单选题
Wal-Mart
A. Wal-Mart is more than just the world's largest retailer. It is an economic force, a cultural phenomenon and a lightning rod for controversy. It all started with a simple philosophy from founder Sam Walton: offer shoppers lower prices than they get anywhere else. That basic strategy has shaped Wal-Mart's culture and driven the company's growth.
B. Now that Wal-Mart is so huge, it has unprecedented power to shape labor markets globally and change the way entire industries operate.
History of Wal-Mart C. Sam Walton opened his first five-and-dime in 1950. His vision was to keep prices as low as possible. Even if his margins weren't as fat as competitors, he figured he could make up for that in volume. He was right.
D. In the early 1960s, Walton opened his first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Arkansas. The company continued to grow, going public in 1970 and adding more stores every year. In 1990, Wal-Mart surpassed key rival Kmart in size. Two years later, it surpassed Sears.
E. Walton continued to drive an old pickup truck and share budget-hotel rooms with colleagues on business trips, even after War-Mart made him very rich. He demanded that his employees also keep expenses to a bare minimum—a mentality that is still at the heart of Wal-Mart culture more than decade after Walton's death. The company has continued to grow rapidly after his death in 1992 and now operates four retail divisions—Wal-Mart Super Centers, War-Mart Discount Stores, Neighborhood Market Stores and Sam's Club Warehouses.
Wal-Mart Strategy F. Let's start with technology. Wal-Mart pushed the retail industry to establish the universal bar code, which forced manufacturers to adopt common labeling. The bar code allowed retailers to generate all kinds of information—creating a subtle shift of power from manufacturers to retailers. Wal-Mart became especially good at exploiting the information behind the bar code. And thus it is considered a pioneer in developing sophisticated technology to track its stock and cut the fat out of its supply chain.
G. Recently, Wal-Mart became the first major retailer to demand manufacturers use radio frequency identification technology (RFID). The technology uses radio frequencies to transmit data stored on small tags attached to
pallets (货盘) or individual products. RFID tags hold significantly more data than bar codes.
H. The frugal culture, established by Walton, also plays into Wal-Mart's success. The company has been criticized for the relatively poor wages and health care plans that it offers to rank-and-file employees. It has also been accused of demanding that hourly workers put in overtime without pay. Store managers often work more than 70 hours per week.
I. This culture is also present at the company's headquarters. Wal-Mart is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, instead of an expensive city like New York. The building is unattractive and dull. You won't catch executives in quality cars and you won't see them dragging into work at 9:30 a.m. Executives fly coach and often share hotel rooms with colleagues. They work long hours, typically arriving at work before 6:30 a.m. and working half-days on Saturdays.
J. The central goal of Wal-Mart is to keep retail prices low—and the company has been very successful at this. Experts estimate that Wal-Mart saves shoppers at least 15 percent on a typical cart of groceries. Everything—including the technology and corporate culture—feeds into that ultimate goal of delivering the lowest prices possible. Wal-Mart also pushes its suppliers, some say cruelly, to cut prices. In
The Wal-Mart Effect, author Charles Fishman discusses how the price of a four-pack of GE light bulbs decreased from $2.19 to 88 cents during a five-year period.
The Power K. Because of Wal-Mart's massive size, it has incredible power. It has driven the smallest retailers out of business; forced manufacturers to be more efficient, often leading these suppliers to move manufacturing jobs overseas; and changed the way that even large and established industries do business.
L. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that a new Wal-Mart in town spells doom for local pharmacies, grocery stores, sporting goods stores, etc. Economist Emek Basker, Ph.D., attempted to quantify the impact. Her study found that in a typical United States county, when a Wal-Mart opens, three other retailers close within two years and four close within five years. While the Wal-Mart might employ 300 people, another 250 people working in retail lose their jobs within five years in that county.
M. Wal-Mart has life or death decisions over (almost) all the consumer goods industries that exist in the United State, because it is the number-one supplier-retailer of most of our consumer goods—not just clothes, shoes, toys, but home appliances, electronic products, sporting goods, bicycles, groceries, food.
N. The stories of how Wal-Mart pushes manufacturers into selling the same product at lower and lower prices are legendary. One example is Lakewood Engineering & Manufacturing Co. in Chicago, a fan manufacturer. In the early 1990s, a 20-inch box fan costs $20. Wal-Mart pushed the manufacturer to lower the price, and Lakewood responded by automating the production process, which meant layoffs. Lakewood also forced its own suppliers to knock down the prices of parts. Then, in 2000, Lakewood opened a factory in China, where workers earn 25 cents an hour. By 2003, the price on the fan in a Wal-Mart store had dropped to about $10.
O. Wal-Mart's impact extends beyond just small suppliers. It also affects how even major, established companies like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo do business. At Wal-Mart's request, Coke and its largest bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises announced that they are changing the way they deliver PowerAde in the United States, altering a basic distribution method for drinks that has been in place for more than a century. Coke also now allows Wal-Mart in on the research and development process. In 2005, Coke planned to launch one new diet Cola called Coke Zero. At Wal-Mart's request, it changed the name to Diet Coke unheard of at Coke a decade ago, Pepsi also came up with a line of diet drinks, called Slice One, to initially be sold exclusively in Wal-Mart.
The Controversy P. Wal-Mart is a polarizing force. The controversies have involved a broad range of topics from Wal-Mart selling guns, to the company's environmental policies, to the kind of health care Wal-Mart offers employees, to outsourcing of jobs. In this section, we will explore two of the biggest areas of controversies—labor practice at the company and Wal-Mart's impact on the American economy.
Q. Wal-Mart has come under fire on a number of labor issues. There may be a dark side to the frugal culture. At the end of 2005, the company faced dozens of lawsuits across the country for allegedly not paying workers overtime. Women have also accused Wal-Mart of discrimination, and employees have said that it squashes efforts to unionize and doesn't provide decent healthcare.
R. Not everyone is down on Wal-Mart. Andrew Young, a former United Nations ambassador and former mayor of Atlanta, heads up a group backed by Wal-Mart that is supposed to spread a positive message about the company. 'You need to look at who's complaining about Wal-Mart,' Young told
USA Today in March 2006. 'If it's not 100 million people shopping there every week and it's not 8,000 people competing for 500 jobs (at a new Atlanta store), who is it? They're complaining because they're wrong and they don't understand that ending poverty means generating wealth and not just fighting to redistribute the existing wealth.'
S. There is heated debate about whether Wal-Mart is good for the American economy, and well-respected economists come down firmly on both sides of this debate. Some experts say it is good for the economy because it keeps prices low, both at its stores and at other retailers. Other experts argue that Wal-Mart is bad for the economy because it drives competing retailers out of business and forces manufacturers to move jobs overseas to keep expenses down.