Book Description

Praise for America’s Corner Store

"Who would have thought the story of a drugstore chain could encompass so much vital and fascinating American history? With superb storytelling skills, John Bacon gives us a vivid and insightful chronicle of matters both large and small, from the birth of the milkshake to the rise of America’s consumer culture. America’s Corner Store is a genuine treat."
–James Tobin
the National Book Critics’ Circle—Award winner, and author of To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight

"Run the business with your head. Lead the family with your heart. Walgreens’ history is filled with good values, strong principles, and immense courage. A family business classic."
–Howard "Howdy" S. Holmes
President and CEO, "Jiffy"® Mixes

"John Bacon has crafted a thorough, insightful, readable, and fascinating account of the development of Walgreens: one of the world’s most compelling examples of the creation of shareholder value in conjunction with good corporate governance... all in a company run in a highly unique fashion as a ‘family’ business. As the store that everyone knows, Walgreens has become the envy of corporate America and the darling of shareholders, consistently producing investor returns that place it at the very top among its peers. This book will be required reading in my private equity class at Michigan Business School."
–Professor David Brophy
Director, Center for Venture Capital and Private Equity Finance, University of Michigan Business School ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Great book on a surprisingly abosrbing subject!
John Bacon's AMERICA'S CORNER STORE is a world-class story about a world-class business and the businessmen and women behind it. It is one of those histories that goes well beyond the subject at hand to paint a picture across a huge canvas of American history and does so with great attention to detail and the ability to bring its characters and settings to life. It reminded me in some ways of SEABISCUIT---both are stories about subjects that wouldn't normally grab my attention. But because of the writer's skill, this book is also a must-read---if for nothing more than the wonderfull little facts you learn along the way: that the milk shake was invented at Walgreen's; that the Walgreen chain understood that excellent customer service begins with excellent employee-relations decades BEFORE the age of CRM! Bacon is the author of a terrific history of University of Michigan hockey program, BLUE ICE, and this is a great follow up to that book. Read them and see if you don't agree!

A Wonderful History of a Great Business
The impact that a corner drug store can have on America is simply astonishing. Anyone interested in the last hundred years of American history will love the book. There are also plenty of valuable business lessons to be found within the pages. A great read, John Bacon does a great job of bringing to life one of the most storied retail enterprises in the history of business. ... Read more

Book Description

In Amazon.com Jeff Bezos built something the world had never seen. He created the most recognized brand name on the Internet, became for a time one of the richest men in the world, and was crowned "the king of cyber-commerce."

Yet for all the media exposure, the inside story of Amazon.com has never really been told. In this revealing, unauthorized account, Robert Spector, journalist and best-selling author, gives us this up-to-date, fast-paced, behind-the-scenes story of the company's creation and rise, its tumultuous present, and its uncertain future.

Reviews (51)

A good read for aspiring [online] start-ups!
This book helps me understand why Jeff Bezos left a 7-digit annual income to set up a new online bookstore. I also learn the advantage of his initial business plan (no warehouse unlike mortar-bricks, thus no inventory cost) and how he has to tweak it almost every 6 months.

If you are planning to set up business online, whether small or big, this is an encouraging book to read. Of course it tells you a lot of the good things about amazon.com and Jeff Bezos, but that is what the author wants us to gain: learning from amazon.com.

I don't think this book is biased. If Jeff Bezos were involved in this book, I'm sure he'll tell all the positive about amazon.com, since he's in the PR spotlight too. The author also explains amazon.com blunders, and how it became a bit more "arrogant" than its young years.

Overall, a must read if you are looking for an inspiration to set up an online business!

Journalistic Material for Future Histories of Amazon.com
When I was trained as a historian, I came to realize that it is very important that contemporaries of an important events interview as many people as often as possible while the events unfold. These perspectives provide the key touchstones for the ultimate histories of the events. Usually such interviews are done by journalists. And that is what Robert Spector has done with the book, Amazon.com. I commend him for fulfilling that important role.

Those who want to understand what Amazon.com's brief history means for the New Economy, new business models, best practices in leadership and management, and its own future will have to look elsewhere. The book has almost no analysis of the material included here. Think of this book as though it were a series of magazine articles written over the last few years about Amazon.com and Jeff Bezos.

Mr. Spector makes an attempt to build a theme around the concept of Get Big Fast, first articulated in print by Robert Reid in the 1997 book, Architects of the Web. Amazon.com obviously pays attention to this idea based on the report on page 97 that the company handed out T-shirts with Get Big Fast written on them at its first employee picnic in 1996. But he fails to develop all of the dimensions of the point. How does this concept affect the stakeholders in Amazon.com (customers, users, partners, employees, suppliers, shareholders, and the communities the company serves)? How can the concept be adjusted to reflect changes in the company's external environment? How should a new company apply the concept? There is an important debate today about whether Amazon.com's current direction will or will not pay off for customers, employees, or shareholders. That debate is largely ignored in the book. That's an important omission that greatly limits the book's value.

I do recommend reading the book. It did add details to my knowledge about Amazon.com which I am sure will be valuable to me in the future as an author, reviewer, associate, and customer of Amazon.com.

This book is a good example of one form of the communications stall: failing to communicate what people are most interested in causes missed opportunities to make progress at a rapid rate.

Keep asking your questions about Amazon.com, and someone will eventually answer them. Perhaps it will be Amazon.com itself. That would be welcome.

The Company, Not the River
The most telling detail on Amazon in this book was on page 132: When publishers and authors asked Bezos why Amazon.com would publish negative reviews, he (said) Amazon.com "was taking a different approach, of trying to sell all books...the good, the bad, and the ugly...doing that, you actually have an obligation...to let truth loose.'"

Whichever publishers and authors those were, they epitomize the sort of thinking that a new business model sweeps away. When someone responds negatively to their product they seek to silence that person. Failing that, they repackage the same product. If that doesn't work, they rename the product. Then they present the product in a different size. Anything, abosolutely anything, but listen to the customer who gripes.

I don't think Spector grasps the depth of this change. When Amazon gives a forum to ordinary people to speak where previously only "professionals" could, that's as profound a shift as from monarchy to democracy. Giving equal space on the electronic bookshelf to an arcane book on geology and a convenience store bestseller is as revolutionary as Martin Luther's 95 theses getting equal billing with the pronouncements of the pope. In terms of sales, if I can buy what I want instead of just what the "professionals" want me to buy, I'm going to buy more.

