The Facts about Wal-Mart

I discovered a great article by Charles Fishman, “The Wal-Mart You Don’t Know”while doing my daily read over at Million Dollar Journey. The article explores Wal-Mart from the suppliers’ point of view and illustrates the enormous power that Wal-Mart can exert not only on their suppliers but also on the entire global economy. The author argues that:

“The giant retailer's low prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can crush the companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas. Are we shopping our way straight to the unemployment line?”

Here are some aspects of the article that I found interesting.

-“ Wal-Mart is not just the world's largest retailer. It's the world's largest company--bigger than ExxonMobil, General Motors, and General Electric.”

-Last year they sold $255.5 billion worth of goods.

-In 3 months they sells more than number-two retailer Home Depot sells in a year.

-They do “more business than Target, Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Safeway, and Kroger combined.”

-They have approximately 21,000 supplies.

-Wal-Mart is single handedly responsible for about 10% of all Chinese exports to the United States.

-Partly responsible for the low rate of inflation in the U.S.

- “12% of the economy's productivity gains in the second half of the 1990s could be traced to Wal-Mart alone.”

-Last year, 7.5 cents of every dollar spent in any store in the United States (other than auto-parts stores) went to the retailer.

This article is definitely worth a read and can be viewed by following this link.