
Robert Slater
Manufacturer: Portfolio Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1591840066
Release Date: 2003-05-29

Book Description

Inside one of America's most remarkable success stories, from the bestselling author of Jack Welch and the G.E. Way.

Two of the toughest challenges for any company are leadership transitions and rapid growth. How do you replace an enormously popular and beloved CEO-especially one who started from scratch to create a national icon? And how do you maintain a rapid growth rate without losing the culture and focus of a small company?

Over the past ten years, since the death of the legendary Sam Walton, Wal-Mart has passed both challenges with flying colors. In 1992, it had revenues of $43.9 billion; now it's number one on the Fortune 500 list of America's largest companies, with revenues of $218 billion. Sam Walton's successors have taken the company into far-flung new markets and new directions yet without losing the down-to-earth retailing culture that made Wal-Mart thrive in its early years, when its business model was truly revolutionary.

Robert Slater, a highly respected business journalist and author, was granted unprecedented access to the company while writing The Wal-Mart Decade. He takes readers deep into the inner circle, where the big decisions are made about strategy and operations. And he weaves a fascinating, accessible story about the many challenges of the past decade and how Wal-Mart built on its founder's legacy to overcome them.

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars Watch CNBC piece on Wal-Mart instead.......2006-12-22

Sam Walton's autobiography is a much more interesting book and story of Wal-Mart albeit dated. This book gives you an update on the last ten years. The David LeFabor (sp?) CNBC piece run on the cable network over the holidays for the past year or so is more interesting and time better spent. The book gives you little insight into Lee Scott.

4 out of 5 stars Average but the only book that does a real business analysis.......2006-12-22

For those who enjoyed made in America this is the book that will take your through Wal-Marts current years. There is a brief synopsis of their past but it mostly focuses on the 1990's and the tremendous backlash against Wal-Mart that resulted from that decade. The book is well written but could have had more information. If you are looking for more on Wal-Mart though this is the best place to get it and Robert Slater has put out several books on the company and he does first rate analysis. If you are looking for a book that blames Wal-Mart for the sins of the country you won't find it here. This is simply business analysis.

3 out of 5 stars Quick Read Intro to Wal-Mart as a Business.......2006-11-27

This book is good as a quick look at Wal-Mart for those that are interested in Wal-Mart from the standpoint of business success. And given the company's business success, this is a worthy topic.

This book is written from a BUSINESS not a SOCIAL perspective, and succeeds on that level.

Not overly critical or insightful, but very good as an introduction to the Wal-Mart business perspective.

5 out of 5 stars A perceptive view.......2004-11-16

I had the privilege of meeting the author personally at his home in East Jerusalem -- he gave me a copy of this book as a parting gift, and I read it on a 11 hour flght to North America from Tel Aviv. Of course, one views a book differently after a five hour in depth conversation with the writer, but understanding the writer's values and approach helps explain things. Mr. Slater openly trades 'critical journalism' for access -- he is not out to do a hatchet job on his subjects; they know this, and thus allow him a closer peek at the inner workings of the business. With this understanding in mind, if you are looking to validate the 'problems' of Wal Mart (of which there are many) you are likely to be disappointed; if you wish to see the world from the perspective of the Wal Mart executive team -- and then supplement it with more critical books -- you will significantly increase your understanding of this massive business, and its successful transfer to the professional executive management (with continuing family ownership interest).

2 out of 5 stars This book is available for sale at Wal-Mart, nuff said.......2004-10-24

This was an incredibly sophomoric book and a tremendous disappoinment. Although it gives a sanitized overview of Wal-Mart and its development, I personally believe the book worth reading about Wal-Mart, one which is balanced and looks at the pros and cons of an American triumph of commerce while giving an honest account of some of the techniques that made it possible, has yet to be written. All seem to come from the extreme left or right with an agenda to promote. As someone who lives and works in Bentonville and makes a living from doing business primarily with suppliers who answer to Wal-Mart, I am in a unique position to study the beast as well as my clients up close. I think what irritates people the most is that Wal-Mart has been very successful in presenting a persona as an "aw-shucks" company while behaving behind the scenes much like any other major corporation of its size and ilk. I laugh at the people who can't realize that Wal-Mart is appealing to the cycle of consumer evolution (when was the last time you saw a milkman delivering door to door? The business model simply doesn't work anymore)and don't realize that the greatest revenge against Wal-Mart isn't to prevent them from building a store, but simply not to use it after they have gone to the expense of building and stocking it.
Wal-Mart dosn't put small businesses out, rather most small business owners don't understand it's their responsibility to stay ahead of market forces and consumer trends if they intend to offer a viable service and commodity in the marketplace.
Wal-militia: The Conspiracy of Wal-Mart and the Government: A National Report
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • A great expose'
  • Daring! Bold Move!
  • A different look on life! Excellent!!
  • So bad, it's unreadable
  • Wal-Mart Info.
 Wal-militia: The Conspiracy of Wal-Mart and the Government: A National Report
Grant Lee
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