Most of the other factors in Amazon's success have been done before: hiring smart people, working long hours, providing great customer service...but no other retailer ever had a selection larger than the Library of Congress. And no other retailer ever gave customers around the globe a public forum for feedback. I would have liked to have seen more on this unique aspect of Amazon in GET BIG FAST, and less of the sort of business school platitudes that make up the "Takeaways" sections at the end of each chapter.

Amazon on Amazon
I love the book. Though not bought at amazon. :< The story of how a not known internet company to a successful and real big one. How the company relied on open source and slowly as it get bigger used more commercial software. It describe how a man vision can come true by believing. Truly amazing book, I like one part of the book which says 'How do Amazon review this book for themselve?'. It's a good read

A recitation of history, with no analysis
While many who are reading this review are probably interested in the website story, this book is probably not the one to read. The author did not have access to Jeff Bezos and many other key players when writing this book, and the lack of first hand information shows.

It reads like a detailed, outsiders view of the history of the company. This happened, then that happened, then the site did this other thing. There is very little discussion of *why* these events and actions were important. And most importantly, very little context as to how the site changed the face of internet commerce.

This book is certainly not the definitive work on [site], which is still to be written. A better (and funnier) look at the internals of Amazon can be found in "21 Dog years - Doing time at Amazon.com". ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A great resource!
This book met a lot of my expectations by being very portable, very well-illustrated, and full of good descriptions of the merchandise one is likely to find in London and Paris flea markets. "Antiquing" is a very visual experience for me, and having plenty of photographs to whet my appetite for the various shops was a real plus. The book was useful too in helping me plot which days to attend which markets. Even if the merchandise changes and vendors sometimes move, there is enough general information that stays constant for this to be a useful guide for several years. The two-for-one format--London and Paris in one book--is also fun. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because the maps could have been better. Otherwise, a great resource!

Adventurous Shopper's Delight!
Antique and Flea Markets of London and Paris is a book serious shoppers will love. While spending several summer months in London, I have visited a number of the markets described. The authors are right on target, and the photos are enjoyable. I learned about many features I've missed, and read about several new places to try on the next trip. The book realizes that shoppers are people, not machines, and tells a little about the market's surrounding area, especially places to stop for a snack and a rest.

I'm not as familiar with Paris, but if the Paris section is even close to being as accurate and useful as the London section, it will save shopping time and hassle across the channel, as it will in London.

This is not "the" book for your trip if you need a complete guide book. If you like antiques and markets, however, you will love this book. ... Read more

Book Description

After a decade of treating the topic of e-commerce with awe and confusion, we can now step back and analyze the subject more objectively. From launching an electronic storefront to managing complex supply chain operations, most companies have ventured into e-commerce; but even the best-run bricks-and-mortar enterprises have run into snags in the virtual world. Even mighty Wal-Mart, for example, took its website through several redesigns and sales strategies, and Borders eventually outsourced its Internet sales activites to rival, Amazon. Today, however, the key question is not whether your firm should invest in e-commerce, but how you can do so most profitably. In Implementing E-Commerce Strategies, Marc Epstein goes beyond the hype to focus on the practical angles of designing, executing, and successfully managing an e-commerce strategy that works for your company. Showcasing the experiences (both positive and negative) of 32 firms in a variety of industries, he demonstrates what works and what does not, and shows you how to integrate e-commerce into your company's strategy, build support systems throughout the organization, and measure the return on investment of your e-commerce initiatives. ... Read more

Book Description

An excellent guide to finding the best flea markets and how to determine the quality of a flea. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A wealth of basic shopping and adjustment tips
Theodore Manning's Flea Markets Of Japan: A Pocket Guide For Antique Buyers is packed from cover to cover with useful and useable information about the Japanese language and various beautiful and traditional items that can be found there. Packed with the locations of and directions to popular flea markets, simple phrases useful for negotiation, a brief glossary, and a wealth of basic shopping and adjustment tips, Flea Markets Of Japan is especially recommended for those who have never been to Japan before with a yearning for special souvenirs and mementos of their business trip or vacation excursion. ... Read more

Download Description

"Franchising can offer businesses a powerful new source of growth and improved financial performance. Now, Dr. Scott A. Shane helps businesses systematically assess the pros and cons of franchising, and offers proven best practices for building a successful system.

Unlike competitive books, From Ice Cream to the Internet focuses squarely on the strategic issues and challenges faced by franchisors. Shane answers key questions such as: What do the winners do differently? How does franchising affect your ability to compete with firms that don't? Shane then presents proven principles for every facet of franchising success: designing the system, recruiting, selecting, managing and supporting franchisees; establishing territories and pricing; managing expansion; and more.

Clear and engaging, this book brings together previously inaccessible research on a wide range of crucial issues, from establishing margins to navigating the legal and institutional challenges of franchising. It will be the definitive guide for every business leader responsible for evaluating, planning, implementing, or managing franchise relationships.

• Is franchising right for your business?
• Evaluate your industry, your competitive position, and your competencies
• Building the foundation of a successful franchising system
• Establish winning policies, support and assistance mechanisms, and more
• Pursuing growth, without the risks and pitfalls
• Define territories, price franchises, and plan expansion
• Law, internal politics, and other hassles
• Navigate the unique legal and political issues associated with franchising
• Finding and nurturing the right franchisees
• Recruit and select the franchisees most likely to succeed¿and build ""win-win"" relationships with them

For businesses seeking new paths to growth, franchising offers immense promise¿and unique risks and pitfalls. All too often, decisions about whether and how to franchise are made based on anecdotal or unrealistic information. This book brings together the field's best research, helping you to decide whether to franchise, to understand the key factors associated with long-term success, and to build systems that work for franchisor and franchisee alike.

Drawing on studies of hundreds of franchise systems in dozens of industries, Dr. Scott A. Shane identifies proven principles and techniques for the entire franchise system development process: defining products and services, planning support, establishing royalty rates and advertising programs, mapping territories, recruiting and managing franchisees, and much more." ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (6)

Good tips and insight, but not applicable to all
Read this book from the library as ongoing market research. The book hit on many good points for where to begin, following effectiveness, etc., but felt somewhat outdated in other parts - the author places a lot of emphasis on using the fax versus email/online. Also would have liked to see more about sending mail for different types of services & products.

