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Sorry Mr. or Ms. Shoup (I don't know your gender and don't want to be too
familiar) but you need to avail yourself of a good dose of Keynesian
economics.<br><br>
And you have not come close to describing or demonstrating an
understanding of the WalMart business model.<br><br>
For a primer, I suggest " The World Is Flat" by Thomas
Friedman.<br><br>
For advanced reading, look at some classics economics work by Milton
Friedman "Price Theory" and Paul Samuelson. I also
suggest that you peruse the early works by Peter Drucker (not an
economist) and the works by Michael Porter. Porter has a couple of
books that may be very helpful in helping you understand the WalMart
successes. Please look for <i>Competitive Advantage: Creating and
Systaining Competitive Advantage</i> (New York: Free Press, 1985 and
<i>Competitive Strategy Techniques for Analyzing Industries and
Competitors</i> (New York: Free Press, 1980).<br><br>
I am confident that you will find the knowledge very
enlightening.<br><br>
Cheers, <br><br>
At 04:48 PM 1/26/2006, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">> You are right about my
confidence in a free market. Perhaps you could give<br>
> me a few examples where an inferior business beat out a superior
one.<br><br>
Let me use a poker analogy. If I had a trillion dollars, played
poker<br>
for a living, and won every poker game I played by going "all
in" on<br>
every hand, would I be the best poker player that ever lived? Hint:<br>
no, I would not.<br><br>
This is Wal*Mart's business model: saturate the market, make<br>
monopsonic agreements with suppliers, and run as thin a margin as<br>
possible in new stores until all the other business goes under. Is<br>
this a good business strategy? Yes. Does it contribute to market<br>
efficiency -- which is generally how a "superior business"
is<br>
understood to work? No. It does not.<br><br>
-- ACS<br><br>
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