1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910781841203321

Titolo

Walmart in China [[electronic resource] /] / edited by Anita Chan

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca, : ILR Press, 2011

ISBN

0-8014-6268-1

0-8014-6267-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (300 p.)

Altri autori (Persone)

ChanAnita

Disciplina

381/.1490951

Soggetti

Discount houses (Retail trade) - China

Discount houses (Retail trade) - United States

Business enterprises, Foreign - China

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Walmart's long march to China : how a mid-American retailer came to stake its future on the Chinese economy / Nelson Lichtenstein -- Outsourcing in China : Walmart and Chinese manufacturers / Xue Hong -- Walmartization, corporate social responsibility, and the labor standards of toy factories in South China / Yuu Xiaomin and Pun Ngai -- Made in China : work and wages in Walmart supplier factories / Anita Chan and Kaxton Siu -- Corporate cadres : management and corporate culture at Walmart China / David J. Davies -- A store manager's success story / David J. Davies and Taylor Seeman -- Practicing cheer : the diary of a low-level supervisor at a Walmart China store / Scott E. Myers and Anita Chan ; translation by Scott E. Myers -- Working in Walmart, Kunming : technology, outsourcing, and retail globalization / Eileen M. Otis -- Unionizing Chinese Walmart stores / Anita Chan -- Did unionization make a difference? : work conditions and trade union activities at Chinese Walmart stores / Jonathan Unger, Diana Beaumont, and Anita Chan -- Workers and communities versus Walmart : a comparison of organized resistance in the United States and China / Katie Quan.

Sommario/riassunto

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