The People’s Republic of Walmart: How the World’s Biggest Corporations are Laying the Foundation for Socialism in The Majority Report Podcast Goodreads Group

Jun 14, 2019 Rob Smith rated it liked it

Anyone who's worked for a period of time in a big box retail store: Old Navy, Walmart, Kohl's, etc., already knows firsthand the underlying thesis of this book. These massive corporations are slow to move, slow to change, and everything comes down to the absolute fiscal bottom line.

This book is a weak four strong three. I bought it in tandem with Capital City (from the same line of Verso/Jacobin books) and for me, it's tough to resist comparing them. Broadly speaking, they both sit on well-tread Anyone who's worked for a period of time in a big box retail store: Old Navy, Walmart, Kohl's, etc., already knows firsthand the underlying thesis of this book. These massive corporations are slow to move, slow to change, and everything comes down to the absolute fiscal bottom line.

This book is a weak four strong three. I bought it in tandem with Capital City (from the same line of Verso/Jacobin books) and for me, it's tough to resist comparing them. Broadly speaking, they both sit on well-treaded ground. Capital City about NYC and gentrification, and this one is on Big Data and Big Corporations.

But while Capital City simply restated a lot of the issues surrounding real estate in the most written about city on the planet, People's Republic of Walmart looks Big Data and how giant profitable companies use them to plan. It goes out of it's way to repudiate the idea of centralized planning, and along the way shows how Amazon, Walmart, and others used centralized planning to effectively achieve their ends.

These books are meant to be introductions, but I've read a fair few books on big data, and I have some experiance working in retail. Big box stores are frequently hampered by whatever corporate wants, and have you rely on outmoded equipment, practices that are completely untethered from the reality of running a store day to day. They also like employing a thousand mini-tyrants who are just juking stats as hard as they can to get to the next bonus or the next step up. It is to me, like the media stereotypes of late 20th century Soviet Union.

But instead of just being about how Amazon is tracking you or how Walmart keeps it's prices down it's how about the absolute incredible amount of planning that goes into setting up and maintaining these supply chains. It's about optimizing Amazon's warehouses, shortening the time from warehose to delivery. Everyone loves Amazon Prime, but none of us really think about the pure insane logistics that go into providing that service, not just for us but for literally millions of others.

It's a good book, full of very interesting information I'd like to read again. Couple of complaints. First there's little in the way of citations. This is pretty much how the entire line of Verso/Jacobin intro books are. These authors I've never heard of before, and they're bios on the back flap don't instill me with a lot of faith. They're discussing politics, economics, history, much of it without citations. They name some books I'm familiar with in the text, but as someone who was a history major in college, any and all citations help everyone, not just academics.

There's also a lot of "too online" jokes in the first few chapters. I'm on Twitter terminally, but to someone who picks this up from the library on a lark, probably won't get or care about these jibes. I understand the point: it's to make left-leaning books fun. On the side of the political spectrum where having a personality can be considered reactionary, this is actually important.

This book could be tighter, I dislike the introduction, the conclusion and the tiny chapter on the Anthropocene. The meat of the book on Amazon, Walmart, the NHS and the Soviet Union is good. I like how it's arranged around the theme of central planning and isn't explicitly chronological or boring analytic. It's worth picking up to compliment any big data big box company book you've been reading. ...more

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Apr 25, 2021 Grant rated it really liked it

Although this title is a little click bait the guts are worth the time. Much more level in it's analysis and critiques of economics than most. ...more

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