The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and HowIt's Transforming the American Economy by Charles Fishman

Mar 14, 2008 Pige rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who buys stuff

Having a family in the grocery business (and being a product of one of the most economically distraught states in the country-Michigan) of course likely aroused my interest in this book more than most. But, as the book so thoughtfully and throughly puts forward, Wal-Mart truly affects us all, whether we shop there or not. Now don't think that this book was simply one big stoning fest at Wal-Mart, it's not. The author covers the positive and the negative of this the largest company in the country...more

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Oct 25, 2007 james rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: consumers

Overall the book does a good job laying down the issues. It asks a lot of questions and tries to answer them. The writing is well organized, written in a way anyone can understand, and is very easy to read. All the sources are cited. Wal-Mart itself was of no help witing this book, and it is clear a lot of effort went into getting the interviews.

You're going to learn a lot about Wal-Mart reading this book. If you're in a hurry, much of the writing is anecdotal and you can skip over quite a bit....more Overall the book does a good job laying down the issues. It asks a lot of questions and tries to answer them. The writing is well organized, written in a way anyone can understand, and is very easy to read. All the sources are cited. Wal-Mart itself was of no help witing this book, and it is clear a lot of effort went into getting the interviews.

You're going to learn a lot about Wal-Mart reading this book. If you're in a hurry, much of the writing is anecdotal and you can skip over quite a bit. Important studies that actually give you concrete information are discussed in Chapters 6 and 7.

The author shops at wal-mart, the very first paragraph starts on a positive note for the corporation. However, it will become evident that the book is written in a bias against wal-mart. Unfortunately, much of this bias ends up in sentimental writing and omissions of scholarly knowledge. For example, the general consensus in the greater world of Economics is that trading overseas is generally more beneficial than closing doors to international trade. Regardless whether this is true, Fishman neglects to even mention (and then counter) such arguments. So I am left without further insight in this area, and then suspicious of what other omissions there are that are giving me only a partial view of the issues.

Statistics are often explained to us rather than given to us - at times he compares categories, but you can't understand the comparison unless you look at the original source because he doesn't explain what each category means. He cites, so I guess I can't complain too much.

Toward the end of the book Fishman asks a question I was wondering since page 1 - how much better is to to shop at other stores (ie. best buy, target, sears,etc.) He does absolutely nothing to answer this question - he only mentions it because it is indeed an important question. Despite his inability to answer many such questions he raises, he does encourage and call for others to research these. Fishman has definitely convinced me that Wal-Mart is a phenomenon that ought to be studied before it's too late (i would say kinda like global warming.)

There is a chapter titled "The Power of Pennies." Yes, consumers have some control with how they spend their dollars. This chapter does nothing to enlighten the reader on what would be a wiser purchase (or even non-purchase) with one's money. While that isn't the intent of this book, he insists repeatedly that Wal-Mart is an unstoppable force, showing that even people who have been screwed over by Wal-Mart still shop there. He repeatedly states that there is nothing to do but shop there. How is it that I've been in a Wal-Mart maybe five times in my ENTIRE LIFE, yet have always lived in the states? Clearly it is not a necessary practice to shop at Wal-Mart - if people can afford X-Boxes and iPods, they can afford the extra pennies. While Fishman does mention Starbucks - who makes a business doing the exact opposite of Wal-Mart (raising prices versus lowering), yet omits any tools or ideas we can draw from this (rather brief) comparison.

All in all, quite enlightening, but like most books I read such as this one, I am highly skeptical when the reasoning is not all that logical and there are clear omissions that the reader either will be unaware of or, if aware of them, be irritated by.(less)

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Feb 16, 2008 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So I only got to disc 3 (of 6) before I gave up. There's just only so much hating of Wal*Mart that I can do in one week.

Actually, this book did help me see that Wal*Mart is not entirely evil. Suppliers don't necessarily like them b/c Sam Walton effectively stole the pants in the relationship. However, Wal*Mart's history is riddled with several examples of what happens to ethics when low prices become the ultimate goal: breaking the law. From sexual discrimination to large-scale employment of ill...more

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Jan 02, 2009 Kara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read it whether you shop at Walmart or not....although, I am hoping you don't already. The book is a bit redundant, but the shorter, more personal stories in each chapter help the book along.

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Jan 10, 2009 Christine rated it 5 of 5 stars

I found this throughly engaging. Loved reading it and I'm not much for non-fiction. It definitely is something to think about and I highly recommend it. Very accessible style of writing.

