| Bestsellers | | • | Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking | | • | The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference | | • | The Science of Getting Rich | | • | Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World | | • | American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury | | • | Outrage: How Illegal Immigration, the United Nations, Congressional Ripoffs, Student Loan Overcharges, Tobacco Companies, Trade Protection, and Drug Companies Are Ripping Us Off . . . And | | • | Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and StickYou with the Bill) | | • | Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate | | • | Confessions of a Street Addict | | • | Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls |
|
|
|
|
The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy | 
| Author: Charles Fishman
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $6.39
You Save: $19.56 (75%)
New (9) Used (10) from $6.36
Avg. Customer Rating:  102 reviews
Sales Rank: 5757
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1
Dewey Decimal Number: 381.1490973
Publication Date: January 19, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new - Most copies have a publishers overstock mark (Publisher close-outs usually have a small ink mark or stamp at the base of the book, but are otherwise brand new.)
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
An award-winning journalist breaks through the wall of secrecy to reveal the many astonishing ways Wal-Mart's power affects our lives and reaches all around the world.
The Wal-Mart Effect: The overwhelming impact of the world's largest company--due to its relentless pursuit of low prices--on retailers and manufacturers, wages and jobs, the culture of shopping, the shape of our communities, and the environment; a global force of unprecedented nature. Wal-Mart is not only the world's largest company; it is also the largest company in the history of the world. Americans spend $26 million every hour at Wal-Mart, twenty-four hours of every day, every day of the year. Is the company a good thing or a bad thing? On the one hand, market guru Warren Buffett estimates that the company's low prices save American consumers $10 billion a year. On the other, the behemoth is the #1 employer in thirty-seven of the fifty states yet has never let a union in the door.
Though 70 percent of Americans now live within a fifteen-minute drive of a Wal-Mart store, we have not even begun to understand the true power of the company and the many ways it is shaping American life. We know about the lawsuits and the labor protests, but what we don't know is how profoundly the "Wal-Mart effect" is shaping our lives.
Fast Company senior editor Fishman, whose revelatory cover story on Wal-Mart generated the strongest reader response in the history of the magazine, takes us on an unprecedented behind-the-scenes investigative expedition deep inside the many worlds of Wal-Mart. He reveals the radical ways in which the company is transforming America's economy, our workforce, our communities, and our environment. Fishman penetrated the secrecy of Wal-Mart headquarters, interviewing twenty-five high-level ex-executives; he journeyed into the world of a host of Wal-Mart's suppliers to uncover how the company strong-arms even the most established brands; and journeyed to the ports and factories, the fields and forests where Wal-Mart's power is warping the very structure of the world's market for goods. Wal-Mart is not just a retailer anymore, Fishman argues. It has become a kind of economic ecosystem, and anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping our world today must understand the company's hidden reach.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 97 more reviews...
 Must read October 14, 2008
Really enlighting. I don't go there anymore. (didn't go very much before) .Maybe I'm narrow minded
 Walmart shaping life everywhere. September 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A well written book exploring the biggest retailer in the world and how the 'WalMart effect' shapes lifes everywhere. A lot of research has gone into this book and Mr. Fishman asks, how did a shop manage to get the power to change our world. Looking at it from a business perspective one cannot help but be in awe of the strategies put in place by the Waltons and their associates. Their commitment to "Always Low Prices, Always' is not in any means half-hearted. It will be interesting to explore the new strategies Walmart executes to counter the claims made in this book. Overall a very insightful read and a must for every retailer to read.
The Walmart Effect August 30, 2008
This book is a good study on what makes Wal-Mart a business success but a real detriment to our ecomony. The ethics of this corporation are so poor that our environment and society will only suffer as long as we support them. This books states true examples of how cheaper doesn't equal better.
Very informative August 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Fishman was able to present the Walmart "phenomenon" in a very straightforward way. The global effect of Walmart was explained through many real-life examples; the flow of the book, I have to say, is excellent. I finished it in 3 days. Walmart effect on supply chain efficiency is an area that the book overlooked compared to some other topics that were redundant.
 Nothing new or insightful August 1, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Fishman spends the first 30 pages hinting that Wal-mart forced its suppliers out of business by demanding lower prices. This may sound horrifying to you, but demanding lower costs is industry standard for retailers. If you owned a store, would you voluntarily offer your supplier more money?
If your knowledge of Wal-mart and retailing is limited to what you've heard on the 6 o'clock news, this book gives you a peek into that world. But it falls far short of it's claims to expose "how the world's most powerful company really works". The author openly admits that there is almost no information on Wal-mart, so what he has is anecdotal and fragmented and not particularly convincing.
Unfortunately, Fishman is unable to break out of the standard Wal-mart bashing arguments around "low wages" (which are not unreasonably low at ~$10/hr), "forcing local business to close" (any large, well-run retailer could have caused it), and "cheap goods made in deplorable conditions" (unfortunately, some factory owners don't have the same morals as we do. Paying more won't for something won't result in better standards, just more money for the owner).
Verdict: Borrow at your library.
|
|
|
|
Discount Shopping Online by Web-Mart.com | |
