Book Review: "The Wal-Mart Effect" by Charles Fishman (2006)

Charles Fishman takes a clear-headed look at the effect of Wal-mart's way of doing business, best captured by the slogan "always low prices - always" in this balanced appraisal of America's most controversial company. Promoting neither the hand-me-down Pollyanna ideology of the labour movement nor an arch-capitalistic "damn the torpedoes" approach, Fishman finds a mixed bag when it comes to Wal-mart, primarily because of its market-distorting effects.

By insisting that suppliers drop prices year over year over year in order for the retailer to corner more and more market share, as well as ultra-secretive reporting (which even impacts the way the US inflation rate is calculated), Wal-mart is clearly interested in gaining a monopoly share of their industry - as any business worth its salt should be, in my view. However, by socializing the public to expect such rock-bottom bargains, the effect of the downward pressure on the retail sector overall as reinforced by Wal-mart is considerable as shoppers expect to pay no more than what they absolutely, positively have to, regardless of the opportunity cost.

Fishman illustrates what happens to companies who manufacture dill pickles to lawnmowers and all items in between throughout their dealings with the Bentonville, Arkansas giant, sometimes in eye-glazing detail, but the bottom line is that this book is a well-reasoned and well-argued contribution to a debate which as Fishman points out, in the final analysis, is going to be won or lost based on the choices made by consumers themselves.

Overall rating: 7.25/10