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Feb 15, 2013 Miranda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wow. I just finished this book. It really laid down some new ways to think -- not just about Wal-Mart, but about all mega corporations. Fishman writes well -- gave many case studies and all sides of the Wal-Mart effect. I loved the afterword. Great book!

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Nov 22, 2008 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

I didn't expect to enjoy this book, but I forged ahead and was surprised. This is a fascinating and eye-opening "look behind the scenes." In the early chapters, you find yourself cheering for "the largest corporation in the history of the world" as they manage to drive down prices and increase efficiency. But gradually the layers are peeled back to expose the impact of those innovations - both on the lives of employees, American producers, and overseas farms and factories. The bottom line is tha...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Samantha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Salmon farms in chile, Snapper lawn mowers in Georgia, Vasco pickles... Walmart's relationships with its suppliers is the most interesting, and least-known-about aspect of the Walmart story. I enjoyed learning about the immense influence Walmart wields over the U.S. and world economy. It also heavily influences Americans' buying choices, and therefore demand for Walmart-stocked products around the world. The way Walmart widdles out inefficiencies among suppliers is both admirable and ruthless. T...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I rarely shop at Walmart. I don't enjoy the "Walmart experience". Fishman's book makes me realize though, the Walmart Effect is something you can't escape - it pervades every aspect retail and manufacturing. The 2006 copyright date of the book makes me wonder how much further the Walmart Effect has gone - scary indeed. That's not to say Fishman's book isn't balanced - it is. He goes to great lengths to present the good and the bad. As Fishman says though, social consciousness isn't in Walmart's...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works, and How It's Transforming the American Economy
© 2006 Charles Fishman
352 pages

In only a little over fifty years, Wal-Mart has grown from a small five-and-dime store in rural Arkansas to an outright goliath, dominating the American, and increasingly, the global economy to an unprecedented degree. In The Wal-Mart Effect, Charles Fishman examines the secret of the corporation’s success, and explores how that success has altered...more The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works, and How It's Transforming the American Economy
© 2006 Charles Fishman
352 pages

In only a little over fifty years, Wal-Mart has grown from a small five-and-dime store in rural Arkansas to an outright goliath, dominating the American, and increasingly, the global economy to an unprecedented degree. In The Wal-Mart Effect, Charles Fishman examines the secret of the corporation’s success, and explores how that success has altered the global marketplace.

Fishman does to Wal-Mart specifically what Eric Schlosser did for the fast food companies in general: probe into the details of their business, as far as the corporate obsession with secrecy will allow, and air out the laundry. But if Sclosser is a journalist looking for the ‘dark side’ of his subject, Fishman takes more of a neutral stance; however, a sense of awe pervades the text. He’s no less critical of Wal-Mart, but more honestly curious. It is the same attitude one might find in a history of Napoleon’s Grand Armee or the German Wehrmacht. The difference is that those legendary armies of old are now long gone: Wal-Mart is still very much alive: the changes it brings about are seen in the newspapers, not the history books.

The secret to Wal-Mart’s success lays in its near-maniacal obsession with finding the cheapest products and offering them as cheaply as possible. This seems an obvious proposition: doesn’t every business use that as its model? Wal-Mart’s distinction is a matter of degree: cutting expenses is an obsession in this corporation, at all levels. Fishman’s investigations find workaholic executives who meet in boardrooms filled with discarded lawn furniture, because Wal-Mart sees no reason in buying furnishing that hopeful clients provide for free. He finds managers who lock their employees in overnight and encourage people to work off the clock – and employees who exist in a perpetual limbo between partial and full employment, working too few hours to qualify for the meager benefits, but too many to look for a second job. But one expects a chain store like Wal-Mart to prosper by keeping wages low; the war it wages on its suppliers is more novel.

Wal-Mart is a supermarket: it sells vast quantities of goods, and its original successes allowed it to expand to the point that 90% of Americans live within a fifteen-mile radius of one of its stores. A company that does business with Wal-Mart can expect to sell more volume than they ever anticipated producing through the stores, but Wal-Mart is no passive player in the marketplace. That obsession with finding the lowest prices means obtaining the lowest price from their suppliers – and Wal-Mart conducts its commanding volume into power, in effect dictating prices to its suppliers. This doesn’t happen at the outset; instead, prospective clients are lured into business, then hit with demands that they lower their price 5% every year. Companies which can’t afford this go out of business, and those who linger can only make the cut by producing ever-more shoddy merchandise, or finding a cheaper source of production…like China. Wal-Mart not only prospers from outsourcing; it engineers it.

