The history of distribution is enriched by an analysis of the American company Wal-Mart. The interest of such a publication is more global as the distributor, by the economic, social and political importance it has taken, determines the standards of a new stage of world capitalism.
In 2006, the American historian Nelson Lichtenstein published a collective work entitled Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-STURY CAPITALISM (The New Press, New York). Two contributions are today accessible in French in the collection of translations of the independent publishing house, the ordinary meadows. A first text, “ Wal-Mart: a model for capitalism of XXIe century Written by Lichtenstein, traces the development of the American distribution giant and identifies the factors of its success. A second text by the American historian Susan Strasser incorporates the Wal-Mart case in the development of mass distribution since the end of the XIXe century (“ From Woolworth to Wal-Mart: mass commodification and the adventure of consumer culture »). We will focus here on the first text.
The model company
To be interested in Wal-Mart is initially returning to listing a series of striking indicators. Founded in 1962 in the South Rural of the United States (Arkansas), Wal-Mart is today the largest commercial company in the world: its turnover reaches $ 300 billion per year, it has opened more than 6000 supermarkets worldwide, including 80 % in the American territory, it has 1.9 million employees and it is the largest private employer in Mexico, Canada and the United States. Its founder, Sam Walton (1918-1992), is the richest man in America in 1985 and his heirs are today twice as wealthy as the family of Bill Gates. The weight taken by the distributor in less than fifty years gives it a rare political and economic influence. The establishment of supermarkets during the post-war period helps to reconfigure the agglomeration plan, the real minimum wage and the conditions of employment in the world of services are more or less set by the practices of the Wal-Mart employer, and its place on the market allows it to define the contours of popular consumption and culture. Finally, imports of manufacturing products from China and ten other countries transform relations with its suppliers into real diplomatic relationships. Each year, 230,000 containers cross the Pacific Ocean.
For world capitalism, Wal-Mart is then “ The model company “, Defining, according to Lichtenstein,” The standards of a new stage of world capitalism ». She takes the place of General Motors who, in the middle of XXe century, embodied bureaucratic management, mass production and social and political emancipation of a workers’ workforce. More recently, other companies such as IBM or Microsoft had acquired this status “ worldwoman »Given the cultural and global impact of their production.
Technological innovations and reduction in labor cost
What was Wal-Mart’s recipe ? For the historian, the strategy of leader Distribution is based on the firm’s investment in technological and logistical innovations at the service of a centralized organization. Breaking with the social regulation system implemented by the New Deal, operation is based on the inexorable reduction in work costs and on the foundation of a specific business identity. Without returning in detail to the stages of commercial development of the hypermarket chain, we can resume the two axes of the analysis: investment in new technologies associated with a particular employment policy, on the one hand ; and, on the other hand, corporate identity and culture.
As early as 1988, the distributor had the largest private satellite communication network in the United States. This system allows it to exercise very strong control from its head office located in Bentonville in Arkansas. All the instructions in terms of management or exhibition of articles in stores are sent from headquarters to points of sale, and only the headquarters decides to allocate the ranges of products and orders. An example illustrates this extreme centralization. After complaints of cashiers who had been refused break times by their manager, the Bentonville executives decided to automatically close the funds at the prescribed intervals. Another significant example, the thermostat of heating or air conditioning of each store is activated from the head office. The centralized organization of the firm relies on control of tense flow orders. Added to the considerable negotiation power which the brand benefits, this system puts additional pressure on suppliers, and in particular on its 3000 Chinese producers. Investments in new logistics systems are associated with the promotion of a particular employment policy linked to origins, to local history. “” Neither the New Deal nor the civil rights revolution had really arrived to the northwest of Arkansas “, Specifies Lichtenstein (p. 36). The Empire was formed on a rural, poor, white and non-syndicated territory. The agricultural revolution depopulating the farms and road construction of the 1950s, condemning small traders to the ill-situated location, contributed to the existence of a first workforce available for Sam Walton. Bypassing the regulations on the minimum wage and overtime, the employer launches a profit -sharing program at the same time. In reality, given the low wages and the fort turnoverthere are few employees, who, after two years of seniority, can benefit from such a program. In Reaganian America of the 1980s, Wal-Mart multiplies its points of sale while reducing wages: “ Real wages paid by Wal-Mart declined, after 1970, anticipating the decline of 35 % in real value of the minimum wage in the following three decades (P. 38). A final favorable condition for the distributor lies in the adoption of free trade agreements in the 1990s which provided for the entry of China into the World Trade Organization (2001). The doors of Asian production workshops and its cheap labor opened then to the American giant.
