The Case Against Wal-Mart

As I read each chapter, I literally felt sick. I knew Wal-Mart had some bad practices, but this book is full of facts about it's many abuses of suppliers, customers, and employees. I don't know how the Walton clan can live with themselves.

This book is an excellent analysis of just how powerful Wal-Mart is in our economy. It's power makes it a political entity to reckon with also. This book is easy to read and well-documented. The cases cited give an insight as to how too much power can corrupt and make you oblivious to the plight of the consumer.

Al Norman, who is the "shill of the anti-Wal-Mart union movement," has just written yet another jealous screed against the retailer, since a few years ago he discovered he could make money by doing so.The book trumps up a "case" against Wal-Mart by taking rare, isolated incidents that occurred (and were corrected) at certain stores and presenting them as day-to-day company policies. In this way, Norman ( as in "normal"?) is able to spout forth his generalizing "Wal-Mart is a big bad bully" mythology.In place of Wal-Mart's "always lower prices" slogan, he presents the following kind of "evidence" to make the store look bad:* Always forces its workers to labor "off the clock" without pay: lie - isolated incident; they are paid.* Always uses overseas sweatshop labor to manufacture its clothing: lie - isolated Kathy Lee Gifford incident; no underage workers allowed.* Always sells knock-off and counterfeit merchandise that misleads and confuses its customers: lie - sells brand name merchandise.* Always destroys acres of environmentally sensitive lands to build new Wal-Marts: lie - for every acre of store land, another acre is donated to that same area by Wal-Mart.* Always eliminates competition in towns across the U.S. by illegally lowering prices below wholesale: lie - sells at least 10% above.* Always forces the movement of thousands of manufacturing jobs out of the U.S.: lie - Wal-Mart doesn't manufacture anything, and makers are free to work where they want.* Always calls "full-time" 28 hours per week: lie - at Wal-Mart, 30 hours or more is considered full time. (Although the lower the full-time designation, the quicker workers are entitled to full-time benefits.)* Always pays wages so low that many of its employees qualify - and accept - welfare payments: lie - workers earn far above welfare levels, and by doing so couldn't qualify for welfare anyway.* Always demands millions of dollars in tax breaks to locate in communities all over the U.S., while it earns billions of dollars in profits: lie - tax breaks were not invented by Wal-Mart - they apply for them if they can, like anyone else.*Always ruins towns it goes into: lie - the store actually contributes far more in jobs, taxes, and in contributions to local charities than any other entity in those areas.The book by Norman, the self-proclaimed leader of the "anti-sprawl" movement, goes Republican evangelical towards the "sinners" that run Wal-Mart, and also towards those who shop there, calling for a "boycott" of the store. Where have we heard that before? That's right - in the boycotts by Germans against Jewish shops in the early days of the Nazi movement.Strange how Norman and his labor union pals never seem to go after those retail chains who don't threaten their pocket books at the moment, on behalf of the "greater good" of the community. No, instead only the current top dog is going to find itself in Norman's sights, and right now that happens to be Wal-Mart. Before that it was Target, and before that K-Mart.Whoever the current #1 is, that's exactly who Norman and company are going to chase after, because then he can sell his books, and the unions can hope that Wal-Mart finally caves in to their recruiting pressure, and signs up its workers with the old Jimmy Hoffa vanishing pension fund gang.This is a book that every American shopper should read and laugh at heartily, before then making another trip to Wal-Mart and saving a big bundle of money, as usual. Are author Norman or his union buddies going to make up that loss in your wallet if you stop shopping at money-saving stores like Wal-Mart? No way!So I can only advise you in this direction: "Friends don't let friends be fooled by union shills!"(Book Rating: 1 star for stupidity - and general comedy value.)

This is one of the most biased books on retailing I have ever read in my life. Not only is the author completely ignorant of retail supply chains, he also cherry-picks statistics to distort reality of Walmart's business model and impact. In short, Al Norman clumsily mixes the following into a giant cluster**** to formulate a completely incoherent argument against Walmart:1. He ignores the fact that most mass discount retailers employ similar operational strategies.2. He ignores the fact that supply chain execution ultimately drives product availability and inventory.3. He ignores the fact that Walmart makes little more than 3 cents in profits per dollar.4. He ignores the fact that where Walmart gets placed is endogenous with the local wages.5. He ignores the fact that without Walmart, those employed by their stores would be unemployed and remain completely (rather than partially) dependent on government benefits.6. He is completely reliant on hypothetical arguments while offering little more than anecdotal stories to illustrate Walmart's "negative" impact.7. He is also completely ignorant of how costs influence prices, which in turn influences the purchasing power.8. He is hopelessly confused about retail wages and government benefits policies.In short, you'll definitely enjoy this book if you already hate Walmart or espouse similar views. You will learn nothing new by reading this book except for reinforcing your preconceived notions of mass discount merchants. If you want to actually learn about the causes, effects, and consequences of Walmart's business model before forming a tentative judgment on whether or not Walmart is a good thing for America, your journey should start with understanding the retail supply chain first.