That Wal-Mart can dictate prices like this indicates that it has outgrown the restrictions normally present in the free market: indeed, Wal-mart is now so large that when it enters a market, that market becomes its own. It not only sets the prices in its own stores: other companies have to resort to the same tactics just to keep even. When Wal-Mart moves into a town, small businesses competing with it go out of business (creating a net job loss, for those ‘growth’-minded politicians who think the answer to a stagnant economy is big box stores). Those who try to compete with the giant of Bentonville face angry customers, because the Wal-Mart price has become the expected price – and it is, in fact, the lowest price that can possibly be offered. Wal-Mart's enormous income derives from volume sales, not a generous profit margin: Fishman elaborates that if Wal-Mart attempted to raise its standard wage from $10 to $12, the company would be operating at a net loss.

Although its effect on local economies and wages is deleterious, Fishman's chief concern with Wal-Mart is that its size makes it unmanageable: it's too big to be reined in by the market, because it is the market. His account doesn't address how exactly what concerned people should do with Wal-Mart, although after finishing it I think people who can might give it a miss and shop elsewhere, even if the prices aren't rock bottom. Fishman believes people are starting to tire of the store, missing quality goods and service. Wal-Mart's obsession with providing cheap goods has made shopping there an experience bereft of value.

Definitely a book to consider for Americans.

Related:
WalMart Watch
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser(less)

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Feb 24, 2012 J.c. Dickinson added it

Review by J.C. Dickinson

A wonderful book written by Charles Fishman, The Wal-Mart Effect, shows abundant research and ability to show both sides of opposing views. Charles Fishman, being a well known investigative journalist, went all in on this book. Using many different people, ideas, and statistics to show the effects that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has on every persons life, being big or small, Fishman shows all points of view to the reader. Fishman went from the creation of Wal-Mart, all the way...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Kkraemer rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a great book! I thought it would simply be the liberal rant about big box retailers and how they destroy the very essence of American life. While the book most certainly includes that perspective, it shows a complex set of circumstances and possibilities that I'd never considered. It notes, for example, that at one point, Wal Mart wanted to be able to offer a wider range of deodorants, but their shelves were full. They needed either more space or smaller deodorants. It occurred to someon...more

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Jan 31, 2011 Anthony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: economy

Two chapters into this book I was shocked how interested I actually was. This should maybe not have been such a surprise considering I went out and bought a book specifically because the topic intrigued me, but the first hundred pages or so are really very much worth reading, even if you already feel you've considered the issues (say, by reading Fishman's article about Wal-Mart, out of which the book grew, or this piece about Wal-Mart and monopsony, which got me interested). Nearer the end I was...more

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Aug 14, 2010 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

As many of you know I am NOT a fan of Wal-Mart. I read this book to add fuel to my fire. As well as adding some logic behind my dislike of this megastore. My dislike of Wal-Mart came simply from trying to find a jar of sauerkraut. This was not the first time I couldn't find something in Wal-mart. But it ended up being the last time. As I was flung from employee to employee six times--I abandoned my shopping cart in the store and left. Rarely to return. I have not missed going to Wal-Mart. As a m...more As many of you know I am NOT a fan of Wal-Mart. I read this book to add fuel to my fire. As well as adding some logic behind my dislike of this megastore. My dislike of Wal-Mart came simply from trying to find a jar of sauerkraut. This was not the first time I couldn't find something in Wal-mart. But it ended up being the last time. As I was flung from employee to employee six times--I abandoned my shopping cart in the store and left. Rarely to return. I have not missed going to Wal-Mart. As a matter of fact I shop less by not going and probably save as much because I do not impulse buy a "good deal."

Anyway, this book did clue me in on a few things, but the author was frustrated by the lack of information. Wal-Mart has a code of secrecy on much of its data as well as "requesting" its suppliers not to talk.

The point I enjoyed the most was the scale in which Wal-Mart functions. IF this was a small company getting the best price from suppliers it would not have the same effects that it has. But because of Wal-Mart's scale what it does and how it gets that lowest price is important. The pressure on its supplier is relentless--not that some pressure isn't good. But excessive pressure creates unethical practices which Wal-Mart refuses to see itself as partly accountable. Its scale of volume of products, waste, gasoline, etc effects many aspects of whole communities and their environment. This was fascinating. But Wal-Mart does seem to do what it promises--'Everyday Low Prices' but what other costs are involved? What about the treatment of workers or suppliers or employees? What about encouraging disposable products instead of quality long lasting products? There are so many other factors besides a low price.

