The Wal-Mart Effect

Daniel Schliesmann
Mrs. Johnson
Honors Sophomore English-1
23 November 2015
Wal-Mart Research Paper- Rough Draft Every day the power wielded by individuals and organizations are excreted in evident and subtle ways. The quest for power has ended in either triumph of folly in innumerable cases throughout history, whether it was Alexander or Napoleon, Rockefeller or Carnage, all have left their marks on history and have shaped the world today. No organization or person alive today has the addiction and thirst for power like Wal-Mart does and quite possibly nobody has the same scope of power that Wal-Mart possesses. Whether or not a customer shops at a Wal-Mart doesn’t matter that person still feels the “Wal-Mart Effect.” The power wielded by

(Spector, Diana) Over fifty percent of all Americans live within five miles of a Wal-Mart and over ninety percent live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart. (Sehgal, Ujala) One of every four dollars Americans spend on groceries is spent at Walmart, and every week over one third of Americans shop at a Wal-Mart.(Company Filings) Wal-Mart employs about 2.2 million associates globally, including approximately 1.4 million in the United States, the #2 company on the Fortune 500, Exxon Mobil employs about 75,300 people.(Company Filings) By March 17, Wal-Mart revenue is higher than its closest direct competitor, Target’s yearly revenue.(Fishman, 7) Finally, China's exports to Walmart alone, accounted for 11 percent of the growth of the total U.S. trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2006.(Scott, Robert E.) All of these statistics among others show the immense scale of Wal-Mart and are examples of the “Wal-Mart Effect.” The immense power that Wal-Mart controls is evident and can be expressed through its

The silence isn’t a matter of business etiquette or courtesy— it is policy, chillingly absolute. The silence is backed by muscle, the threat of losing the business of Wal-Mart. (Fishman, 86)
Even companies that don’t do any business with Wal-Mart are terrified of them because of their immense influence over the retail market. It doesn’t matter how large the company is, nobody is exempt from the “wall of silence,” it doesn’t matter if you’re FedEx, IBM, Procter & Gamble, or Dial; nobody will openly discuss Wal-Mart for fear that Wal-Mart will learn about it.
As consumers Wal-Mart affects the places where people shop, the products that customers “choose” to buy, the prices that consumers pay, the sense of quality, and even the buying habits of millions if not billions. In the effort to cut costs and reduce prices saves families hundreds of dollars a year. In The Wal-Mart Effect, Charles Fishman explains the power of Wal-Mart on a macro-economic scale, specifically its ability to decrease inflation, based on a study performed by economists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) and from economists at the U.S. Department of