[Solon]

People can and do argue both sides of this issue.

I read a pretty interesting book last year - The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman (Penguin, 2006) that tackles some of them.

[Someday, I promise to have an original thought instead of just listing someone else's book. But at least I'm still reading.]

Fishman makes no secret about his anti-Wal-mart agenda, but he does a decent job of giving their side of the story where Wal-Mart actually agreed to reveal information, and he admirably, but begrudgingly includes some of their counter-arguments towards the end. He is especially impressed with Wal-Mart's innovative and creative approaches to efficiency.

What impressed me most about Fishman's book was some of the statistics. For instance, Americans spend $36 million an hour, 24 hours a day at Wal-Mart (according to the back cover). 93% of Americans shop there at least once a year, and a Super-Center has about 120,000 items for sale.