We are implementing some of the author's ideas at Anchor Digital - we'll be using the same messages found at anchordigital.com and putting them into direct mail pieces. Hopefully they will have the same effectiveness as the ones on the website.

I recommend this book as part of research for mail-order businesses, but be sure to include other, more varied books as well.

Barry Rosenstock
Anchor Digital Inc.
anchordigital.com

Lots of Great Ideas
How to Start a Home-Based Mail-Order Business is, at its core, a how-to. But, it is not satisfied with providing the basic bones and goes on to provide excellent elaboration and detail that helps answer questions. Well-written and researched. It covers all the basics--marketing, sales, promotion, etc, without getting bogged down into details that could lead Fiumara away from her basic thrust of the book. Given how much today's world relies on the Internet, her chapter on Success in Cyberspace is especially helpful. While it has its own chapter, using the Internet to promote your business is so critical that I would recommend Guerilla PR: Wired, which covers that same subject far more in-depth.

Step-By-Step Insider Information
Most books on starting a mail order business are written by men who claim you can make $100,000 or more at home. This book is different.

How To Start a Home-Based Mail Order Business is written by a woman who gives you all the information you need to succeed in a mail order business -- but without all the bull. Georganne Fiumara takes you by the hand in the very first chapter and leads you to success, step-by-step. Thanks to the author, my home business dream has come true.

I especially appreciated the chapter called Success In Cyberspace because most successful mail order businesses now include web promotion. The author's web site, HomeWorkingMom.com, shows that she knows what she is talking about.

I took her advice and put my business online at MoneyandShopping.com and have not looked back since.

If you are looking for a straight-forward, insider's guide to mail order, this is the book to buy.

Angela Smith

Very Basic Information
I recommend this book to anybody who knows nothing about starting business in General. It gives you very basic information on Marketing, Inventory Control and Accounting, thats all. Oh yes, it also gives you some of the advantages of a home based business.

Informative Book
This was the third "how to" book I have read and this one really does help! The other books I read on this subject were terribly written and the author was just trying to sell stuff from his mail order business. Not this book! The author really explains how to get things going and she presents the information in a well written organized manner. I just finished this book and I now know where to start. Other books are just direct mailers this book really informs you. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In In Sam We Trust, investigative journalist Bob Ortega exposes the underside of Wal-Mart and defrocks Sam Walton, the founder of the retailing mammoth. Ortega chronicles Walton's rise from a backwater retailer in Arkansas to one of the richest men in the country. While Walton carefully crafted a public image as a regular guy who drove a pickup and wore a name tag at his stores, Ortega paints a different picture of a two-faced and ruthless invader of small-town America. Walton was so stingy that his chain was last among major retailers in charity donations in terms of percentage of earnings. He hurt the downtowns of many communities by building Wal-Marts on the outskirts and capturing up to 75 percent of his sales from the preexisting stores. The late billionaire was obsessed with profits and cutting costs. He pioneered temporary help--a third of Wal-Mart's employees are part-time and the average worker only earns about $7.50 an hour. Even while making a big media splash with a "Buy American" program in the 1980s, Walton quietly expanded his company's Hong Kong staff and continued to import apparel made by cheap child labor in the Third World.

But, as Ortega points out, Walton was also a retailing visionary. He saw opportunity long before others and was the first to go big with discount stores in smaller cities and towns. All the while, he stuck to his formula of offering the lowest possible prices and profiting from vast sales volumes. He invested early in computers and satellite communications for his stores. And he raced past competitors such as Sears and Kmart with an incredibly lean and fast distribution system. Ortega, who took a leave from the staff of the Wall Street Journal to write this book, pursued Walton's legacy across America to town squares such as Steamboat Springs, Colorado, which finally succumbed to Wal-Mart, and Greenfield, Massachusetts, where activists blocked the store. He interviewed hundreds of people including many former and top Wal-Mart officials. Ortega even hunts down Wal-Mart's suppliers in Central America to document the exploitation of children in clothing factories. In Sam We Trust is an important work about a man who changed the face of retailing, for better and worse. --Dan Ring ... Read more

Reviews (17)

High profits, but at what cost?
Bob Ortega's book In Sam We Trust describes how one of the world's largest retailers developed. Sam Walton, the ambitious businessman, started from small five-dime store and through his frugal ways created a 129 billion-dollar company. Sam Walton strongly believed that the only way to make high profits was to lower prices and gain profit from large volumes of goods. This book discusses the rivalries that Sam Walton encountered through his success, JC Penny, Kmart and Sears, were some of his competitors. His idea of developing stores on the edge of small towns allowed him to eliminate such competition. Also, by advancing and taking risks in investing in new technology, which was obsolete in other competitor stores, he was able to devour the market world. Furthermore, looking through Bob Ortega's eyes, it seemed as though the man didn't respect nor believe in Walton's ways of making money. Despite Ortega's feelings on that subject, he was still able to explain both aspects of Sam Walton's life, which was his company. Sam Walton wanted to devour America with his low prices, but the question continues, are the low prices worth the cost? If you are interested in opening a business or brightening your horizons of business knowledge this is the book for you. It entangles you in a different world, the inside of a dirty and profitable business.

"Jaws" of retailing; Ortega reveals gore behind the Wal.
In only 36 years, Wal-Mart grew from one store into the largest, most efficient retailer on earth. More people work directly for Sam Walton's corporate Goliath than for any other private-sector employer in North America. At least one-third of all Wal-Mart workers earn less than $17,000 per year and have no benefits; this is corporate policy. And since Sam's death in 1992, Wal-Mart's international operations are expanding rapidly in Europe, Mexico, and South America, with the officially stated intent to "Wal-Martize" the world.

"IN SAM WE TRUST" explains, in living color and for the first time, exactly what being "Wal-Martized" means, both outside and inside the company. As I followed Walton's family and business history, I encountered virtually every major name in the past 150 years of American merchandising. Readers will also discover that Sam Walton did not invent the retailing innovations he is known for, which he deftly wove into the corporate fabric of his avaricious chain of "low price" stores, but which he borrowed (or bought) from others.

