Exclusive: Jonathan Rees Reviews “The Bully of Bentonville”
Posted on March 7, 2006 by webteam
Dr. Jonathan Rees of Colorado State Univ. reviews Anthony Bianco’s new book, “The Bully of Bentonville.”
Two books on Wal-Mart have been published by major presses recently, The Wal-Mart Effect, by Charles Fishman and The Bully of Bentonville, by Anthony Bianco. Both these authors work for major business magazines (Fishman for Fast Company and Bianco for Business Week), but neither book is likely to bring smiles to the people at Wal-Mart HQ.
That alone should tell you something about how attitudes towards Wal-Mart are changing. People still make the argument that the only people who are opposed to Wal-Mart are crazy liberals and other “special interests.” The fact that two respected business writers are taking Wal-Mart on in depth not only destroys that argument, it really ought to make Wal-Mart worry.
As Bianco’s title suggests, his is definitely the more hostile of the two books. The Bully of Bentonville is basically a collection of all the stories and arguments about Wal-Mart that have been circulating over the last few years. There is almost nothing here that is really new. Nevertheless, Bianco tells these stories and makes these arguments in a highly readable and engaging manner.
Bianco is particularly good at providing revealing detail to supplement what are now very well known stories. For example, if memory serves me well, former Wal-Mart manager Jon Lehman is both in Robert Greenwald’s movie and the fabulous documentary from PBS’ Frontline, “Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” But Bianco gets Lehman to tell him about his career as a Wal-Mart manager (he made gobs of money) and what changed his mind about the company (taking a job at a unionized Meijer store).
Some of the best parts of the book are contained in short vignettes that Bianco has wedged between the larger chapters. In one, Bianco accompanies Lehman in a walk through Wal-Mart #1 in Rogers, Arkansas. “It’s bloody,” says Lehman about a package of meat he is showing Bianco. “It’s supposed to have a little pad under there to absorb all the blood.”
In another of these sections, Bianco offers new details of the notorious closing of the Wal-Mart in Jonquiere, Quebec. If you don’t know, Wal-Mart closed the store almost immediately after the workers voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers union, and the vast majority of Canadians connect the two events even if Wal-Mart does not.
Bianco interviews Sylvie Lavoie, the worker who led the unionization effort, which was sparked in part when she and other cashiers learned that new hires at a new store 25 miles away were getting paid more than them. “We were a big bunch of girls and we all went together,” is what she told Bianco about how they raised the issue with their manager. “He laughed in our faces. He told us point blank that there would be no report made and that we we’re supposed to discuss our salaries.”
From the larger chapters, the best and freshest work is an analysis of the grocery business in Cincinnati, Ohio. Bianco explains why the existing grocers there have been dreading the coming of Wal-Mart for years and explains how they plan to fight the chain’s inevitable arrival. Apparently “Jungle Jim” Bonaminio, a famous local independent owner, has been expanding his grocery store into something resembling a theme park. If others follow this path shopping will be a lot more fun, but you have to wonder whether America will be better off.
In short, Bianco book has few surprises for diligent students of Wal-Mart. Nevertheless, it is an excellent introduction for people who are just beginning to worry about the ways in which Wal-Mart is changing America for the worse. Bianco’s book could be the definitive study of Wal-Mart’s past to this point of time. Hopefully, the next batch of Wal-Mart books will continue to move the Wal-Mart debate into new territory.
