Customer Reviews

Wal-militia: The Conspiracy of Wal-Mart and the Government: A National Report

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Is Grant Lee kidding? Did he print this off a desktop? It is painfully obvious that the book was barely edited: see the chapter on "odd-sales" for details on Wal-Mart's "prophet margin." I wish I were kidding, but I'm not.

Mr. Lee begins with a noir-esque introduction describing his discovery of the truth behind Bentonville's new airport: it's all for Wal-Mart! He claims his knowledge comes from one Informant Smith, a Wal-Mart executive who seeks to ease his conscience by divulging the deep, dark secrets of the Wal-Mart-Federal Government conspiracy: Project Rollback. Lee insinuates that "Rollback Smiley," the Wal-Mart price-slashing mascot, is named for this ostensible conspiracy and so is "hiding out in the open."

I surrendered after the thrid chapter, my brain no longer able to withstand the unrelenting assault on common sense and reason, never mind fact. A quick review of the remaining pages revealed an entire chapter devoted to a wide array of Wal-Mart "facts" and Mr. Lee's personal political philosophy. The rest of the book has little at all to do with Wal-Mart, save for a few anecdotes from Lee's time on the night shift.

O, I beg you, learn from my error and don't waste a dime on this fantasy. There is nothing the least bit credible to be found between its covers.

I don't know what the critic C. Brennon is talking about, but before he gave his review he should have gotten his facts straight.
Number one, the chapter on "odd sales" is actually called "Odd Priced Sales" and has nothing at all to do with Wal-Mart's profit margin! The chapter is talking about the trick that all stores use to lower the price of an item by one nickel or penny so that a product that cost $20 is now $19.95 or $19.99. It's basically an optical illusion.
Number two, the author did not print this book on his desktop, it was published by a division of Rhandom House.
Number three, I don't know what "Rollback Smiley" is but the Smiley had nothing to do with the conspiracy, Wal-Mart was playing with the word "Rollback!"
Wal-Militia is a wonderful book about retail and government! Everyone should read it!!

Wal Mart did not become super huge because Sam Walton was a nice guy. In Wal-militia, using Wal Mart as an example, Grant Lee explaines in clear, easy to understand language, how a company can be come big by using effective merchandising. However, to become super huge a company uses the corruption of the Republican and Democratic controlled local, state and national governments. This book is a must read, in my mind, if you want to spend your money wisely and end the corruption between the Republican and Democratic controlled governments and super huge businesses.

Grant Lee (Grant L. Petersen) is daring! In november of 2004 he paid a traffic fine with a metal bucket of unwrapped pennies. A search of google "Man pays fine with 8,200 pennies" will turn up more results. For this stunt he made international news and was mentioned on Paul Harvey and David Letterman. After the case was dropped he stirred it up again by selling his bucket of coins on ebay for $25,000.
In Febuary 2006 he was featured with Anthony Hopkins in the movie "The World's Fastest Indian" as "Binocular Boy!" When Burt Munro (Hopkins) brakes the motorcycle world land speed record on the Salt Flats in Utah, you can see Grant Lee in the tower with his famous binoculars. He also starred in a commercial, as a movie producer, for the Utah Film Commission that was shown at the 2006 Sndance Film Festival.
Grant grew up in Bentonville, Arkansas, the location of the Wal-Mart home offices and knows pretty much all of the ins and outs. And has very interesting political views! The conspiracy in this book is based on information given to him from a third party that works at the Wal-Mart home offices. Everything else is pure Grant!
Grant has also written three other books: Microworlds (Out of print), Instru-Mental, and The Great Time-Link Photography Project.
Wal-Militia is an ecxellent, informative book; however, at seventy pages it is not worth the $17 that most people are charging for it. If you can find it for $10, or better yet $5, you will get a great deal!!
(Visit wal-martconspiracy.com)

This book is very informative on Wal-Mart and in politics! As a dollar circulates, the tax will generate more than a dollar in tax revenue and the surplus goes to Wal-Mart to make the economy look good.
An excellent, entertaining read!

A very clever scheme about Wal-Mart and the conspiracy ties to the Government that allow the retail giant to grow using questionable taxpayer funds. Does the Government really earn more money from taxes than is actually in print and do they give it to Wal-Mart for growth? Excellent question!

I'm not sure about the conspiracy but I love the information about how to buy merchandise (Especially holiday merchandise) for $1.50 that was originally sold for $30.00.
The author was a former employee that had worked for the company for six years and knows what he is taking about! Five stars!