Authors: Stanley D. Brunn
ISBN-13: 9780415951371, ISBN-10: 0415951372
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Date Published: August 2006
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Now that Wal-Mart has conquered the US, can it conquer the world? As Wal-Mart World shows, the corporation is certainly trying. For a number of years, Wal-Mart has been the largest company in the United States. Now, though, it is the largest company in the world. Its global labor practices and outsourcing strategies represent for many what contemporary economic globalization is all about. But Wal-Mart is not standing still, and is opening up stores everywhere. From Germany to Beijing to Mexico City to Tokyo, more than a billion shoppers can now hunt for bargains at a Wal-Mart superstore. Wal-Mart World is the first book to look at this incredibly important phenomenon in global perspective, with chapters that range from its growth in the US and impact on labor relations here to its fortunes overseas. How Wal-Mart manages this transition in the near future will play a significant role in the determining the character of the global economy. Wal-Mart World's impressively broad scope makes it necessary reading for anyone interested in the global impact of this economic colossus.
1 | The geostrategy of global business : Wal-Mart and its historical forbears | 3 |
2 | Wal-Mart nation : mapping the reach of a retail colossus | 15 |
3 | Wal-Mart' world | 27 |
4 | Discounting northern capital : financing the world's largest retailer from the periphery | 47 |
5 | Wal-Mart supercenter market share of grocery retailing in U.S. metropolitan areas | 55 |
6 | Wal-Mart-scapes in rural and small-town America | 63 |
7 | Falling prices, happy faces : organizational culture at Wal-Mart | 79 |
8 | Wal-Mart : the new retail colossus | 91 |
9 | Labor and the Wal-Mart effect | 99 |
10 | Wal-Mart as a phenomenon in the legal world : matters of scale, scale matters | 115 |
11 | The institutional semiotics of Wal-Mart flyers and signage in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and China | 143 |
12 | Cathedrals of consumption : a political phenomenology of Wal-Mart | 163 |
13 | Visualizing Wal-Mart as home : where the heart is and king of the hill | 179 |
14 | Examining Wal-Mart's relationships with local communities through investigation of advertising | 193 |
15 | Wal-Mart and partisan politics : from agricultural volatility to red-state culture | 203 |
16 | The Wal-Martification of Teotihuacan : issues of resistance and cultural heritage | 213 |
17 | Global production and distribution : Wal-Mart's global logistics empire (with special reference to the China/Southern California connection) | 227 |
18 | ASDA : Wal-Mart in the United Kingdom | 243 |
19 | Challenges facing Wal-Mart in the German market | 261 |
20 | The myth of Wal-Martization : retail globalization and local competition in Japan and Germany | 275 |
21 | Penetrating the great wall, conquering the middle kingdom : Wal-Mart in China | 293 |
22 | Consuming Wal-Mart : a case study in Shenzhen | 315 |
23 | Supermarkets and the (M)art of Ling Shou | 331 |
24 | Globalization of food retailing and the consequences of Wal-Martization in Mexico | 343 |
25 | Wal-Mart goes south : sizing up the chain's Mexican success story | 357 |