Although universally known for folksy visits to his own stores (arriving in his old pickup or perhaps his quail hunting "dog car"), "Mr. Sam" made a point of always knowing what his competitors were doing. He habitually scouted individual stores of competitive chains (even on family outings and vacations), striking up conversations with sales clerks, managers, cashiers ... in order to learn what worked and what didn't, but also to meet experienced, hard-working managers he could lure away to Wal-Mart. The genius of Sam Walton was to use anything and everything (and EVERYONE) so as to slash company costs to the bone. At Wal-Mart the Almighty Buck is king and the Bottom Line motivates every move.

In chronicling how Walton shopped the competition, Bob Ortega weaves a fascinating, authoritative view of the many corporate players and the top executives of the retailing sector of our economy; we get an in-depth look at successes and failures that mark the rise and fall of some of the biggest names in corporate America. In the early 1800s, "consumers" did not exist; today, they comprise the single, most important engine driving our economy. "IN SAM WE TRUST" proves, year by year and in situation after situation, how this transformation occurred,and early in the book the reader acquires a sort of "You Are There" feeling.

Above all else, Wal-Mart is a company motivated solely by a "bottom line mentality," built upon a foundation of PR grotesquely at odds with the facts. But most disturbing of all, in Ortega's view, is that the Wal's modus operandi is rapidly becoming today's paradigm for corporate culture and success in the future. For those who intend to hang around for that future, as businessperson, consumer, or plain vanilla resident of AnyTown, USA, this book is MUST reading. Most probably, "IN SAM WE TRUST" is destined to become a textbook in business schools throughout North America.

Comprehensive
A thorough and factual history of the rise of Wal-Mart. Well written and most interesting. I read this book out of curiosity about how Wal-Mart came into being, and what factors made it grow into the giant of the industry. "In Sam We Trust" did go into the background of Sam Walton himself, without going into any special hero-hype or star-bashing, instead simply outlined the story as it happened. From this, I learned much about the organization, and my questions were well answered.

i don't understand all this anti(local store)publicity
i had to vote for at least one star, but if i could've voted for no stars at all, that would have more accurately summed up my opinion on the subject. ok, the critics say that (local store) are devouring small business and small towns, but they don't see, or want to see, the big picture. sam walton's formula for success was very simple - treat co-workers with respect and kindness, just the way we all want to be treated, and give customers what they want and then some. most (local store) employees that i know are very happy with their jobs, even if they could work somewhere with more income potential they don't want to because they are proud of what they do, and rightly so. (local store) associates take pride in doing what they do every day, serving the customers, seeing their happy faces light up when they feel honored as important, valuable human beings rather than just another transaction, another number that doesn't mean anything. anti-(local store) are spiteful that sam walton was a visionary businessman with a simple plan for making the american dream a reality and who shared that vision with everyone he encountered, from associates, customers, stockholders, and even the president of the united states when walton was presented with a presidential award. if these people want to say that (local store) is running out small business, remember what sam walton said about customers being free to choose where to shop, nobody is forced to shop at (local store), but most do because they know that when they do, they will as a rule get more out of it than shopping at any other retailer that offers the same merchandise. the unions are very unhappy because they see (local store) and the way they do business as threatening to their livelihood, though it is not an anti-union company, they've just figured out how to make unions obsolete. open communication with management and workers is possible, and a win-win situation when people just get their egoes out of the way and work as a team. the unions want workers and management to be divisive because this is just a way for them to pirate employee's salaries, creating fear is profitable for them. i don't respect the way most unions do business, if that's not obvious by now, because it seems rather unethical. (Local store) is the #1 private employer in this country for a reason, and nothing the opposition can do or say can change that. "the customer always" is more than just a catchy slogan, it's a way of life for most walmart associates. it's an attitude that carries over into other areas of life, pride in a job well done and service with a smile can apply to any facet of living. when you finally realize how bogus this (local store) bashing bandwagon truly is, maybe you'd get more out of reading mr. walton's biography, "made in america".

WAL-MART REPLACES GM AS USA'S #1 PRIVATE EMPLOYER
Bob Ortega's excellent study of America's largest private employer (728,000 workers in 1997) is truly food for thought not only about Wal-Mart as a retail organization, its leaders, and its impact on America, but also about the direction America was headed into at the close of the 20th century.

Ortega's book, IN SAM WE TRUST: The Untold Story Of Sam Walton And How Wal-Mart Is Devouring America (1998) was widely reviewed as hostile to Wal-Mart and those who support it, but one cannot help but notice an overall tone of admiration in Ortega's book at the success of Wal-Mart's well documented rapacity and avarice, and the fact that its bottom line big dollar success was only possible because it's enormous customer base have voted with their feet and their pocket books to keep it going and growing.

Author Bob Ortega is a Princeton grad later schooled at the Columbia U. Journalism School, well known along with the U. of Missouri Journalism School as the most prestigious in America. He's also a WALL STREET JOURNAL employee. For all of the pretentions IN SAM WE TRUST (1998) makes of being a true muck-raking tome, the author's WALL STREET JOURNAL mentality and morality shines through to any who examine his book closely.

When all is said and done, Ortega has written a book which admires Wal-Mart, and is likely to do that organization no harm whatever. His provided backgrounder information about the nasty and unpleasant side of Wal-Mart doesn't affect the bottom-line, to use a phrase near and dear to Wal-Mart management, and to Ortega's mentor newspaper, the WALL STREET JOURNAL.

The book reminds me of the extravagant PATTON (1969) movie which appeared in the middle of the War In Vietnam, and told the story of General George S. Patton, Jr. and his activities during World War II. The expensive movie (for which the main actor won an Academy Award) provided very critical material about Gen. Patton, and showed his failures and personal problems in some detail. But, all in all, it was a hagiography which was said to have been screened often in the Nixon White House, and which the pro-war people of the Vietnam War era loved. For all its criticism, the movie admired Patton, and was a PR piece for pushy generals, the U.S. Army, and war as a catagory of human activity.

It's doubtful that Wal-Mart bigshots at company HQ in Bentonville, Arkansas lost any sleep over this book. Wal-Mart profits were probably boosted as a result of the book. After all, it provided more publicity about Wal-Mart. As movie star Erol Flynn was supposed to have said often, "I don't care what the newspapers say about me...just make sure they spell my name right."

All this said, the book DOES reveal many interesting facts about Wal-Mart and by reflection, about America these days.

