One nation under Wal-Mart The huge corporations that produce our cars appliances, computers, and other products many of them household names like Nike, Coca- Cola, and Johnson & Johnson are a familiar feature of contemporary capitalism; However, Wal-Mart represents something new on the economic landscape. Now the world’s largest company, Wal-Mart has achieved its corporate preeminence not in a production but in retail. No other retailer, at any time or in any place, has ever come close to being as large and influential as Wal-Mart has become. After years of nonstop growth, there are now more than 4,750 Wal-Mart stores visited every week by 138 million shoppers. And the time as it moves beyond its stronghold in rural South. Even , eighty two percent of American households purchase at least one item from Wal-Mart every year. As result, the company’s marketplace clout is enormous: it controls about 30 percent of the market in household’s staples; it sells 15 percent of all magazines and 15-20 percent of all CDs, videos, and DVDs; and it is expected to control soon over 35 percent of U.S. food sales. For many companies selling consumer products, sales from Wal-Mart represent a big hunk of their total business: 28 percent for Dial, 24 percent for Del Monte, and 23 for Revlon. Wal-art is also responsible for 10 percent of all goods imported to the United States from China.
The good news for consumers is that Wal-Mart has risen to retail supremacy through the bargain prices it offers them. The retail giant can afford its low prices because of the cost efficiencies it has achieved and the pressure it puts on suppliers to lower their prices. And the larger the store gets the more market clout it has and the further it can push down prices for its consumers. I know that everyone loves low prices, but I could really think that not everyone loves Wal-Mart.