Documentaries

Is Wal-Mart Good For America? (2004)

Hedrick Smith, Rick Young

Topic:Economics
 
Summary:Even with this biased angle, Frontline has produced a full-blown portrait of the growth of this business monolith, while exploring the relationships between U.S. job losses and the American consumer's insatiable desire for shopping bargains. (Rocky Mountain News)
 
Rating:
* * * * * * *       7.0
 
Seen on:PBS
 
Runtime:60min
 
More information:Official Website
 
Comment by AS:Despite the naive-sounding question, the documentary gives a little insight into the upside-down world of retailers. Originally, companies created products which retailers purchased them in the hope to sell. Nowadays, with the de facto monopoly of Wal-Mart and a few other retailers, the producing companies get told what to produce, when, and for what price. The demand for low prices result soon resulted in oversees production and thus created the trade deficit that the U.S. have with countries like China. It is also shortly but not thoroughly explained why Wal-Mart became the number one retailer.

If you're new to the topic, it is very interesting to see what mechanisms drive the retailing businesses. Otherwise it is still fascinating to see the order of magnitude of Wal-Marts business and the impact it has.
 

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Kommentare

27/08/2011 | Parthena

This article is a home run, pure and simlpe!


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