Wal-Mart's status as America's largest private employer is discussed. By 1997, Wal-Mart had long since passed General Motors Corp. to achieve this status. The kind of work offered by Wal-Mart and other "big-box" type discount and "catagory killer" chains... had REPLACED manufacturing to become the dominant new blue-collar job in the United States. This kind of job offered far lower wages, fewer benefits, and less job security than the old manufacturing type job it replaced.

Ortega says the WALL STREET JOURNAL compared GM jobs with Wal-Mart jobs in 1997 and noted that the average GM wage was $19. per hour; at Wal-Mart $7.50 per hour. With benefits included, GM compensation was worth $44. per hour; Wal-Mart's (for those who get benefits) was $10. per hour. Ortega rightfully concludes (but isn't necessarily unhappy about the fact that) Wal-Mart has become a mirror for the new American workplace where Federal employment figures showed that more than 30 percent of American workers hold only part-time or temporary jobs.

It's safe to conclude that when the new #1 employer in America offers less than 25% of income provided by the old #1 employer, Americans as a group are getting poorer.

IN SAM WE TRUST (1998) states that when a new Wal-Mart store arrives in a community, 75% of its profits are drawn from trade previously enjoyed by small, often "Ma and Pa" stores many of which cannot stand against Wal-Mart competition and soon close down. Author Orgega refers to this as "strip-mining" local commerce previously but no longer owned and operated locally, and uniquely responsive to local needs and pressures.

If Wal-Mart ever become history, and its services become unavailable in the 3000 plus locations where it now operates, the loss of the centrally controlled organization would impact the lives of many, many Americans. The re-establishment of the many small business Wal-Mart bull-dozed into oblivion is not likely to provide relief to these Americans.

All this is worth thinking about, and for that reason, Bob Ortega's book IN SAM WE TRUST: The Untold Story of Sam Walton and How Wal-Mart Is Devouring American (1998) is worth buying and re-reading often. ... Read more

Book Description

Retailing is one of the fastest-growing segments of the economy. In fact, it's estimated that nearly 70,000 retail businesses are started each year. Yet only a fraction of those businesses will survive to see their first anniversary. If you dream of starting your own retail business, this step-by-step guide helps you avoid becoming a statistic and puts you on the path to success. Learn what really works and how to avoid the most common pitfalls, as successful retailers and retail experts from across the country share their real-life experiences and insights. Topics covered include:

• The six basic kinds of retailers
• Choosing a prime location for your business
• Selecting merchandise
• Designing your store (exterior and interior)
• Hiring good sales help
• Dealing with good-to-day operations, form running the cash register to computing daily profits
• Tracking inventory
• And much more

Each chapter is divided into manageable sections on every aspect of starting and operating a retail product or service business. We've even included some brainstorming questions to ask yourself, which will stimulate creative solutions to the particular problems you may face. Retail success is within your grasp, and this book will help you reach it.

Reviews (1)

Great book!
This book is great! Easy to read, in a simple, succint format, describes all details about starting a retail business.

Planning, Getting a loan, marketing, how to layout the store, controlling inventory, hiring people, and more!

Awesome! ... Read more

Book Description

The only thing easier than buying and selling on eBay is getting lumped in with more than 125 million other eBayers. The savviest eBay users turn to eBay the Smart Way, the definitive guide to smarter eBay tactics for both buyers and sellers. Now in its fourth blockbuster edition, this priceless tool has changed with the times to cover the latest trends!

With sales of over 125,000 copies, the eBay the Smart Way series has helped countless eBayers -- from occasional buyers to full-time professional sellers -- find the best deals and maximize profits on everything from collectibles to cars to real estate.

eBay the Smart Way is the go-to resource for first-time sellers and veterans alike, with step-by-step instructions for listing products, creating attention-grabbing photos and descriptions, offering top-notch customer service, and maintaining high credibility. eBay buyers will also benefit from powerful strategies for finding the best products, bidding smarter, negotiating great deals, and more. ... Read more

Reviews (27)

Look elsewhere first
An average book. Does not contain any information that the other books don't contain. I recommend looking at other eBay books instead of this one. An overuse of white space makes this book very big.

After reading the top eBay books, below are my recommendations:
---Beginner with eBay and computers---
1. The Official eBay Bible

---eBay Seller---
1. Sell it on eBay
2. eBay Hacks

---Full-Time eBay Business (not for the casual seller)---
1. eBay Strategies
2. eBay Business the Smart Way

Ho Hum
Very basic information. This book is for the beginner just learning the ropes about eBay. If you have been using the site for some time now, then you know just as much as whats in this book.

The resources for sellers to find "wholesale" products were terrible. The sites basically sell junk or overpriced refurbs.

E-Bay the Smart Way by Sinclair
This is an excellent introductory work on the inner workings of Ebay. The author shows how to buy things from E-bay, use them and
resell them-many times at a profit. Trust is at the heart of the
E-bay system. The site is perfect for revenue raising. Payment may be made by Turbo-check, Paypal or by personal check or money order. The auctions are at agi5.ebay.com/ws2/ebay.Losses may be insured. A special escrow protects against non-delivery for
large money purchases. The E-bay system is perfect for high volume selling. The book is a worthy purchase because it explains the Ebay system and protocols, identifies advantages &
warns of pitfalls. This is a solid value for the price paid.
I've bought from E-bay and my experience is that tremendous values are there for the asking. A buyer can buy literally at .10
on the dollar. Ebay is perfect for the new college student seeking to buy furnishings and books at deep discounts.

Great choice for those that desire to go into business
I bought the second edition of this book sometime ago to use as a reference for starting a business on Ebay.I found the book to be very easy to use and full of useful tips and information.I bought this book when I wanted a updated reference for my ebay business.This book, like the prior edition is easy to use and will help you no matter if you are a Ebay newbie or seasoned pro.Yes there is a lot of general busness information but most likely you are looking at starting a business on Ebay so you need a convenient source for both issues.I am very pleased with this book and highly recommend it.