It reemphasized to me that the low price guarantee at Wal-Mart is to high of a price to pay for shoddy merchandise and poor ethics.

This is a fascinating book. It helped me see the scope to which Wal-Mart effects our community, our country, and our world.
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Feb 05, 2010 Kay rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

At the urging of my son [a Wal-mart rejecter:] I [a Wal-mart conflicted:] tracked the book down. It was full of information- both good and bad on the corporation. One of my most interesting discoveries was a study they conducted on Oklahoma City shoppers classifying them into 4 types: champions, enthusiasts, conflicted [me:] and rejecters [my son:]. They found that the conflicted group were the 2nd most frequent shoppers and spent almost as much as the champions.

I have said for many years I hav...more At the urging of my son [a Wal-mart rejecter:] I [a Wal-mart conflicted:] tracked the book down. It was full of information- both good and bad on the corporation. One of my most interesting discoveries was a study they conducted on Oklahoma City shoppers classifying them into 4 types: champions, enthusiasts, conflicted [me:] and rejecters [my son:]. They found that the conflicted group were the 2nd most frequent shoppers and spent almost as much as the champions.

I have said for many years I have a love-hate relationship with the store and was delighted to find this is very common among shoppers. Shopping there at least two times a week [no Target within 30 miles or that would not be true:] I was shocked to find last year my purchases -- not including cash purchases which I didn't keep track of- amounted to over $7,000. Now I need to figure out how much I saved by shopping there!! I don't imagine this is excessive since I buy almost all my gas and food there and all my medicine [Love their $3-4 prescriptions:]. But I never buy clothes, jewelry, cosmetics, home decor, or even big ticket items [at least not last year where the TV, 2 computers, and GPS were purchased at Best Buy:].

Yes, like most people I love a bargain and like most people I have to keep a rein on my budget so actually Wal-Mart fits my needs. At the same time I hate what has happened to America's outsourcing [which the blame can not be only put on Wal-Mart:]. As far as their low pay scale I believe that in my area the low pay is common to all the other retail stores. The book mentions that some accuse that the store runs other stores out of business. I've seen only one store fold in our area where we've had Wal-Mart for a long time and we were told it was due to vandalism but to be honest I never understood how they stayed in business as long as they did with so few customers.

This book also explains one of my most common frustrations with the store: I find a product I really do like and then they discontinue it. What has happened the supplier refuses to lower their price [or standards:] to Wal-Mart 'standards'. To be honest the managers that I've complained to over and over thru the years have basically told me that but I had to see it in a book to really believe it. That's okay- I'll continue what I've doing for years and find the product in a different store and pay more if needed!

The author brings up lots of negatives and positives about the corporation and I certainly agree with the analysis that it is not fun or trendy to shop at but we do save money by shopping there! (less)

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Feb 13, 2011 Steve Strong rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The reason I choose to read this book is Wal-Mart has always fascinated me. In 1997 I had to read Sam Walton's book for a Marketing class. At the time, Wal-Mart was the first to really capture the just-in-time computer networked information and it was working.

I liked shopping late on at night and see merchandise roll in off the trucks straight on to the floor. No warehouse, no holding pens, straight on the to floor. My Calculus professor's claim to fame was developing a program that answered how...more The reason I choose to read this book is Wal-Mart has always fascinated me. In 1997 I had to read Sam Walton's book for a Marketing class. At the time, Wal-Mart was the first to really capture the just-in-time computer networked information and it was working.

I liked shopping late on at night and see merchandise roll in off the trucks straight on to the floor. No warehouse, no holding pens, straight on the to floor. My Calculus professor's claim to fame was developing a program that answered how to best load a semi-trailer for multiple stops. To keep the First stops accessible and then movable to re-distribute the weight to keep the truck balanced while in transit. Pretty cool stuff for a young inspiring computer science nerd.

