Paradox Unbound: Book Review: The United States of Wal-Mart

Paradox Unbound Book Review

The United States of Wal-Mart

by John Dicker

213 pages (excluding acknowledgements, notes, and index)

See back cover

When I went to Skylight Books in Los Feliz Village during my walk on Friday, this book was being heavily promoted with a window display and a prominent location in the front of the store. I would have bought it anyway, though, since I have a bit of a Wal-Mart obsession (evidenced by this previous post on Paradox Unbound).

You might notice I bought an autographed copy, and that's because all the copies of this book at the store were autographed. I'm assuming (based on the autographed copies and the promotional materials) that author John Dicker did a book-signing event at the store recently...I'm sorry I missed it. It's kind of cool to have an autographed book, I've never owned one before.

I read this book over the weekend. On the whole, it is an excellent survey of the various issues that are making Wal-Mart increasingly controversial, especially in "liberal" circles. It does contain a few minor typographical and factual errors that hopefully will be corrected in future editions. Dicker's writing style is engaging, if a bit laborious at times. He has a penchant for colorful metaphors, but at times he can be a bit too flippant (to wit, his assertion that "we're all Wal-Mart's bitches").

After cataloguing the immense size of the world's largest retailer, Dicker goes on to debunk the "ethos" of the late Sam Walton, the company's legendary founder and one-time "richest man in the world." From there, he analyzes Wal-Mart's business plan, which could be summed up as "Growth! Growth! Growth!" I appreciated the emphasis on Wal-Mart's technology, which in my opinion has been the key to its success (it owns the largest private satellite system in the world). Dicker also points out that as big as Wal-Mart is, it is getting and will continue to get far bigger.

The book then delves into the aspects of Wal-Mart that have generated controversy. Dicker describes the burden its labor policies (low wages coupled with high health insurance premiums) place onto public welfare systems throughout the country as well as the company's firm "anti-union" stance. He also mentions the company's sexist reputation and the class action sex discrimination lawsuit recently filed on behalf of all women employed by Wal-Mart since 1998 (links below). He spends most of his time, however, on Wal-Mart's role in "globalization," particularly the "outsourcing" of manufacturing jobs from the United States to Third World countries where labor is much cheaper. Wal-Mart's "sweat shop" loving ways snagged Kathie Lee Gifford seven years ago (remember that? remember her?).

The second part of the book studies the effect Wal-Mart has had on the United States, the workings of Wal-Mart's PR machine, and those who have fought the store moving into their communities. Most troubling is the discussion on Wal-Mart's move into politics since 2000: it now controls the country's second-largest corporate Political Action Committee (PAC). Nearly all its money goes to the Republican Party and Wal-Mart is very cozy with the Bush Administration. Also troubling is Wal-Mart's censorship of the media it sells in its stores (which Dicker points out as being inconsistent). Wal-Mart is a part of "the culture wars" and the "red state/blue state" dichotomy brought to light in the 2004 elections (an interesting article linking Wal-Mart to red states and Costco to blue states is linked below). I appreciated that Dicker aimed to debunk the perception that Wal-Mart is on one side of "the culture wars," pointing out that Wal-Mart is a major contributor to National Public Radio (NPR) and that it changed its antidiscrimination policy a few years ago to include specific protection for gays, lesbians, and transgendered people.

Dicker makes some interesting conclusions. First off, he states what I think should be obvious: Wal-Mart cannot be stopped or "rolled back," we have to learn to live with it and pressure the company to change its policies. He admits that it might not be a bad idea to let Wal-Mart open in "inner city" areas, because bad jobs are better than no jobs and also because there are few other stores in these areas that offer good merchandise at low prices. He also argues that the most effective way to fight Wal-Mart at the local level is not to raise issues of employee welfare and globalization but the minutiae of zoning law (is there proper drainage? are the traffic studies based on accurate information?). His most compelling point, though, is that Americans don't really seem to care about the "negative externalities" associated with Wal-Mart. Most of us only care about low prices and feel entitled to a "deal" and are ignorant of or unconcerned with the "true cost" of those low prices.

I enjoyed the book and recommend it to everyone. In keeping with the title of this book, I made a flag for the United States of Wal-Mart and wrote a Pledge of Allegiance to it (yes, I have a lot of time on my hands, thanks for asking):