For any who would do more than dabble on the auction site
From choosing desktop computers and their many options to assessing business software and web tools, Ramon Ray's Technology Solutions For Growing Businesses provides the small business owner with valuable strategies for understanding technology options and needs. This goes far beyond recommending specific brands: it covers the basics of linking business goals to equipment assessment, and includes invaluable information on tech support and effective training for technology use. Many are selling on Ebay's auction site, but Joseph T. Sinclair's updated third edition is the unauthorized guide which provides newly expanded coverage of its auctions and how to profit from them. From coverage of real estate, international sales and auction management to using PayPal payment online systems and handling images, this is an important guide for any who would do more than dabble on the auction site. ... Read more

Book Description

If bigger is better, Wal-Mart has rightfully won its leading position in the pantheon of international institutions. With more than 100 million customers a week, Wal-Mart is by far the world's largest retailer. It is the biggest private-sector employer in North America, and one of the most dominant and influential corporations anywhere. Sam Walton's company prides itself on being a paragon of service, integrity, and frugality to its customers. But all is not well in the many areas where people have been "Wal-Martized" and have faced Wal-Mart's controversial business practices.

In Sam We Trust is the true, unvarnished story of the Wal-Mart colossus at work, and of how its remarkable success illustrates the glory as well as the underbelly of American capitalism. A flinty workaholic obsessed with his stores at the expense of his personal life, Walton established the ruthlessly efficient strategy that enabled Wal-Mart to surpass Sears, outsmart Kmart, and crush small-town mom-and-pop stores. Bob Ortega, a veteran reporter who covered Wal-Mart extensively for The Wall Street Journal, has written an illuminating and authoritative account of the world's most powerful store, and of how Sam Walton's way of thinking is transforming America's -- and the world's -- business practices, workplaces, and communities.
... Read more

Reviews (6)

A tale of two Wal-Marts
Organizations reflect the people in charge. IN SAM WE TRUST by Bob Ortega tells how, after the death of founder Sam Walton, Wal-Mart department stores lost its way with both employees and the public.

According to IN SAM WE TRUST, Sam Walton made Wal-Mart employees and customers feel as though he cared about them even when his business practices said otherwise. With at least false hope, those people continued working and shopping at Wal-Mart.

Sam Walton died in 1992, and, as IN SAM WE TRUST tells it, subsequent Wal-Mart leadership did not care nor pretend to care about people. The book's final chapters document just how cold Wal-Mart headquarters became.

Everyday low prices? Yes. Everyday people? Only on Sly Stone's greatest hits album. Read IN SAM WE TRUST.

A fascinating History of America
This is an excellent book. It's not merely the account of a powerful businessman and how he sahped a company. It's also an account of modern American socio-economic history. Ortega expalins hoe Sam Walton maanged to take advantage of changes that were occurring in demographic distribution, technology and savvy business techniques from those who taught him and his competitors. Ortega provides a history of retailing in the USA from the late 19th century and explains the success of the modern outlet store in terms of its roots in the catalogue stores, department stores and demographic distribution. The history of the WalMart company is told by focusing on its relentless founder Sam Walton. ortega reveals Walton's hiring processes, the reasons that led him to develop the worker profit-sharing programs and how the ideas of the cheer and other details, now familiar to any Wal Mart shopper, came to be. Ortega does not set out to accuse Walton, he lets the story speak for itself and the reader can decide whether or not they wish to continue shopping there. All in all this Business profile is well worth reading.

A book everyone should read
I started reading this book when I was looking for a topic for one of my term papers (I had thought about writing a paper on Wal-Mart). When I decided to do my paper on sweatshops, I still used the book for reference purposes --especially on the infamous Kathie Lee Gifford/Wal-Mart/sweatshop scandal. However, I couldn't put it down. I would read a few pages and then I would need to know what happened before and what happened after. The book is very informative and well-written but I think the writing is accessibly to most people. It's an interesting book that offers a view of Wal-Mart that most of us don't get to see. It doesn' bash the retail-giant, but it provides us with a perspective of a business built by a determined man and what that business has meant to the country since it's beginning. I really enjoyed reading this book and I think a lot of you out there would as well.

Good Business History, Good Muckraking - bad mix of the two
Anyone with an interest in business history has to be fascinated by the story of Wal-Mart. Starting from a single store in an obscure Southern town, the company expanded relentlessly over the course of thirty-five years to become the most powerful retailer in the world. At the center of this story stands the enigmatic figure of Sam Walton, a folksy and sincerely genial man who ran the single store back in the mid -1950's and still controlled the burgeoning corporate empire at the time of his death in 1992, having by then amassed the largest personal fortune in America. Bob Ortega has done a workman-like job in telling the story of both the company and its founder. However, Ortega is an investigative journalist by trade, not a biographer or business historian. His interest in Wal-Mart began with a series of muckraking reports he did on the company during the 1990's, and he devotes the last half of "In Sam We Trust" to rambling through much of this material, focusing on Wal-Mart's longstanding compliance with abusive and illegal labor practices on the part of its suppliers, and on it ruthless real-estate practices that have for the last three decades steam-rollered over what remains of the cultural ethos of small-town America. Ortega is a good writer and a conscientious journalist, laboring hard to stick to facts and avoid sensationalism. And given his obvious distaste for what Wal-Mart has become, it speaks well of his literary integrity that the historical and biographical portions of this book are objectively told. Sam Walton himself is portrayed with his all positive personal qualities intact - he's rather likeable - and his flaws, while apparent, aren't blown out of proportion either. The fascination with him, which is well-presented, lies in the paradox of such an amiable fellow possessing a ruthless competitive drive rivaling that of the any of the legendary 19th century Robber Barons. The problem with Ortega's book is that the biographical and historical half doesn't fit together very cohesively with the muckraking half, even though both portions are well-enough done in their own terms. Anyone wanting business history here is going to get a little bored with the repetitive accounts of third-world sweatshops and anti-Wal-Mart community action drives. I recommend the book, but many readers should be prepared skim over portions of it.

