The Change Mariner

Discount Nation: Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

New York Times:

The annual celebration of the American consumer economy -- the holiday shopping season -- is just underway, and Wal-Mart, the juggernaut of retailing, already seems to have claimed its first victim. The corporate owner of F.A.O. Schwarz stores said last week that it would file for bankruptcy. Bemoaning the news, analysts explained that the F.A.O. Schwarz formula of selling premium-priced toys in sumptuous surroundings could not withstand the steady advance of Wal-Mart into the toy business.

"Will Wal-Mart Steal Christmas?" asked a Time magazine headline.

The toy war is merely the most recent manifestation of what is known as the Wal-Mart effect. To the company's critics, Wal-Mart points the way to a grim Darwinian world of bankrupt competitors, low wages, meager health benefits, jobs lost to imports, and devastated downtowns and rural areas across America.

Yet there is a wider, less partisan view of the company, which perhaps more visibly than any other corporation marches to the mandate of the global capitalist economy.

"Wal-Mart is the logical end point and the future of the economy in a society whose pre-eminent value is getting the best deal," said Robert B. Reich, the former labor secretary and a professor of social and economic policy at Brandeis University.

Posted by Timothy Fredel at December 6, 2003 10:14 PM | TrackBack
Related Categories: Industry - Retail | Quadrant - Social | Theme - 'Wal-Mart'inizing the World'

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