The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business

The definitive account of how a small Ozarks company upended the world of business and what that change meansWal-Mart, the worlds largest company, roared out of the rural South to change the way business is done. Deploying computer-age technology, Reagan-era politics, and Protestant evangelism, Sam Waltons firm became a byword for cheap goods and low-paid workers, famed for the ruthless efficiency of its global network of stores and factories. But the revolution has gone further: Sams protgs have created a new economic order which puts thousands of manufacturers, indeed whole regions, in thrall to a retail royalty. Like the Pennsylvania Railroad and General Motors in their heyday, Wal-Mart sets the commercial model for a huge swath of the global economy. In this lively, probing investigation, historian Nelson Lichtenstein deepens and expands our knowledge of the merchandising giant. He shows that Wal-Marts rise was closely linked to the cultural and religious values of Bible Belt America as well as to the imperial politics, deregulatory economics, and laissez-faire globalization of Ronald Reagan and his heirs. He explains how the companys success has transformed American politics, and he anticipates a day of reckoning, when challenges to the Wal-Mart way, at home and abroad, are likely to change the far-flung empire. Insightful, original, and steeped in the culture of retail life, The Retail Revolution draws on first hand reporting from coastal China to rural Arkansas to give a fresh and necessary understanding of the phenomenon that has transformed international commerce.

Quick Glance
Published by	Metropolitan Books
Book Format	Hardcover
Written by	Nelson Lichtenstein
Genre & Subject	Biographies & Memoirs, Business & Money, History, Politics & Current Events

Summary
Product Title	The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business
Lowest Price	$2.39 from Valore Books