A look at the other side of Sam & Wal-Mart
This well-researched book tries to tell how ruthless a businessman Sam Walton was and the questionable tactics he has employed to dominate the retail industry. The author is critical about Walton and Wal-Mart. The specific criticisms relate to Buy American program (the author claims that around 90% of goods in Wal-Mart were imported when the company was running the "Buy American" program)and the use of sweatshops to manufacture goods sold in Wal-Mart. Point taken. Other criticisms relate to the devastating socio-economic effect (like homogenizing, uniqueness being eroded, etc.) Wal-mart has when it arrives in townships and improper care of employees. The bottomline is: if you want to be inspired by the example of Sam Walton don't read this book. His autobiography is a better bet. But if you want to see the so-called darkside of the business empire you may read it. Be forewarned: if you read this book the shopping experience at Wal-Mart may not be as warmer any more. ... Read more

Book Description

For first-time bidders mystified and intimidated by the auctionprocess, Best Bids spells it all out—from the preview to the bidding andfrom small country auctions to giant internationals like Sotheby's andChristie's to bidding on the Internet. Readers will learn how to bid, how toconsign an object for sale, how to evaluate an item, and how to recognize afake. Best Bids is filled with illustrated examples and advice fromexperts in the field and covers twenty-five categories of collecting fromChinese Ceramics, Paintings, Silver, and Rugs to American Furniture, Books andManuscripts, American Folk Art, European Ceramics, and Collectibles. Best Bidsis a complete and long-needed guide for enthusiasts and for the avid viewers ofPBS's Antiques Roadshow. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

dad says best he's read
My dad says Stores by Vilma Barr is the best on the subject that he has read. As the author of The Joy of Quitting, he should know. He's been there and done that. Now, enuf of this... I have to get back to Geometry. Good reading,Willy ... Read more

Book Description

Although it may seem like everyone has a website these days, this in not 100 percent true. Small companies with and without websites struggle with 2 main design issues: What should be on my website andhow do I organize and build a website that will be effective for my business?

This book provides answers to these questions andspecifically addresses the fact that although a website is not for every company, it can be a cost-effective tool for small companies who do not have a big marketing budget or large distribution networks. This book will help small companies sculpt their content and build navigation systems that meet their specific needs and maximize the site?s potential. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Incredibly helpful
Mr. Heartfield's broad fund of knowledge regarding this subject and his easy-to-read writing style made this book not only useful, but an enjoyable read. Lots of great ideas regarding structuring my website. Big bang for the buck. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description

JCPenney was the quintessential American company. Since James Cash Penney opened his first store in the small mining town of Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 1902, this unique institution has been an iconic part of the national landscape. Founded and run on the core principles of thrift, hard work, and good citizenship, the retail giant prospered throughout the 20th century, even during the Great Depression, as American citizens came to rely on it for its good values and service.

But by the year 2000, its original beliefs arrogantly betrayed, JCPenney's Golden Age was, sadly, just a memory.

Celebration of Fools is an insider's look at JCPenney's remarkable rise and fall, charting the people and events that have been the history of this American institution. Packed with captivating stories and compelling characters -- including the company's highest ranking woman -- Celebration of Fools offersvaluable lessons applicable in today's business climate.

With an engaging, narrative style, former Penney executive speechwriter Bill Hare tells a compelling cautionary tale with universal implications for all of corporate America.

Casting new light and astonishing revelations on this American icon and the people who nearly destroyed it, Celebration of Fools will keep readers captivated from first page till last. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Lessons to learn
Celebration of Fools by Bill Hare is a narrative about the people and events at JC Penney that contributed to the company's growing success and about those that led to its decline in the 1990s when business and the economy were soaring. The company and its leaders lost, or forgot, the company's vision to bring value to customers and communities. Once the descent began, no one, not even the board, seemed to question that critical decisions were not being made for good business reasons.

The company's story is told through an organized collection of stories, remembrances, personal accounts, archival data and the like. This approach gives the book a very human feel for the people who built the company and those who failed it.

As for lessons to be learned from the book, major flaws seemed to infect the company. The decision to move the company to Dallas did not appear to have been made for any solid business reasons. The move took its toll on the quality of the company's leadership, its connection to the clothing industry and consistent merchandizing. The company lost its ability to select the right employees, which seems to be another major shortcoming. There didn't seem to be any thought to succession planning or how performance should be rewarded. The Penney focus on bringing value to the customer and communities seem to disappear.

The book covers the "rise and fall" of JC Penney from around 1900 to 2000 when new management took over for a turn-around attempt. It will be interesting to see if the ground lost in competitive positioning, financial health and market image can be regained. But, as the author states in the Introduction, that will have to be another story altogether.

I liked the book. It was well-told and clearly written. I appreciated the writer's perspective. It made me think about people in companies and how their decisions affect customers, other employees and communities they touch.

biased reviewers
Amazon:
Please note that Mr. John is totally biased, as he admittedly knows several of the players in the book, ie very senior execs at JCPenney, which are blamed in the book for very nearly destroying the company.

Also, Mr. Lindsey is currently the senior corporate communications exec at JCPenney! He should disclose this. He was ordered to write that strange review -- his job probably depended on it.

You should delete both these reviews -- they are totally biased, and unfair to your customers.

Interesting for Penney types
If you are a longtime current or former JCP manager, you will probably find this book interesting as one viewpoint on the long slide into mediocrity that Penney took in the 90's and early 00's. Since I knew a couple of the players in the book and had briefly met several others, it was personally engaging for me. However, as an objective work of literature, the book is sorely lacking. Mr. Penney's personal history has already been done, and better. What I wanted was a blow by blow of what befel Penney the last decade. Mr. Hare delivers many interesting antecdotes and gives us copious editorializing, but no coherent structure emerges. If this was a work of fiction, I'd be saying it has no plot to follow, though Bill Howell is clearly the bad guy in this book.

Flawed methods undermine this book's credibility
If you want an entertaining novel for the beach, this may be your book. But if you seek a responsible piece of business history and analysis, look elsewhere.

In an effort to make his narrative entertaining, Bill Hare employs a deeply flawed historical method. He adopts the dubious practice of creating speculative dialogue and action, claiming that "I am confident that the situations depicted are responsible reflections of those days and people." In many cases, however, the depictions appear to be outright fabrications, with no basis in actual history.

Two examples will demonstrate my point. Hare alleges that Mr. Penney's first son, Roswell, was born five months after his parents' marriage. On this basis he depicts Mr. Penney's courtship of his wife, Berta, as an affair which scandalized the town and Berta's family. Having read extensively on the life of Mr. Penney, I had never heard of this fact, so I contacted the JCPenney Archives to verify the allegation. The Archives staff reported that according to family records, Roswell was born on January 24, 1901, a full 16 months after his parents' wedding. Census records in June 1900 confirm that, noting that James and Berta Penney had no children. Hare's depiction of the courtship appears to be nothing more than a Hollywood fantasy.

