Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?: Low prices are great. But Wal-Mart's dominance creates problems

In business, there is big, and there is Wal-Mart. With $245 billion in revenues in 2002, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the world's largest company. Every week, 138 million shoppers visit Wal-Mart's 4,750 stores, and last year, 82% of American households made at least one purchase at Wal-Mart. Its "everyday low prices" is more than a slogan; it is the fundamental tenet of a cult masquerading as a company. Over the years, Wal-Mart has relentlessly wrung tens of billions of dollars in cost efficiencies out of the retail supply chain, passing the larger part of the savings along to shoppers as bargain prices. It's no wonder that economists refer to a broad "Wal-Mart effect" that has suppressed inflation and rippled productivity gains through the economy year after year. However, Wal-Mart's seemingly simple and virtuous business model is fraught with complications and perverse consequences.