Wal Mart: Always low prices

Los Angeles Times photo.

Business Week has a good article about the impact of Wal Mart on other businesses when they massively reduce prices on particular products, "How Wal-Mart's TV Prices Crushed Rivals."

It reminds me of the story discussing how working with Wal Mart drove an old once-Michigan based pickle company, Vlasic, into bankruptcy, see "Wal-Mart You Don't Know," from Fast Company. That article is summarized thusly:

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?

Of course, there is this Fast Company article too, about Snapper lawn mowers, "The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart," and how they decided to stop selling through Wal Mart stores.

This great article, "Forget the World Bank, Try Wal-Mart," about how Wal-Mart has lifted millions of Chinese out of poverty neglects to consider the impact of driving U.S. businesses out of business, and the kind of poverty effects Wal-Mart has in the U.S. From the article:

There are estimates that 70 percent of Wal-Mart's products are made in China.

The Los Angeles Times won a Pulitzer Price for this 2003 series on Wal-Mart, "The Wal-Mart Effect."