The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy

The activities of Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers have become rallying cries for both sides of the political aisle. This book is aimed at those involved in debates over Wal-Mart's impact on worker wages, labor issues, and health-insurance and land-use policies. The Wal-Mart Revolution provides useful facts about the company, the U.S. retail industry, labor economics, health-care policy, and land-use realities in America today. Economist Richard Vedder and public-private partnerships expert Wendell Cox painstakingly analyze available evidence before concluding that the economic transformation in American retailing which is personified by Wal-Mart has largely been good for Americans and the economy. Wal-Mart's basic business strategies have had a profoundly positive impact on America's productivity, wages, consumer prices, and other key economic variables. Though the book was written without any cooperation from Wal-Mart, Vedder and Cox address several criticisms often lobbed at the company and demolish them one-by-one: Wal-Mart workers are paid fairly--given their level of skills and experience, and compared to other retail firms, Wal-Mart employees do well Wal-Mart's fringe benefits health-care coverage, retirement benefits, and more- are similar to those of other retail firms, and very few Wal-Mart workers go without health insurance Big boxes mean big business: communities with new Wal-Mart stores typically enjoy increased employment and incomes after the store opens Wal-Mart benefits the poor, in particular, in the form of lower prices and new job opportunities Attempts to keep Wal-Mart out of communities through zoning restrictions, mandatory health insurance, or special high minimum wages hurt citizens, especially those with lower incomes

Vedder (economics, Ohio U.) and Cox (an international public policy consultant) argue that Wal-Mart and other so-called "big box" stores have had generally positive economic effects for the American population and increasingly for the rest of the world as well. They point to customer savings, comparable market wages, expanded consumer choice, and expanded employment as primary effects of the "Wal-Mart Revolution." They further dismiss criticisms of Wal-Mart's role in encouraging urban sprawl, support Wal-Mart's entry into banking, and argue against most (if not all) policy recommendations of Wal-Mart's critics. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Wal-Mart is under attack--from labor unions, urban planners, globalization critics, and community activists. The company's detractors argue that Wal-Mart reduces living standards, hurts retail trade, causes unemployment, and relegates Third World workers to poverty. In the Wal-Mart Revolution, Richard Vedder and Wendell Cox examine Wal-Mart's true role in the economy. The authors look briefly at the history of retailing in America and the contributions made by James Penney and Frank Woolworth. Looking specifically at Wal-Mart, they review conditions before and after Wal-Mart entered a local market and look more broadly at Wal-Mart's impact on wages, productivity growth and inflation. Vedder and Cox show that the retailer has been a force for good.