Anyway, about this book, it was interesting but it seemed lack a sense of real depth into the topic. The Author eventually gets to that point when he explains that Wal-Mart and vendors don't talk about Wal-Mart. Good, Bad, whatever, they just don't talk about it anymore. Its one thing to be on the rise and boast about small town success, but now that they are the big dog, they simply don't talk. Period, end of story. So this is not a great book, but a good book on the topic. So information about Wal-Mart is incredible hard to come by. Wal-Mart's a not a new paradigm but new in its sucess of its paradigm on low cost, always in world markets. ( in 2006, the average Wal-Mart store offers over 160,000 different items from all aroud the world) Absolute low cost, but at what price? Sure there have been innovative companies that have change the retail world, Sears and roebuck's, Henry Ford, the cotton gin. Industrialization happening all the time, but it was the moral question that the Author tried to address in the Wal-Mart Effect that intrigued me. At some point, is the lowest cost possible at any cost unmoral?

I'm not sure I agreed with the Authors opinion on the moral implications of businesses going out of business is a bad thing, it happens all the time. Companies lose their focus and bam, their out of business. I get that. But I can't help but think it this is what Thomas Jefferson was feeling in the early 1800's with the Slavery issue. Everyone's doing it. If I don't use slave or similar conditions labor, one can't compete. Yet Fundamentally we feel its wrong, we know its wrong, but we're unable to act upon it. If I boycott Mal-Mart, Target or someone else with do it use factories with Slave like conditions. So what's the high road? How do you know? What's the difference between fair competition that brings a small third world location into the modernized world and one that exploits it? A very intriguing question.

This book was written in 2006 and while the author's opinion was the Wal-Mart would collapse on itself because of the "lack of Style" or a non sense of re-assuring happiness on you low cost purchase, I do have the benefit of five more years of open Wal-Mart's to tell the Author, 'your full of crap'. Low price consumable purchasing doesn't need "style" or reassurance. Its low price buying, not shopping and on that, the Author missed the point. Still, the book is a very worthwhile read.

There will always be someone or something that does it better, faster, stronger or whatever, but how does one decide what is fair when there's not history to base it on? That's the real question

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Feb 25, 2013 Vincent Wood rated it 3 of 5 stars

The rant&rave button. That is what I think of it as. We all seem to have one. It is usually tied to one or more topics in which we may have strong opinions towards. These topics can often turn a polite conversation into a vicious argument (debate?). Each side will have already made up their mind upon the subject and neither side is willing to give up ground. Even if no argument occurs, simply agreeing or disagreeing with the person will only feed the rant&rave.

These topics could be about...more The rant&rave button. That is what I think of it as. We all seem to have one. It is usually tied to one or more topics in which we may have strong opinions towards. These topics can often turn a polite conversation into a vicious argument (debate?). Each side will have already made up their mind upon the subject and neither side is willing to give up ground. Even if no argument occurs, simply agreeing or disagreeing with the person will only feed the rant&rave.

These topics could be about someone's health or someone's house. They could be about someone's job or someone's spouse. From my own experience though, topics related to politics and to religion seem to be associated with the largest number of rant&rave buttons. Sports can also often press this button as to some people it is politics and to others it is a religion and to some, it is both.

About a decade ago, I stumbled into a fourth topic which took me completely by surprise when it happened. That topic is Wal-mart. Although these days I consider it more a subset of politics. Without giving it much thought, I can think of five people I know who have strong negative opinions regarding Wal-Mart. I even once had a boss who called us all into an hour long meeting in which the point of the meeting was to tell us not to shop at Wal-mart.

I never see any reason for the intense feelings about a retail chain and don't get much beyond seeing that it is big and powerful and there are people out there who fear, hate and are jealous of that which is big and powerful. That boss gave the most descriptive reason I have heard but in essence it amounted to just what I said, that they are big and powerful and he believes in spending his money on the underdog. I have tried not to delve too much more into the subject with these people as it will only feed the rant&rave.

I stumbled into this book and figured it might be an excellent way to better understand the harsh feelings these people have. Plus, if I got tired of it, it is much easier to stop a book than to stop a person.

I think the book did a good job presenting the company. It seemed to take on a neutral standpoint at the beginning and brought in some positives the company has done. After a while, it starts to focus a lot more on the negative though. One thing it certainly states is Wal-Mart has changed every step in shopping in this country. As the immortal Garth once said, "We fear change."

One thing he does bring up is that you can generally expect low quality products from Wal-Mart. That is something I can certainly agree with from experience. After wasting too much money on items that have broken long before I expected them to from Wal-Mart, I feel I have better odds in winning big in Vegas than I do being satisfied with a Wal-Mart product. It might happen, I just cannot count on it.

