More than a few people have come to assume that bigness in business automatically implies a woeful trail of victims; some of those folks then make a nice career out of convincing the victims that they need their help. All too often, emotion drives the debate at least as much as information.
Michael Hicks, however, is interested in facts. He asks the right questions and provides the answers that thorough research suggests. He surveys the weight of evidence and analysis in the existing literature, and adds some informed insights of his own. This is what good economists are supposed to do. There are no wild claims or hidden agendas here. This book is a triumph of empiricism over mysticism.
As an occasional patron of big box retail stores like Wal-Mart, I could never quite relate to many of the routine attacks on them. With each visit, I park in an ample parking lot. I’m greeted by employees who smile, say hello, ask to help if I seem to need assistance, and thank me as I walk out the door. If I’m unhappy with price or service (I can’t remember the last time I was), I know I can get a quick refund and shop elsewhere. My search costs as a consumer are usually lowered by buying there and it seems my wallet benefits as well — no doubt because competition makes big box retailers pass on their natural economies of scale in the form of lower prices. The sheer volume of Wal-Mart’s trade alone suggests that the number of people who vote for Wal-Mart with their dollars is far greater than the number of those who vote for President and the Congress.
Even as an economist myself, I still learned much from this book that I didn’t know. For instance, Wal-Mart’s influence on labor markets is surely less than most would expect, in part because it employs less than one percent of the U.S. workforce. The company receives comparatively little in the way of subsidies in spite of the misguided generosity of state and local governments who try to pick winners and losers in the marketplace. The anti-Wal-Mart campaigns of today are eerily reminiscent of the Luddite crusades against chain stores seven decades ago — proof of the old adage that the more things change, the more they remain the same.