How Wal-Mart is Destroying America and What You Can Do About It

How Wal-Mart is Destroying America and What You Can Do About it, Bill Quinn, Ten Speed Press, 1998

This book is pretty self-explanatory. The author, a small-town Texas newspaperman, has seen first-hand how Wal-Mart really works.

When they first enter a town (small towns are picked intentionally), they heavily advertise in the local newspaper, and everything seems wonderful. One by one, the local retailers close, because Wal-Mart has undercut their prices, again intentionally. Once the local Main Street has become a ghost town, Wal-Mart's prices start to drift upward and the newspaper ads dry up to almost nothing.

In an interview, a former store manager reported that he had a person on staff whose job was to call suppliers and demand discounts because shipments arrived damaged or incomplete, even if they actually arrived undamaged and complete.

Did you know that going into a Wal-Mart to jot down prices for comparison shopping purposes is against store policy?

Items are stacked nearly to the ceiling in the average Wal-Mart because they are too cheap to afford warehouse space, according to Quinn.

This might not be so bad if the Walton family were in the habit of giving money to charity. Looking through the major lists of corporate donors, the Walton family are not just low on the lists, they aren't on the lists at all.

This short, Wow of a book presents quite a chronicle of pure, penny-pinching greed on the part of Wal-Mart. It is very strongly recommended.