In “The Wal-Mart You Don’t Know” Charles Fishman executed the perfect scare tactic to terrify American consumers. Fishman’s lengthy article proved to be intelligent and bold as he informed America on the “not just the world’s largest retailer. (But) the world’s largest company (553).” He instantly grabs the reader’s attention by opening with the story of Vlassic’s gallon jar of pickles and the fall of the company because of Wal-Mart’s guarantee of the lowest prices around. Although Fishman writes a very a long article, his flow of writing makes it easy to get through and comprehend due to his knowledge on past workers and manufacturers. He reveals the success of companies like Dial and the fall of American factories for companies such as Lovable, Huffy, and Levi’s due to the incredible sales of Wal-Mart and the amount of business they hold for their employers. At some points in Fishmans’s article, there seemed to be no hope for an redemption or counter argument for Wal-Mart. He spent most of the article demonizing Wal-Mart as a business of interrogation, forcing companies to change the way they do business for Wal-Mart to sell their products. His argument strengthened towards the conclusion, when he featured opinions from Wal-Mart supporters that claimed “(Wal-Mart) has helped everything-customer focus, inventory management, speed to market (540).” Fishman then topped it all off with a strong call to action, that “it is we as shoppers who have the power, and who have given that power to Wal-Mart (541)” suggesting that we have contributed to this frightening problem as consumers, but we don't have to let outsourcing and weak profit gain continue.
I have hear many horror stories about the way Wal-Mart treats their employees, but I have never been informed on the truth behind Wal-Mart’s shockingly low prices that give the company its edge. After reading the article, I visited the companies website to their logo “Save Money. Live Better” and previews of the cheapest deals on electronics around. I can no longer help but to think who is living better and of what those companies are having to go through in order to have their products sold at Wal-Mart. What amazes me even more is the fact that Wal-Mart has actually achieved such feats, that one company can hold the singly largest profits for one manufacturer, that one company can become the largest in the world, and that one company can put so many Americans into unemployment. I can only imagine what the future hold for such a company.