Based on some of the criticisms the author gave is part of the reason I think of this topic as a subset of politics rather than its own separate rant&rave topic. I feel I can comfortably state which president the author voted for in the last election.

As much as I do not want to cut my review short, I need to leave. I have to do some shopping. On the list is salmon as well as Vlassic pickles. I might buy some Levi jeans as well while I am out and maybe a lawn mower. So I will leave with these thoughts: Remember to vote for Mickey Mouse for Grand Poobah of the Universe, learn the ways of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and Go Globetrotters! I know they can win the Superbowl next year. Now I am off to Wal-Mart!(less)

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Jul 24, 2012 Andy Oram rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: politics

This is an important, deep, and subtle book, even though I know the facts have changed in the years since it was written. Fishman is critical of Wal-Mart overall--he believes regulation has to change to accommodate the accumulation of power by super-large companies such as Wal-Mart--but the book is not merely critical. If it were al critical, it could not address the crucial question of why so many people shop at Wal-Mart, an experience the author describes as frequently unpleasant. I thought th...more

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May 05, 2013 Taras rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I got more enjoyment out of this book then I expected. I rarely shop at walmart, so it was interesting to learn how massive it is. Was also interesting to hear the argument that walmart can't increase salaries much without sacrificing their <=8% operating margin. That same margin that allows them to squeeze out their competition. The description of the spartan nature of Walmart HQ was great.

My favourite part of the book was the poetic description of a gallon Vlasic jar. Was interesting to hea...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The only reason I didn't like it more, was because of the actual source material itself, which isn't the problem of the author, but the company itself. Since megacorporations have such tight control over their own information, and refuse to release it, most the author's information comes second hand from other people who've had to do their own footwork and their own research to come up with their theories and their outcomes. It wasn't that these were flawed, but that they were not as wide reachi...more

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Apr 23, 2010 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is not a great book, but it's a good book about a great subject. My friend told me to read it. He likes to think of himself as a gun-toting right-wing bible-thumping wing nut. This book had him ranting for days about the evil empire, and now he's spewing all kinds of heretical stuff about the need for government regulation and safety nets, and how people really don't know what's best for themselves. That should be enough to recommend it.

To my surprise, I found the book well balanced and cou...more This is not a great book, but it's a good book about a great subject. My friend told me to read it. He likes to think of himself as a gun-toting right-wing bible-thumping wing nut. This book had him ranting for days about the evil empire, and now he's spewing all kinds of heretical stuff about the need for government regulation and safety nets, and how people really don't know what's best for themselves. That should be enough to recommend it.

To my surprise, I found the book well balanced and couldn't help but admire the Wal-Mart values and focus. It's almost like my friend and I read different books. Of course, he lives across the street from a Wal-Mart, and I'm part of the 5% of Americans who do NOT live within a 15 minute drive of one.

One of the reasons I only gave the book 4 stars is that it's really a little thin. That's probably not the author's fault. He describes a very secretive company and a lot of "partners" who are afraid to say anything bad about the behemoth.

My advice is to read this book with a friend and discuss it over a weeks-worth of lunches or dinners. According to the book (and I have no reason to doubt it) Wal-Mart is the result of a single-minded company with a fanatical focus on reducing prices, no more, no less. Because it so embodies American values, there is essentially no stopping it. This raises all kinds of juicy discussion topics. Should we lower our standard of living to raise the rest of the world's? Why are the people who have the most to lose by the "Wal-Mart effect" the most avid Wal-Mart shoppers? Do people vote their own self-interest? Is there a social "compact" that is more important than "low prices"? Are the difficulties of the companies that supply Wal-Mart caused by Wal-Mart, or by their own greed? The author believes that our government is hopelessly behind the times, hampered by laws and regulations written when nobody could imagine Wal-Mart. If this is so, what regulations would you propose? Lastly, how is this book similar to Jarad Diamond's "Collapse"?

