by Anita Chan (Editor)
Walmart and Made in China are practically synonymous; Walmart imports some 70 percent of its merchandise from China. Walmart is now also rapidly becoming a major retail presence there, with close to two hundred Walmarts in more than a hundred Chinese cities. What happens when the world's biggest retailer and the world's biggest country do business with each other? In this book, a group of thirteen experts from several disciplines examine the symbiotic but strained relationship between these giants. The book shows how Walmart began cutting costs by bypassing its American suppliers and sourcing directly from Asia and how Walmart's sheer size has trumped all other multinationals in squeezing procurement prices and, as a by-product, driving down Chinese workers' wages.
China is also an inviting frontier for Walmart's global superstore expansion. As China's middle class grows, the chain's Western image and affordable goods have become popular. Walmart's Arkansas headquarters exports to the Chinese stores a unique corporate culture and management ideology, which oddly enough are reminiscent of Mao-era Chinese techniques for promoting loyalty. Three chapters separately detail the lives of a Walmart store manager, a lower-level store supervisor, and a cashier. Another chapter focuses on employees' wages, voluntary overtime, and the stores' strict labor discipline. In 2006, the official Chinese trade union targeted Walmart, which is antilabor in its home country, and succeeded in setting up union branches in all the stores. Walmart in China reveals the surprising outcome.
Contributors: Diana Beaumont, coeditor of China Labor News Translations; Anita Chan, University of Technology, Sydney; David J. Davies, Hamline University; Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California, Santa Barbara; Scott E. Myers, Monterey Institute of International Studies; Eileen Otis, University of Oregon; Pun Ngai, Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Katie Quan, University of California, Berkeley; Taylor Seeman, Hamline University; Kaxton Siu, Australian National University; Jonathan Unger, Australian National University; Xue Hong, East China Normal University; Yu Xiaomin, Beijing Normal University
Format: Paperback
Pages: 304
Publisher: ILR Press
Published: 13 Oct 2011
ISBN 10: 080147731X
ISBN 13: 9780801477317
The book's contributors used cloak-and-dagger fieldwork skills to provide a sharp picture of labor conditions at Walmart's suppliers and in its Chinese stores. They show that the company's Ethical Standards Program has done little to prevent sweatshop-like abuses among its suppliers. On the other hand, its store employees have taken easily to the corporate culture, whose Christian- and rural-inflected ethos meshes with Chinese traditions of moral exhortation, mutual surveillance, and the pursuit of personal ambition through collective service. -Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs (May/June 2012)
The authors demonstrate how the sheer scale of Walmart intimidates suppliers into accepting tight lead times, leading to illegally long working hours, an increase in outsourcing, and an atmosphere of insecurity and powerlessness at almost all levels in the supply chain. . . . Chan and her fellow contributors provide labour activists with considerable food for thought, and-who knows-maybe even a few sleepless nights for some of the most committed antitrade union executives on the planet. -Tim Pringle, British Journal of Industrial Relations (March 2013)
Anita Chan's newly edited book, Walmart in China, is one of the best academic works on Chinese labor in recent years....As one of the finest scholarly works generated from international cooperation, this book opens at least two important areas for further exploration. First, labor relations in Walmart stores are worth further ethnographic exploration. Second, it would be interesting to study the evolving role of trade unions since the CCP-led state has emphasized trade union reform and wage bargaining from 2010. -Chris, King-Chi Chan,The China Journal(July 2013)
The book provides a multidimensional analysis of Walmartization in China.... The essays show some optimism for the future of Walmart's labour movement, with critical suggestions provided for key parties. -Xuebing Cao, Work, Employment & Society (2013)
This is a skillfully crafted account of the phenomenon known as the Walmartizationof China. All the chapters are nicely woven together in a cohesive whole, arare feat and noteworthy achievement. It is informative, insightful, and so verytimely. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to understand theglobal supply chain and how the growing dominance of retailing over manufacturingis shaping the world we live in. It will appeal to a wide audience, ranging fromacademics, managers, and businesspeople to anyone that has ever come intocontact with Walmart. -Maria N. DaCosta, China Review International (2012)
The secrets of Walmart's success lie in Bentonville, but also in Guangdong. In this groundbreaking book, Anita Chan and others pull back the curtain on the Chinese side of the world-shaping retail model and spotlight its huge implications for the U.S. economy. -Chris Tilly, UCLA
FREE UK DELIVERY 
Global shipping from £2.99
FREE UK DELIVERY
30 Day Refund Guarantee
