The Wal-Mart Effect

By: Charles Fishman

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Drawing on unprecedented interviews with former Wal-Mart executives and a wealth of staggering data - such as that Americans spend $36 million an hour at Wal-Mart stores - this is an intimate look at a business that is dramatically reshaping the American economy.

Wal-Mart is not only the world's largest company; it is also the largest company in the history of the world. Though 70 percent of Americans now live within a 15-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. Fishman penetrated the secrecy of Wal-Mart headquarters, interviewing 25 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 he 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.

©2006 Charles Fishman (P)2006 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"In the end, Fishman sees Wal-Mart as neither good nor evil, but simply a fact of modern life that can barely be comprehended, let alone controlled." (Publishers Weekly)
"He brings to light the serious repercussions that are occurring as consumers and suppliers have become locked in an addiction to massive sales of cheaper and cheaper goods." (Booklist)

Factually interesting

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

It was really factually interesting. The narrator was really monotonous and difficult to concentrate on.
I work with a company that sells products to Walmart... So I found some of the insights about how the Walmart works and their history to be quite fascinating... but it was just a little too dry for me.

Boring statistics

The narrator kept me listening not the book. Dont suggest to anyone. Boring and more boring

Pass this one by..

While this book did teach me a few things I didn't know about Wal-Mart, ultimately, the analysis is largely superficial, and occasionally laughably wrong-headed. I particularly liked his view that if an economic analysis appears in a peer-reviewed journal than its conclusions are equivalent to scientific truths, or that a market where 80 % of the product isn't sold at Wal-Mart is unquestionably under Wal-Mart's control. If you are looking for a sophisticated economic analysis of Wal-Mart, this isn't it. He does level some valid criticisms at the company, but an equal number of his arguments fall well short of the mark.

It's not even very well-written. It rambles and repeats itself, and there is a strained sort of muckraking/yellow journalism quality to the language which further undermines the credibility of the author.

Spend your credits elsewhere.

Wal-Mart Bashing

Reading this book I recalled a professor who in the 60's claimed Sears was destroying America. Big attracts such comments. I was hoping for discussions of cross docking and collaborative planning and forecasting and other supply chain innovations that Wal-Mart used to create an advantage. Instead it was 75% bashing. Big is evil.

so one sided

all this crap about buying cheap and having to assemble.. geez have NEVER purchased a BBQ grill that I didn't have to assemble so that example was CRAP!! amongst about most of the rest in this book. talk about making comparisons that weren't. so deceiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Walmart Apologist

Would you try another book from Charles Fishman and/or Alan Sklar?

Probably not

What do you think your next listen will be?

Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary

Any additional comments?

I bought this book hoping to hear an impartial description of the social and economic atmosphere leading up to the boom of large stores such as Walmart and Target, as well as the subsequent impact these stores have had on the people that work for them and the businesses they displace. Instead, this book only briefly discusses criticisms against Walmart (i.e. the poor wages paid to their employees) before embarking on lengthy justifications for why this is "necessary" for the chain to do in order to continue supplying ridiculously cheap items for their customers. In addition, the author repeatedly shared mundane stories about the numerous times that he had shopped at Walmart.

I am not sure if this author was hired by Walmart to write a book defending their questionable business practices or if he just loves Walmart. I all fairness, I could not finish the book as I was too disgusted with the propaganda that filled the first few hours of listening, so it is possible that at some point Mr. Fishman begins to provide a more objective account of his subject.

LOOK OUT!

This Walmart truck swerves all over the road! More than you ever wanted to know in unrelenting detail about Snapper lawnmowers and salmon farming in Chile. This book is bloated an noth worth your time.