Disclosure: I am in the process of digitizing all my mother's 2,400 slides. I am sending them to India because the price is about 1/4 of what an American company would charge. My friend says I am doing a bad thing. But, I wouldn't be doing this at all if I had to pay 4 times more, so no American company has lost money. And if someone in India is lifted out of poverty, why is that so bad?(less)

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Nov 24, 2009 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is, as the title promises, Fishman’s effort to mine the depths of Wal-Mart’s business model and explain how, over the course of 44 years, this model has transformed the world’s manufacturing, delivery, and retailing structure. I feel the author admirably delivers this narrative without the vitriolic hyperbole of Bill Quinn (who’s book on the subject I also enjoyed). Additionally, this effort seems quite comprehensive despite working around the veil of secrecy obscuring the Bentonville beast...more This is, as the title promises, Fishman’s effort to mine the depths of Wal-Mart’s business model and explain how, over the course of 44 years, this model has transformed the world’s manufacturing, delivery, and retailing structure. I feel the author admirably delivers this narrative without the vitriolic hyperbole of Bill Quinn (who’s book on the subject I also enjoyed). Additionally, this effort seems quite comprehensive despite working around the veil of secrecy obscuring the Bentonville beast’s operations. In a nutshell, Fishman positions the seemingly positive trait of providing the customer with the lowest price possible Always (or, from my intentionally limited experience, often) as the zero-sum game of closing US factories, annihilating product quality, exploiting labor here and abroad, killing “mom and pop” competition, absorbing taxpayer subsidies, all in addition the disquieting experience of shopping in one of their stores.

Of course these are the oft-mentioned results of Wal-Mart’s “effect.” Importantly, Fishman readily acknowledges that there is a conspicuous dearth of real research analyzing these aspects. Shockingly, even the government’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) ignores Wal-Mart in its tabulations! That’s a bit absurd as this is the largest retailer in any number of merchandise designations – including groceries. This oblivion is aided by, if not substantially caused by, Wal-Mart’s resistance to releasing information – in one request, even the date of store openings. So we get what seems to be a reasonable estimate in the book (because the numbers are explained) of what Wal-Mart saved the average US family in 2004 - $270 – pitted against Wal-Mart’s latest commercial which gloats that, no matter where they shop, the average US family saves $3,100 a year? Well that’s a bit of discrepancy. Yes there’s a four year difference, but one might argue that 2004 lacked the shitty economy of 2008 where the decision to impulse purchase yet another microwave Makin Bacon ™ device might be critically evaluated.

Let’s run some numbers shall we? So the US Census says the average family size in 2008 was 3.09 persons, the total population over 293 million. Therefore Wal-Mart had to have saved US families more than $310 billion last year (much more because many of us presumably got screwed by only shopping at Stop-n-Shop and Tarjay in 2008)! As Wal-Mart’s total sales…WORLDWIDE was under $375 billion, then they’re utilizing some fuzzy math. Perhaps they’re dividing by last names instead of actual families? Perhaps they assume a family is 30+ persons because that’s the only way to make rent on Wal-Mart wages? Beats me.

But I digress. I would argue that this is a fairly written book. I wonder if Fishman visited a HomeGoods store like I did last week. Talk about a place that reeks of Third World sweatshop labor producing useless, garish crap that shouldn’t be produced! Ever seen a 12” tall ceramic bobble-chicken? Ceramic Tweety Bird vendors at the Tijuana border would cringe! At least Wal-Mart sells batteries and Doritos ™.
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Sep 12, 2009 Matthew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: business-history, essaysjournalism

If you've ever wondered if Wal-mart is evil, this is the book for you. The answer is, it isn't -- not in the anthropomorphic villainous bad guy sense. But Fishman does cite some interesting academic studies that show the presence of a Wal-mart is correlated with the rate of poverty falling at a slower pace in various counties. He also cites many instances when the company has been secretive and non-transparent to such a degree that it really does feel like they are purposely hiding something. Bu...more If you've ever wondered if Wal-mart is evil, this is the book for you. The answer is, it isn't -- not in the anthropomorphic villainous bad guy sense. But Fishman does cite some interesting academic studies that show the presence of a Wal-mart is correlated with the rate of poverty falling at a slower pace in various counties. He also cites many instances when the company has been secretive and non-transparent to such a degree that it really does feel like they are purposely hiding something. But his argument is that all this is not from corporate greed, etc, but rather from a single-minded emphasis on lower prices. This was Walmart's original raison détre, and so it continues. But he makes a good case that once Walmart got to a certain size, such that all manufacturers sort of have to work with them if they want to take their sales to a national level, the emphasis on lower prices had led to extremely shoddy quality as cutting quality and product innovation is the only way to bring costs down. It has also led to loss of American jobs as production is shifted to lower cost countries. And the anecdotal evidence seems quite convincing that the benefits of lower prices on consumer goods have not offset the cost of job losses. Fishman is not all negative on Walmart -- the first few chapters are quite laudatory, and he also gives examples where small scale merchants have managed to grow their business and get a good deal out of selling through Walmart. But this appears the exception. It is more generally true, as Jim Wier, former CEO of lawn-mower maker Snapper, is quoted: 'Once you get hooked on the volume, it's like getting hooked on cocaine. You've created a monster for yourself.' Snapper decided to pull its products from Walmart shelves rather than capitulate to producing low-end Snapper machines for them. They went the other way -- installing extremely efficient production technology and quality control practices in their US-based factory, and selling through distributors who knew their customers very well. In some way you can argue Walmart forced them to compete better, and that is a benefit. But I'm doubtful as to how many products fall into the lawn-mower category, where consumers are willing to pay 3-4x more for a high quality product, through familiar salespeople.

