Charles Fishman takes us into the heart of the most successful superstore in history to show how the ‘Wal-Mart effect’ shapes lives everywhere, whether overnight cleaners in America, bicycle-makers in China or salmon farmers in Chile. Now Wal-Mart’s influence is so great it can determine everything from the design of deodorant to theshape of a town, working practices to market forces themselves. Fishman asks: how did a shop manage to do all this? And what will the ultimate cost of low prices be?
