Reading Response: Wal-Mart Effect (Chapters 7 and 9)

Upon reading this book, I know two things for sure; 1) that the executives of Wal-Mart, whether ethical or not, are brilliant business tycoons and 2) that Wal-Mart is not merely a place to buy groceries.

Wal-Mart not only keeps its promise to have "always low prices" by finding the lowest prices, but by actually lowering prices itself. Wal-Mart coerces its suppliers into lowering their prices, searches the globe for the lowest prices, strips all amenities from their corporation in order to lower prices, and never ever gives up in its mission for the lowest prices. With determination and prowess as they have, it's no surprise that Wal-Mart does, indeed, have the lowest prices around.

Because Wal-Mart offers the lowest prices, they have an automatic consumer following. People will shop where they can get the biggest "bang for their buck" and Wal-Mart knows it. Customers could refuse to shop at Wal-Mart if they wanted to, but many are drawn back again and again because of the Wal-Mart mantra - "Always low prices, always."

People, though they may complain about Wal-Mart's policies, still continually support the corporation with their dollars. As Fishman says, "Wal-Mart is not just a store, or a company, or a powerful institution. It is also a mirror. Wal-Mart is quintessentially American. It mirrors our own energy, our sense of destiny, our appetite for bigness and variety and innovation."