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    <name><![CDATA[Pige]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>        
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      <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>3</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[anyone who buys stuff]]></recommended_for>
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  <date_added>Mon Nov 12 15:18:13 -0800 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Mar 14 18:06:51 -0700 2008</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[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.  I was pleased to hear how Wal-Mart has actually stream lined the methods of product distribution and prompted the cut down in unnecessary product packaging.  Beyond the more publicized stories of how Wal-Mart has facilitated the exportation of jobs and closing of mom and pop stores, I found it really interesting to read about the more hidden and at times subtle influences of Wal-Mart. Most of all how they have really changed our expectations of products; how products are more cheaply made, and that is what we expect.  So we aren't surprised when our toasters last only one or two years and we have to get a new one.  We don't complain because it was inexpensive to begin with, what's so big about buying another one? (except that adds volume to our landfills).  But you know a better toaster can be made, shoot I think my mom is still using the one she got in the early '60s. <br/>It's overwhelming to try and summarize  how the volume and dominance of  Wal-Mart as a retailer and it's low pricing philosophy affects the environment, Wal-Mart employees, medicare, manufacturers, harvesters, factory workers, fisherman, farmers, everyone all the way down the production food/product chain.  And with that the ultimate potential that Wal-Mart has to change and improve how we produce goods.   <br/><br/>The book was written in 2006.  There was an afterward that addressed Wal-Mart's response to the book.  It did seem to prompt some ideas of change in their policies, ok, we'll see.  ]]></body>
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