|
|
|
No company looms larger on the American economic landscape than Wal-Mart. From humble beginnings in Bentonville, Arkansas in the 1960s, Sam Walton's invention has become the most loved and hated big company in America. Author Charles Fishman does a good job of showing us why. People love Wal-Mart because it sells lots of stuff for very low prices; indeed, Wal-Mart saved consumers thirty billion dollars in 2004, and it has a major anti-inflationary effect on the economy. Wal-Mart's relentless focus on costs is its great open secret. Merchandise is piled into the stores, the stores are big and simple, the sales force doesn't know too much about the merchandise, and the company's buyers are legendary in their ability to pressure suppliers to keep lowering prices. If they don't, they will lose Wal-Mart's business, and very few companies want to do that. The figures are awe-inspiring. Wal-Mart has nearly 4,000 stores in the United States, more than one for every county. It's the largest employer in 31 states. Americans spend $35 million dollars at Wal-Mart every hour. Each year 93 percent of American households shop at Wal-Mart. It is the largest retailer in Canada and Mexico, and the second largest grocer in Great Britain. It's the biggest company in the history of the world. The world has 6.5 billion people, and Wal-Mart will receive 7.2 billion visits this year. It has become commonplace that the arrival of Wal-Mart in small-town America sounds the death-knell for small traditional retailers. In larger cities, a similar fate often awaits more established competitors. But Wal-Mart's ability to reshape the shopping landscape goes far beyond abandoned storefronts. Wal-Mart is simply so big and powerful that it has the capacity to reach deep into its suppliers' operations and change the very fabric of their business - and not only the businesses but their environment as well. For example, Wal-Mart sells so much salmon that the Chilean suppliers are literally beginning to inflict large-scale effects on the ecosystem off the coast of South America. Although shoppers love the variety and prices that Wal-Mart offers, many are queasy about what Wal-Mart does to produce those prices - from importing clothes made with child labor in Asia to keeping wages and benefits of U.S. workers low. As the famously reclusive company is forced to confront these issues in the white-hot glare of global mass media, the company's high command in Arkansas is having to reshape its image and culture to keep from alienating its customers. To his credit, the author gives us an even-handed view and leaves us to ponder the implications of the low prices that we all love. Charles Fishman reports; the reader must decide. (Penguin Press, 2006, 259 pp., $25.95) |
Clothing, food, toys, tools - everything seems to be available at Wal-Mart for less. The reason is deeply embedded in the Wal-Mart culture because keeping costs down was deeply embedded in Sam Walton's genes.
