The Case Against Wal-Mart [Paperback]

Al Norman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2004 | ISBN-10: 0971154236 | ISBN-13: 978-0971154230

Al Norman, who has been called the "guru of the anti-Wal-Mart movement" by 60 Minutes, has just written a new book calling for a national consumer boycott of the giant retailer.

The timing couldn't be better.

Wal-Mart is drawing more heat than ever in its 42-year history. It has become perhaps the most disliked retailer in America today.

The Case Against Wal-Mart is presented as a legal brief against Wal-Mart – with "counts" against the company ranging from its employment practices to its "Made in America" mythology.

It presents evidence to make its case that Wal-Mart:

* Forces its own workers to labor "off the clock" without pay
* Uses overseas sweatshop labor to manufacture its corporate brand clothing
* Sells knock-off and counterfeit merchandise that misleads and confuses its customers
* Destroys acres of environmentally sensitive lands to build new Wal-Marts, close to existing Wal-Marts that will be closed
* Has eliminated all competition in many towns across the U.S. by illegally lowering prices below wholesale
* Has forced the movement of thousands of manufacturing jobs out of the U.S.
* Calls "full-time" 28 hours per week and pays wages so low that many of its employees qualify – and accept – welfare payments
* Demands millions of dollars in tax breaks to locate in communities all over the U.S., while it earns billions of dollars in profits.

Written by Al Norman, the world’s foremost expert on and leader of the anti-sprawl movement, The Case Against Wal-Mart calls on consumers to go on a "Wal-Mart diet." Norman says that only a consumer boycott of Wal-Mart will show the company that U.S. citizens disapprove of its business tactics.

This is a book every American shopper should read before making another trip to Wal-Mart. As Al Norman says, "Friends don't let friends shop at Wal-Mart."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Al Norman is a Sprawl-Buster. He is an activist in the grassroots movement that's fighting to save home town America. He is the author of Slam Dunking Wal-Mart: How You Can Stop Superstore Sprawl in Your Hometown. (1999). Over the past 10 years, Norman has traveled to 43 states, Canada. Ireland, Barbados, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands helping citizen's groups "break their Chains." "The information he puts out has all the makings of a Stephen King novel," says a Wal-Mart spokesman.

o 60 Minutes called Al Norman the "guru of the anti-Wal-Mart movement." Norman appeared on 60 Minutes in 1995. "He's been invited to preach the anti-Wal-Mart gospel in dozen of towns," said Morley Safer, "ever since his campaign defeated the retailing giant in his hometown of Greenfield, Massachusetts."
o Since his well-publicized election victory over Wal-Mart in October of 1993, Norman has been sought out by other communities seeking to stop sprawl.
o In June of 2001, Al's work was featured in the PBS film Store Wars, and in the National Geographic magazine. In October of 2001 his work was featured on The Osgood File. Norman's work will be prominent in a public documentary film called "Talking to the WAL" to be released in the fall of 2003.
o In February of 2001, the London Sunday Times Magazine said "his style is that of a fire-breathing evangelist."
o A former columnist and book-reviewer for Newsweek magazine, Norman wrote about Sprawl-Busting ("Eight Ways to Stop the Store") in the Nation magazine in March of 1994. The Nation article was later reprinted in the Utne Reader, the best of the alternative press (Nov/Dec 1994). Norman's Nation article has been reprinted for use in college textbooks.
o The Wall Street Journal has called Norman a "one-man anti-Wal-Mart cottage industry" (9/7/94). "He publishes a "Sprawl-Busters" newsletter to keep groups apprised of their counterparts' tactics," the WSJ wrote, "and which of those tactics work or fail. He sends out to all who ask a packet with materal he developed for Greenfield: display ads, telemarketing scripts, model letters to the editor and copies of Wal-Mart's responses."

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Raphel Marketing (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971154236
• ISBN-13: 978-0971154230
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,293,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DOWNSIDE OF WAL-MART, May 31, 2004

By 

Regina Costantino (Forked River, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Case Against Wal-Mart (Paperback)

Every Wal-Mart shopper should read this book before their next trip to the superstore. It gives incredible insight to the corporate day to day practices that put Wal-Mart at the top of the Fortune 500 list...AND at the bottom of welcome list for many towns across America.