In many ways, though, understanding how Walmart works is requisite for thinking about how to make the economy more socially and environmentally friendly. Besides the obvious point that if Walmart takes on socially responsible procurement practices it would have a big influence, the whole book is really begging the question (which Fishman unfortunately does not pose): why do we as consumers persist in buying crap stuff just because its cheap?

That is something to think about. I suspect that addressing the question will have ramifications for our ability to build economies that are community-based and locally self-sustaining, as opposed to massive, corporatised, impersonal, and environmentally damaging. (less)

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Aug 19, 2009 Sharon rated it 2 of 5 stars

I found the data this author compiled to be fascinating. Everybody has always pitted Walmart against Target but did you know Walmart does all of Target sales in a year my March 17? It's not just big, it's really big.

I only made it to page 200 before I found it very repetitive and just returned it to the library. Yes, Walmart pays low wages to people who don't have college degrees, if they paid them more, people wouldn't go to college. The book also spends a lot of time talking about the lack of...more

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Jan 27, 2010 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was not really surprised by anything in this book, but the anecdotes were interesting. I felt that it was very heavy-handed at times in its critique of Wal-mart, even though the critique definitely seems deserved. Perhaps the author thinks his audience needed to be hit over the head with "this happens to suppliers, and that is bad" versus just telling us what tends to happen. I admit I often have that sort of critique of non-fiction (Omnivore's Dilemma did the same thing, in my opinion, althou...more

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May 29, 2012 Simon rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: almost-never-read, why-did-i-read-this

Actually so far, it is really interesting and intriguing. I am learning history and strategies and how Walmart became what it is today.

Now that I have fully finished the book, I really can understand the power core of Walmart. Not extremely well, but it was nice to get a taste at what has become so impacting in everyday life.

I find it funny that the book never called Wal-Mart's mascot by the name it has in some of the TV commercials. I remember it as the "Roll Back Man" but those words were neve...more

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Jul 08, 2009 Nora rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Michael, Marisa and my mom

I can not tell you why this book had me fascinated. It has a ton of numbers--statistics with which I usually have no patience for but I just kept plugging away. I'm a "Champion" Walmart shopper; voting with my debit card.

He cites a study of the types of Walmart shoppers and found that the second tired type, those that that bought almost as much and spent just as much as the champions, had a lot of contempt for the store and didn't really like it for various reasons. He pointed out that there is...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Everyone should read this book: Wal-Mart lovers, enthusiasts, conflicted shoppers and haters. I picked up this book because I hate Wal-Mart; I despise their business practices, the way they destroy small businesses and confuse the economy by creating a screen of bargains for the people, when it's the people who are ultimately getting robbed, that profits earned at my local supercenter Wal-Mart do not, after sales tax, stay in my community but go back to Bentonville, Arkansas and into the pockets...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Trevor rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book really shows the effect that one company can have on an entire economy. I had always known that Walmart was pushing many small buisinesses out of business, but this book explains in detail how they are able to do it. The reason is because of capitalism. Most businesses fail, and of the few to succeed, they are the ones that keep growing bigger causing them to be able to control the whole market. Since there are so many Walmarts and they pay their workers so little, they are able to buy...more

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Jun 26, 2010 Josh rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very balanced look at the world’s most powerful company and how it works. It points out the good and the bad and doesn’t shy away from either. A great example of how a very admirable concept, namely to always deliver low prices on the behalf of their customers, can be a great thing to start and can then morph into something very bad as the scale of things change. Wal-Mart is no longer subject to market checks and balances. When it was, finding low prices worked great and removed lots of ineffi...more

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