Mega-Retail
(see also Corporate Power)
Basics
On the Web: Articles
Wal-Mart: Template for 21st-C. Capitalism? Conference at U. of California, Santa Barbara (4/12/04).
The Wal-Martization of America. Editorial, NY Times (11/15/03).
One Nation Under Wal-Mart. Jerry Useem with Julie Schlosser & Helen Kim, Fortune (3/3/03).
Wal-Mart Effect. Word Spy (n.d.)
On the Web: Specialized Sites
Church of Stop Shopping (Reverend Billy).
Independent America. Anti-big box film.
In the Library: Articles
Anon. "Measuring local ownership in your city, part 1: Wal-Mart vs. locally owned businesses," Urban Quality Indicators 22 (sum 01).
Lewis, Sylvia. "When Wal-Mart says 'uncle': a few places are staring down the big-box retailers," Planning 60,8 (8/94).
Luce, Stephanie. "Welcome to Wal-Mart: always low prices, always low wages," Monthly Review 56,11 (4/05):54-58. Review essay on Featherstone, Selling Women Short.
In the Library: Non-Fiction Books
Cohn, David L. The Good Old Days: A History of American Morals & Manners as Seen through the Sears, Roebuck Catalogs 1905 to the Present (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1940).
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickle & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (NY: Metropolitan, 2001).
Featherstone, Liza. Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers' Rights at Wal-Mart (NY: Basic Books, 2004).
Latham, Frank Brown. 1872-1972: A Century of Serving Customers (Chicago: Montgomery Ward, 1972).
National Labor Committee. Made in the USA? Clothing for Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, Target & Sears Made by Women Held under Conditions of Indentured Servitude: Nightmare at the Daewoosa Factory in American Samoa (NY, 2001).
Ortega, Bob. In Sam We Trust: The Untold Story of Sam Walton & How Wal-Mart is Devouring America (NY: Times Business, 1998).
Plunkett-Powell, Karen. Remembering Woolworth's: A Nostalgic History of the World's Most Favorite Five-&-Dime (NY: St. Martin's, 1999).
Porter, David & Chester Mirsky. Megamall on the Hudson: Planning, Wal-Mart & Grassroots Resistance (Victoria BC: Trafford, 2003).
Quinn, Bill. How Wal-Mart is Destroying America (& the World), & What You Can Do About It (Berkeley CA: Ten Speed, 2000).
Slater, Robert. The Wal-Mart Decade: How a Generation of Leaders Turned Sam Walton's Legacy into the World's Number One Company (NY: Portfolio, 2003).
Turner, Marcia Layton. K-Mart's Ten Deadly Sins: How Incompetence Tainted an American Icon (Hoboken NJ: John Wiley, 2003).
Vance, Sandra S. & Roy V. Scott. Wal-Mart: A History of Sam Walton's Retail Phenomenon (NY: Twayne, 1994).
Weil, Gordon Lee. Sears, Roebuck, USA: The Great American Catalog Store & How It Grew (Briarcliff Manor NY: Stein & Day, 1977).
Worthy, James C. Shaping an American Institution: Robert E. Wood & Sears, Roebuck (Urbana: U. of Illinois, 1984).
In the Library: Fiction
In the Library: For Young Readers
In the Library: Poetry
In the Library: Drama
Holden, Joan. Nickle & Dimed (NY: Dramatists Play Service, 2005).
In the Library: Photography
CD & Audio
Film & Video
"Employee of the Month" [2004], dir. Greg Coolidge, 97m. In video stores.
"Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town" [2001], dir. Micha X. Peled, 60m. Mixed community reactions to plans for mega-store in Ashland VA.
"Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" [2005], dir. Robert Greenwald, 95m. Impact of retail giant on local communities.