Item Detail

Wal-Mart isnA't just the worldA's biggest company, it is probably the worldA'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.

---

An award-winning senior editor at Fast Company evaluates the ways in which the world's largest retail company and employer affects everyday life on a global level, in an account that reveals the radical ways in which the company impacts American economics, the workforce, and the environment. Reprint. 100,000 first printing.

Charles Fishman has been a senior editor at the Orlando Sentinel and the News & Observer and is now a senior editor at Fast Company. In 2005 he won the prestigious Gerald Loeb Award for business journalism.

Whether you love or hate Wal-Mart, you can’t avoid reading about it. Considering that at least seven titles on the retailing behemoth were published just in 2005, what else could there be to say? Quite a lot, actually. Fishman (senior editor, Fast Company ) has compiled a compelling and balanced report on Wal-Mart. Via a combination of startling statistics, personal stories from Wal-Mart founders, suppliers, and employees, and revelations about the social costs required for those low, low prices, he gives us a view into the world of discount retailing much as Eric Schlosser did for the food service industry in his exposé, Fast Food Nation . Through it all, Fishman focuses on the larger picture, the "Wal-Mart effect," outlining how the sheer size and scale of the company leads to changes in labor relations, economics, environmental conditions, and consumer behavior, not just in the United States but globally. For example, Wal-Mart’s rigorous adherence to low prices for its goods has contributed significantly to the growth of factory jobs overseas, rather than in the United States. Overall, this is a fascinating look into Wal-Mart and its "effects" on us all. Highly recommended for all libraries.--Susan Hurst, Miami Univ., Oxford, OH

[Page 126]. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.