The Wal-Mart Effect
Author | Charles Fishman | |
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Country | United States | |
Language | English | |
Subject |
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Genre | OCLC 62282449 | |
The Wal-Mart Effect is a 2006 book by business journalist Charles Fishman, a senior editor at
In the book, Fishman writes that Walmart is arguably the world's most important privately controlled economic institution, and that the phrase "the Wal-Mart effect" is shorthand for a wide range of both positive and negative impacts on consumers resulting from how Walmart does its business. He describes these effects as including the suburbanization of the local shopping experience, the driving down of local prices for all everyday necessities, the draining of the viability of the traditional local shopping areas, a continual downward pressure on local wages, the consolidation of consumer product companies aiming to match Walmart's scale, a continual downward pressure on inflation, and a new and continual cost scrutiny at a wide range of businesses enabling them to survive on thinner profit margins.[4] Fishman concludes that Walmart is "beyond the market forces that capitalism relies on to enforce fair play [and] isn't subject to the market forces because it's creating them."[5]
Fishman did not coin the phrase Wal-Mart effect. It has been traced back to 1990, when journalist Julie Morris used it in a USA Today story.[6]
Following the publication of The Wal-Mart Effect, Walmart commissioned its own study of the phenomenon from Global Insight, a research and consulting company.[7] The Wal-Mart Effect was among several books documenting and analyzing the economic effects of Walmart on local economies: others have included The Local Economic Impact of Walmart by economist Michael J. Hicks,[8] and Walmart: The Face Of Twenty-First-Century Capitalism by American labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein.[9]
Since the release of The Wal-Mart Effect, journalists, economists and others have documented additional Walmart effects. In 2013, the Democratic staff of the
References
- ^ "The Behemoth from Bentonville". The Economist. London. February 23, 2006. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ^ "What's in the journals, August 2006". The Economist. London. August 31, 2006. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ^ McFedries, Paul. "Walmart Effect". Word Spy. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ISBN 978-0141019796.
- ^ Stewart, Barbara (March 12, 2006). "A trolley bad show". The Observer. London. p. 25.
- ^ McFedries, Paul. "Walmart Effect". Word Spy. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ^ "Opening up the big box: measuring the Walmart effect". The Economist. London. February 23, 2006. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ISBN 978-1934043387.
- ISBN 978-1-595-58035-1.
- ^ Heller, Laura (May 31, 2013). "Are Wal‐Mart's Low Wages A Drag On The Economy? New Report Says Yes". Forbes. Jersey City. Retrieved June 2, 2013.