Commentary
John Dicker provides a fascinating amount of information about America's largest retailer, as he makes the Wal-Mart phenomenon accessible in a user-friendly manner, telling how it works and trying to find out why it works. Dicker makes clear that the company is a force to be reckoned with and that there are those who love it and those who loathe it. He uses enough terminology such as "category killer," to make this a book for the Business Week reader, yet his exposition of the Sam Walton story, and his discussion of just why shoppers shop at Wal-Mart (the prices), makes it accessible to a general audience. THE UNITED STATES OF WAL-MART is also a book about issues. Dicker summarizes the controversy over wages and benefits paid to Wal-Mart workers, and explores whether the government, in effect, is asked to subsidize Wal-Mart by providing benefits to its lowest-paid workers, and he discusses the issue of whether Wal-Mart acts as "cultural gatekeeper" when it decides whether or not to stock CDs, magazines, or other forms of expression that are controversial. The biggest criticism may concern what happens when a Wal-mart moves into a community--does it put smaller stores out of business? Without taking an explicit position, Dicker deals objectively with all of these issues, providing a helpful notes section at the back of the book listing many articles from which he got his information. Like the mega-retailer, John Dicker provides...a lot.

Reviews
"[A] nuanced and bracing portrait of the largest retailer in the world....[A] funny, intuitive analysis of Wal-Mart history and lore."

David Carr