A conservative corporate culture
The ideological culture of Wal-Mart presents certain aspects of a private capitalism already implemented by other companies before the First World War. The family, the community, Christian egalitarianism (Protestant) are the principles on which the identity of the company is based. Frequent contacts between employees (“ Associates ) And executives within stores are an illustration of this false egalitarianism. On the political side, the distributor is one of the most committed companies in the republican cause. Almost all of his donations for the votes of 2000 and 2004 were paid to candidate George Bush. While maintaining the image of a small popular business, Wal-Mart has managed to develop its business model by multiplying its points of sale on the territory. The boom has not transformed the ideological culture of the brand. Lichtenstien underlines the major role played in this maintenance by the type of recruitment carried out. Dispossessed of tasks of responsibility and unpaid, the management stations hardly attract the students of Business Schools. The Wal-Mart solution has consisted in recruiting young managers from southern denominational universities and second-class universities. Launched by the chain of hypermarkets, a network responsible for recruiting trainee executives was gradually constituted within small universities (presence on 700 campuses Students in Free Enterprise). “” Wal-Mart wanted second-class students, executives completely identifying their business, young people who were the first in their family to follow higher education. She wanted young men, and some women, who could fully commit to ethos and corporate culture (P. 46-47).
The breakthrough of the American giant outside the United States is not always synonymous with success. Its organizational model largely depends on the strength or weakness of labor law in the country concerned. Also, the redemption of the English distributor ASDA in 1999 is a good operation insofar as Wal-Mart meets a flexible labor market and precarious by thatchurism of the 1980s. On the side of Germany, Wal-Mart wipes significant losses. Political reasons (regulations on urban zoning and opening hours) and cultural factors (“ The Germans do not appear as enchanted by consumerism as the English ) Are highlighted by the author to justify this failure.
Reform the Wal-Mart model ?
The text ends with a stimulating passage with some tracks aimed at “ Reform the Wal-Mart model ». The essential issue, according to the author, is not for consumers to put Wal-Mart in competition with other distributors. For the sake of “ revitalize the ethos of social democracy in the world of work and in the life of American political ideas “, It is rather a question of multiplying the counterpowers against the distributor (angry voters, hostile government officials, collective recourse in justice). The multiplication of legal problems which Wal-Mart must currently face many subjects (exploitation of immigrants, violation of child labor laws, cumulative discrimination: against women and in terms of paying wages) may bring the employer to reconsider his employment policy. In addition, university research has alerted elected officials and unions on distributor’s practices in terms of salary and on public aid from which it indirectly benefits. Indeed, it is in the federal states that the chain of hypermarkets delegates social protection normally associated with the employment contract. In a larger proportion than other employees, those of Wal-Mart use social assistance programs and public health. In other words, the conditions of existence of employees are largely based, not on income from professional activity, but on public aid in food, medical care and housing allowances. The studies carried out, for example, indicate that the use of public assistance by the staff of the American giant in California cost taxpayers $ 86 million each year. In other states, it was observed that the children of employees were by far those who used the most (Peach-Care, a medical assistance plan set up for poor children.
It is therefore to the generalized impoverishment of employees and their families that the largest private employer of three major countries on the American continent participates in the practice of low wages, part -time and the turnover. Only popular pressure exerted on the firm can influence the transformations of employment policy and the organization model of Wal-Mart. The current challenge is then to concentrate criticism in a large popular coalition. The Walmartwatch.com information site bringing together the accounts of employees victims of sexual, salary and ethnic discrimination constitutes an index of the dynamism of the critical movement. Collective action requires the support of the Obama administration in theEmployee Free Choice Act whose aim is to promote the union training of employees and the fight against low wages and illegal work.