The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and HowIt's Transforming the American Economy
"Highly readable, incisive, precise, and even elegant." —San Francisco Chronicle
"Insightful." —BusinessWeek
Wal-Mart isn’t just the world’s biggest company, it is probably the world’s most written-about. But no book until this one has managed to penetrate its wall of silence or go beyond the usual polemics to analyze its actual effects on its customers, workers, and suppliers. Drawing on unprecedented interviews with former Wal-Mart executives and a wealth of staggering data (e.g., Americans spend $36 million an hour at Wal-Mart stores, and in 2004 its growth alone was bigger than the total revenue of 469 of the Fortune 500), The Wal-Mart Effect is an intimate look at a business that is dramatically reshaping our lives.
"Insightful." —BusinessWeek
Wal-Mart isn’t just the world’s biggest company, it is probably the world’s most written-about. But no book until this one has managed to penetrate its wall of silence or go beyond the usual polemics to analyze its actual effects on its customers, workers, and suppliers. Drawing on unprecedented interviews with former Wal-Mart executives and a wealth of staggering data (e.g., Americans spend $36 million an hour at Wal-Mart stores, and in 2004 its growth alone was bigger than the total revenue of 469 of the Fortune 500), The Wal-Mart Effect is an intimate look at a business that is dramatically reshaping our lives.
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
While I was aware of the problems Walmart causes to its own employees- underpaying them so much that even people who work full-time for Walmart need government assistance- I was not as aware of the ways in which Walmart has caused problems to manufacturers who must lower wholesale prices to meet Walmart contracts, and the detriment to the quality of goods sold even by higher-end manufacturers who can't compete with low-quality Walmart products. Walmart is growing to a point where there aren't alternatives in parts of the country to shopping there either which is something our antitrust (anti-monopoly) laws should be protecting against but are not.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.