Corporate welfare abuse, how Wal-Mart takes taxpayer subsidies to build stores/distribution centers, is just one of several practices this company uses to get richer and richer. The most disturbing "enrichment" practice by Wal-Mart was its company owned life insurance policies. The company, not next of kin, is named as beneficiary! The world's richest company should NOT be benefiting from the death of its workers. Wal-Mart also to this day help keeps sweatshop labor alive and well in third world countries. Abandonment of stores for larger ones becomes a town eyesore and America is suffering from over 300 abandoned Wal-Marts! Time and time again economic impact studies show that most Wal-Marts cost a city/town more in services than it can pay in taxes-thus there is no plus to having a Wal-Mart in many towns. Just Say "NO" to Wal-Mart and stay out of the aisles....! Small town quality of life is worth more than a cheap pair of underwear!

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Loads of information in a tight format, July 22, 2005

By 

Mike Matejka (Bloomington, Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Case Against Wal-Mart (Paperback)

Reviewed by Michael G. Matejka

Is Wal-Mart the happy yellow smiley face, or a lurking monster destroying American jobs and communities?

The world's largest retailer, currently expanding into the Chinese market, has quite a rap sheet against

For a quick compendium of that way-too-long list of outrages, there's no better source than Al Norman's latest book, The Case Against Wal-Mart.

Norman got into his first Wal-Mart fight in 1993 and has been dogging the giant ever since.

The book's chapter headings tell exactly the wide allegations against the big blue box: "Abuse of Power, Destroying the Value of Labor, Exploiting Your Suppliers, Degrading the Environment, Unfair Competition, Questionable Banking Practices, Exploiting Global Trade, Corporate Welfare Abuse," and that's just a few of them.

Norman's book details many of Wal-Mart's abusive practices, but in a succinct and approachable manner. The book is only 153 pages long, so this is a quick and ready summary.

Whether the question is Wal-Mart workers who work overtime but get paid straight time, Wal-Mart items made with child labor, Wal-Mart cashing in on public subsidies or Wal-Mart's cultivated public image, all the facts and details are here in a straightforward manner.

Although Norman is no fan of the Walton Family empire, he does not just beat a dead horse. Instead, he offers brief summaries of court cases, individual confrontations with the corporate giant, and Wal-Mart's feeding at the public trough. The facts are there, detailed, but not lost in minute details.

His final plea and injunction is not to the big company, but to American consumers. How and where people decide to spend their hard-earned dollars makes all the difference.

If consumers stop and say that will only shop stores that don't use sweatshop-made goods, that treat their workers decently and that allow unions a fair chance to organize, then Wal-Mart will have to respond.

But as long as shopper convenience and a mythology of bargain prices leads the family car to that big concrete block building at the edge of town, Wal-Mart will thrive. Consumer education is the key and Norman's book is a strong wake-up call.

25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Devastating Indictment of the Worlds Largest Retailer, May 28, 2004

By 

Michael L Berler (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Case Against Wal-Mart (Paperback)

In The Case Against Wal-mart, Al Norman delivers a blistering indictment of Wal-mart's meteoric growth and practices. Even if you think you've heard all the dirt on Wal-mart, you will be shocked by the voluminous detail Al Norman provides on the inside workings of the company and the closed-door maneuvering of corrupt City Council officials that welcome them in with streets paved with Cash.

He provides direct numeric information about how Wal-mart forced large American Manufacturers to the brink of bankruptcy and then to move 10's of thousands of jobs overseas to supply them with their "always lower prices."

Just when you think that Wal-mart has hit a new low, turn the page and Al Norman will shock and amaze you again!

This is "the book" Wal-mart doesn't want you to read. Every major publisher refused to publish the book because they sell too many books to Wal-mart and were afraid of retaliation. Make them regret it!

The book is a must read for activists, labor union members, or any average citizen who is sickened by the tactics of America's biggest Employer and Retailer and wants to do something about it!