The overwhelming impact of the world's largest company，due to its relentless pursuit of low prices，Wal-Mart is not only the world's largest company; it is also the largest company in the history of the world.Is the company a good thing or a bad thing? On that, market guru Warren Buffett estimates that the company's low prices save American consumers $10 billion a year. Though 70 per cent of Americans now live within a great drive of a Wal-Mart store, we have not even begun to understand the true power of the company and the many ways it is shaping American life. We know about the lawsuits and the labour protests, but what we don't know is how profoundly the"Wal-Mart effect" is shaping our lives. Fast Company senior editor Fishman, whose revelatory cover story on Wal-Mart generated the strongest reader responsein the history of the magazine, takes us on an unprecedented behind-the-scenes investigative expedition deep inside the many worlds of Wal-Mart.

0NE Who Knew Shopping Was So Important?

TWO Sam Walton's Ten-Pound Bass

THREE Makin Bacon, a Wal-Mart Fairy Tale

FOUR The Squeeze

FIVE The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart

SIX What Do We Actually Know About Wal-Mart?

SEVEN Salmon, Shirts, and the Meaning of Low Prices

EIGHT The Power of Pennies

NINE Wal-Mart and the Decent Society

EVILOCUE Peoria, September 2005

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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