GeneralGeneral | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1413454127

Book Description

Book Summery The government has kept all of the major airlines out of bankruptcy with the help of taxpayer's money, along with taking over the security at all of the major airports by forcing private security personnel out of work in a meager attempt to save the country. Is the government helping Wal-Mart out as well? Or was Sam Walton, the founder of the world's largest retailer, a supreme genius by finding a way to conquer the world by selling socks and underwear at half price? You decide. After a brief discussion with a Wal-Mart executive about a possible coverup, Grant Lee has laid the cards on the table for your examination, plus has gone into a detailed review of what it is like to work for the company and how it truly operates behind the scenes. This is the ultimate insider's guide to the good and the ugly.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars A great expose'.......2007-04-05

Wal Mart did not become super huge because Sam Walton was a nice guy. In Wal-militia, using Wal Mart as an example, Grant Lee explaines in clear, easy to understand language, how a company can be come big by using effective merchandising. However, to become super huge a company uses the corruption of the Republican and Democratic controlled local, state and national governments. This book is a must read, in my mind, if you want to spend your money wisely and end the corruption between the Republican and Democratic controlled governments and super huge businesses.

4 out of 5 stars Daring! Bold Move!.......2006-02-23

Grant Lee (Grant L. Petersen) is daring! In november of 2004 he paid a traffic fine with a metal bucket of unwrapped pennies. A search of google "Man pays fine with 8,200 pennies" will turn up more results. For this stunt he made international news and was mentioned on Paul Harvey and David Letterman. After the case was dropped he stirred it up again by selling his bucket of coins on ebay for $25,000.
In Febuary 2006 he was featured with Anthony Hopkins in the movie "The World's Fastest Indian" as "Binocular Boy!" When Burt Munro (Hopkins) brakes the motorcycle world land speed record on the Salt Flats in Utah, you can see Grant Lee in the tower with his famous binoculars. He also starred in a commercial, as a movie producer, for the Utah Film Commission that was shown at the 2006 Sndance Film Festival.
Grant grew up in Bentonville, Arkansas, the location of the Wal-Mart home offices and knows pretty much all of the ins and outs. And has very interesting political views! The conspiracy in this book is based on information given to him from a third party that works at the Wal-Mart home offices. Everything else is pure Grant!
Grant has also written three other books: Microworlds (Out of print), Instru-Mental, and The Great Time-Link Photography Project.
Wal-Militia is an ecxellent, informative book; however, at seventy pages it is not worth the $17 that most people are charging for it. If you can find it for $10, or better yet $5, you will get a great deal!!
(Visit wal-martconspiracy.com)

4 out of 5 stars A different look on life! Excellent!!.......2006-02-18

This book is very informative on Wal-Mart and in politics! As a dollar circulates, the tax will generate more than a dollar in tax revenue and the surplus goes to Wal-Mart to make the economy look good.
An excellent, entertaining read!

1 out of 5 stars So bad, it's unreadable.......2006-01-26

Is Grant Lee kidding? Did he print this off a desktop? It is painfully obvious that the book was barely edited: see the chapter on "odd-sales" for details on Wal-Mart's "prophet margin." I wish I were kidding, but I'm not.

Mr. Lee begins with a noir-esque introduction describing his discovery of the truth behind Bentonville's new airport: it's all for Wal-Mart! He claims his knowledge comes from one Informant Smith, a Wal-Mart executive who seeks to ease his conscience by divulging the deep, dark secrets of the Wal-Mart-Federal Government conspiracy: Project Rollback. Lee insinuates that "Rollback Smiley," the Wal-Mart price-slashing mascot, is named for this ostensible conspiracy and so is "hiding out in the open."

I surrendered after the thrid chapter, my brain no longer able to withstand the unrelenting assault on common sense and reason, never mind fact. A quick review of the remaining pages revealed an entire chapter devoted to a wide array of Wal-Mart "facts" and Mr. Lee's personal political philosophy. The rest of the book has little at all to do with Wal-Mart, save for a few anecdotes from Lee's time on the night shift.

O, I beg you, learn from my error and don't waste a dime on this fantasy. There is nothing the least bit credible to be found between its covers.

5 out of 5 stars Wal-Mart Info........2004-07-12

I'm not sure about the conspiracy but I love the information about how to buy merchandise (Especially holiday merchandise) for $1.50 that was originally sold for $30.00.
The author was a former employee that had worked for the company for six years and knows what he is taking about! Five stars!
Wal-Mart: A History of Sam Walton's Retail Phenomenon (Twayne's Evolution of Modern Business Series)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    		Wal-Mart: A History of Sam Walton's Retail Phenomenon (Twayne's Evolution of Modern Business Series)
    Sandra Stringer Vance , and Roy V. Scott
    Manufacturer: Twayne Publishers
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    ASIN: 0805798331

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