Another example: Hare alleges that before her death, Berta had a long deathbed conversation with Earl Sams (later second chairman of the J.C. Penney Company) in which Sams promises to care for her beloved Jimmy (Mr. Penney.) Again I asked the Archives to verify. The staff found a letter from Sams written to Mr. Penney on the day of Berta's death in which Sams reports that he is out of Salt Lake City but will return to the city as quickly as possible. Again there appears to be no historical basis for Hare's deathbed scene. I say "appears" because Hare has no footnotes that would allow the reader to verify his sources.

In other cases, Hare recounts conversations among JCPenney executives in great detail, including the hand and facial gestures of speakers and their movements in the room. How does he know this level of detail? There were no video cameras in the room. The reader suspects it's all made up.

Fabrications like these undermine the credibility of everything else Hare says in the book, especially in the second half which focuses on the company's decline in the 1990s. If Hare could get the picture so wrong in the instances I've cited, how many other times has he distorted the truth by engaging in what he calls "narrative nonfiction." He should have said "narrative fiction," for one never quite knows where fact ends and speculative fiction begins.

A responsible study of why JCPenney stumbled in the 1990s would provide welcome insight for students of American business, but Hare's book is not that study. One must read everything in it with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Best since "Barbarians at the Gate"
This probing look into the inner workings of the JC Penney company is one of the richest reads about the business world I've encountered since "Barbarians at the Gate." Hare tells the story with the drama of a screenwriter, the research of an historian and the insight of a novelist. It's a book I couldn't put down. And it's especially appropriate in these times of corporate chicanery, deceit and executive greed. ... Read more

Book Description

HAPPY HUNTING™ ON eBay

Aunt Fannie's cameo pin collection...the cartoon-character lunch boxes you had in third grade...that cast-iron doorstop you bought for $2 but is really worth $200....Whether you're a busy buyer, an avid seller, or just a fun-loving browser, you'll find countless collectibles like these on eBay, the world's largest person-to-person online trading community.

Now -- in this official primer from the popular Internet site that has revolutionized the collecting world -- the experts at eBay unlock the secrets of successful online buying and selling, for everyone from the enthusiastic beginner to the seasoned pro. Featuring an introduction by Pierre Omidyar, eBay's founder and chairman, and packed with tips and stories from "eBaysians" all over the country, The Official eBay™ Guide is the only authorized book that shows you how to

* BUY SMART -- unraveling the mystery of value, bidding to win, and learning how to spot the really good stuff
* BE A SAVVY SELLER -- from writing the perfect item listing to collecting payments from your happy customers
* LEARN FROM THE EXPERTS -- top eBaysians, Ambassadors, Power Sellers, and eBay employees lend advice and share secrets for success
* FIND THE GREAT STUFF -- how to work garage sales, flea markets, tag sales, estate sales, and even the other kind of auction

Packed with invaluable resources, information, and practical tips, The Official eBay™ Guide also features entertaining stories about the millions of people who make up the eBay community. It's your must-have companion for mastering the art of buying and selling an astounding range of collectibles and items, from the practical to the whimsical. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Basics of eBay
The Official ebay Guide gave me the basics to everything about ebaying. Answered many questions that I had from the past couple of years of ebaying & now wanting to get a whole lot more. This books raised many more questions that the book could answer. However it gave me the basics and left me in search of more detailed information. So, the book is just what it listed a Guide. Now I look for the Handbook to ebay.

Great for the beginning Ebayer
This book has tons of great information for the beginning Ebayer. It tells everything you need to know about getting started on Ebay. But, since I already had been familiar with Ebay for two years I didn't find it all that helpful. If you are new to Ebay then you do need this book. If I would have had it when I first started then it would have made things a lot smoother.

basic, but not a bad overview, for beginners
While it's true that a lot of this information is common sense, as well as available on the ebay help pages, there's definately useful information in here also. Such as specific advice about how to go about communicating with buyers if you're a seller, and many other basic things a beginner might have questions about and needs to be walked through.

There's also a good section about buying collectibles in general, which i found informative.

If you want to get started on ebay, i recommend picking this up at your library, and skimming through it a bit, reading particular parts of the ebay process that interest or puzzle you.

A History of the Past
I am very disappointed in this book. As most of the information in this book is outdated, this book should be selling on ebay as a collectors item. Much of the information that can be considered useful to the current ebay functionality is common sense. That is, the book did not reveal to me anything that a second or third time user of ebay could not have figure out.

Fine in 1999, but outdated
This book was probably very good in its day, but eBay has changed so much since it was published that it really doesn't hit things straight on. It has the basics of buying and selling, and is loaded with cute anecdotes. I've had gotten better information with the updated Dummies books on the subject. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Roger D. Blackwell, an Ohio State University marketing professor and Fortune 500 consultant, believes that nothing short of a "radical reinvention of retail" will suffice in the hypercompetitive marketplace expected in the future. From Mind to Market: Reinventing the Retail Supply Chain is his prescription for 21st-century success. His strategy involves getting into the heads of consumers, accurately anticipating their needs, and then quickly meeting them with effectively developed products and services. Blackwell illustrates his points with examples from companies that already employ such practices, including Kinko's, The Limited, and Banc One Corporation. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Nothing earthshattering. Could've been said in one chapter.
Somewhat disappointing read in that there really wasn't any synopsis at the end of the book to bring all of the cases in point and related ideas together to make a coherent "call to action." While the information presented is interesting, educational, and valuable, the concept of "demand chain management" is not all that radical. The fact the more companies do not engage in the practice is what's really radical! There is no excuse for not conducting rigorous market research and analysis and gaining an intimate understanding of the customer base being served (or disserved in some cases). Mr. Blackwell's information could have been summed up in a 15 page article in a respectable journal. There was no need to produce an entire book on this.

Listen to your customer! Is this the "radical" new approach?
There is nothing radical, or ground-breaking in this book. Contrary to what the cover or any of the previous comments may imply.. The basic (and almost the only) point is that "one should always listen to the customer," which is nice but not new or radical. No matter how hard you look, you will not be able to find any more "ideas" on retail marketing beyond this basic point.

Chapter 6 (Shifting Functions among Supply-Chain Players) has a very timely topic, however the content is extremely poor. Short of examples, Professor takes on the universities as inefficient supply-chain members.

Apart from being disappointed by the conceptual content of the book, I also feel foole