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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>From today’s (January 26, 2006) Spokesman Review with
a special thanks to Kathleen Parker of the <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Orlando</st1:place></st1:City> Sentinel -<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Even if you never set foot inside their store, you're paying
the price of their market domination, Kathleen Parker says.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Wal-Mart changes how we think <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Kathleen Parker <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Orlando</span></font></st1:place></st1:City><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> Sentinel<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>January 26, 2006<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>If you love buying cheap salmon from Wal-Mart, you might not
after reading Charles Fishman's new book, "The Wal-Mart Effect."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Few issues in American life, except perhaps the war in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>, are as
polarizing these days as how Wal-Mart sits in our landscape, our economy and
our consciousness. Fishman, a friend and former editor – but more
important, the kind of reporter for whom no detail or decimal is too small to
fascinate – tells the Wal-Mart story in such intricate detail that you'll
never see your local store the same way again.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Wal-Mart isn't just a company. It's a global market force
– a nation unto itself.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Ponder this: Americans spend $35 million every hour at
Wal-Mart, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Wal-Mart is so huge and so
powerful, you'll wonder how you failed to notice that the company affects not
just how we shop, but how we think and live – even if we never set foot
in a Wal-Mart store.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Not everyone has missed the Wal-Mart effect, of course. The
company has plenty of critics, but Fishman puts in perspective not just the
power of Wal-Mart, but the good that the mega-corporation does and could do.
Recently, for instance, Wal-Mart announced energy- and fuel-saving plans for
its stores and trucks that, if successful, could serve as a model for the
nation. No one will cheer louder than Fishman if that happens. Such is the kind
of global good Wal-Mart can and should do, he says.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>On the home front, Fishman argues that critics are wrong
when they say that Wal-Mart puts little people out of business. We (consumers)
put little people out of business, he says. We vote with our wallets, and we're
the ones who choose Wal-Mart over local stores. Wal-Mart, in that sense, is the
ultimate model of democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Consumers also have made possible the company's phenomenal
growth. In 1990, Wal-Mart had just nine supercenters in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
By 2000, there were 888. Wal-Mart is the No. 1 grocery retailer in the world.
Between 1990 and 2000, 31 supermarket chains sought bankruptcy protection,
including 27 that cited Wal-Mart as a factor.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Ah well, we say, so it goes in love, war and business.
Competition is the engine that drives a capitalist society. But Fishman argues
that Wal-Mart's power and scale hurt capitalism by strangling competition.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"It's not free-market capitalism," he says.
"Wal-Mart is running the market. Choice is an illusion."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Wal-Mart not only changes the way we buy, but the way we
think, Fishman says. If Wal-Mart charges $5 per pound for salmon, then shoppers
wonder why a restaurant charges $15. We expect salmon to cost only $5. Or a
microwave to cost only $39. The Wal-Mart effect first changes our expectations,
then changes the quality of merchandise, which is cheap, because it isn't
always well- or ethically made.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Take salmon. Wal-Mart, which buys all its salmon from <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Chile</st1:place></st1:country-region>, sells
more than anyone else in the country and undersells all other retailers by at
least $2 per pound. That's a lot of market power, which prompts Fishman to ask:
"Does it matter that salmon for $4.84 a pound leaves a layer of toxic
sludge on the ocean bottoms of the Pacific fjords of southern <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Chile</st1:place></st1:country-region>?"<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Salmon in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Chile</st1:place></st1:country-region>
are raised in packed underwater pens – as many as 1 million per farm
– and fed prophylactic antibiotics to prevent disease. Here's a fact
you'd rather not know: A million salmon produce the same amount of waste as
65,000 people. Combine that waste with unconsumed food and antibiotic residue,
and you've got a toxic seabed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Does it matter?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Only if consumers say it does, says Fishman. Wal-Mart
listens to "voters." If shoppers say they won't buy salmon until
Wal-Mart insists on higher standards from suppliers, then Wal-Mart will make
those demands. Incentive is the engine that drives the company that promises
low prices – "always."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Fishman also raises questions about worker wages, health
insurance and working conditions in other countries where Wal-Mart suppliers
treat human workers little better than <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Chile</st1:place></st1:country-region> treats fish.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>In the final analysis, he asserts that the scale of Wal-Mart
makes it a different species of animal than we've ever known before and that,
therefore, horse-and-buggy business rules no longer apply. He insists that
transparency, which corporations (and especially Wal-Mart) resist, is key not
only to preserving the capitalist system we value, but to ensuring fair and
humane business practices here and abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Ultimately, Fishman's book posits a question of values: What
kind of country are we going to be?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>It is a worthy question that consumers will have to answer.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Take care, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Moscow</st1:place></st1:City>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Tom Hansen<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Moscow</span></font></st1:City><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>, <st1:State
w:st="on">Idaho</st1:State></span></font></st1:place><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>****************************************************************************</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"A bad cause will ever be supported by bad means and
bad men."</span></font><font size=2><span style='font-size:10.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>- Thomas Paine (English Writer, 1737-1809)</span></font><font
size=2><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>****************************************************************************</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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