Month: April 2007

X+Y does NOT equal Z.  Students enter high school thinking X of the world. In college they should better be exposed to Y because by the time they graduate, the real world will be Z. And there is nothing worse than having a student enter the competitive global world two steps behind.

Charles Fishman’s The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works–and How It’s Transforming the American Economy is simply a must read for every parent, student, faculty member and career counselor in America.

Fishman has done a great job of getting a lot of success stories and failures. So how does this lesson hit home? In Milwaukee the role of Master Lock could not have been more eye-opening. Its a great example of Globalization hitting any city in our country, and the company, city and its employees not ready to deal with the impact of Walmart’s demands. Master Lock was well known for making a good, solid product that sold well for over 75 years.

But by the early 1990s Master Lock was dismantled by Globalization and Walmart. And after Master Lock opened factories in Mexico and China to meet the demands of promising/competing with/against Walmart, the company’s Milwaukee workers lost their jobs. Fishman points out Master Lock employees in Milwaukee who shopped at Walmart inevitably shopped (outsourced) their own jobs out to Mexico and China. Master Lock is just one of many companies in Fishman’s book that showed how eager the likes of Levi Strauss, Vlasic Pickles and Huffy Bicycles were willing to throw themselves at the Walmart bus. As a result of poor business planning they were simply run over by that bus too. All filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Does it really come as any surprise today on the global stage, little mom and pop companies also are shutting down. One former owner continues to shop at Walmart after their company was forced to close its doors basically over a nickle in pricing with Walmart. We know its the biggest corporation in the country, (its the largest employer in the state of Wisconsin) yet produces nothing at all. So just how big is the effect of Walmart? As of Fall 2005:

3,811 Walmart stores in the US (1 store for every 78,000 Americans)
53% of the US population live with 5 miles of a Walmart
90% of the US population live within 15 miles of a Walmart
97% of the US population live with 25 miles of a Walmart
16% of national grocery market is at Walmart

If you think about over saturation in the United States, well….California has only 191 stores. The impact of Walmart is huge important for education. The opening chapter relating to package design is a must read for every designer. Walmart’s demands to reduce packing has changed an industry. And if you want your client’s products to sell at Walmart, they better meet the Walmart’s rules, or else your client will hire another designer to make them fit. Period.

And I’m afraid while many will oppose the growth of Walmart in America, their focus is furthering new growth in China, India and Russia. Just as “democracy” has reached all 3 billion of them.