THE WAL-MART EFFECT By Charles Fishman The Penguin Press Pp: 294 Price: Rs 980 THE BULLY OF BENTONVILLE By Anthony Bianco Currency Pp: 320 Price: Rs 930 THE WAL-MART WAY By Don Soderquist Pearson Power Pp: 210 Price: Rs 399

It was probably the economist that ran an interesting article sometime back on the perils of being the market leader in any industry. As the newspaper's writer argued, citing a research done by a B-school professor in the us, the market leader acts like a lightning rod, attracting not just the regulator's undesired attention, but the public ire as well. Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer and corporation with $312.4 billion (Rs 14,05,800 crore) in annual revenues, would most likely agree with the argument.

Over the last four years or so, the retailing behemoth has been under attack for a variety of reasons, including the poor wages it pays its employees, the incredibly difficult prices it demands of its suppliers and for driving other retailers out of business (not to mention transgressions such as indirectly employing illegal immigrants). Wal-Mart has braved the criticisms and continued to grow. Last year, for instance, it grew almost 10 per cent, adding $27 billion or Rs 1,21,500 crore (or the GDP of Guatemala) to its topline.

Small wonder, then, that Wal-Mart today is one of the most talked about companies in the world. For American journalists, Wal-Mart is, of course, a juicy story, but one that could potentially build their careers and earn them nationwide fame. This year alone, two such journalistic works have hit the bookstores: BusinessWeek senior writer Anthony Bianco has penned a not-so-flattering profile called The Bully of Bentonville, while Fast Company senior editor Charles Fishman offers a more objective take in The Wal-Mart Effect. (The third book featured in this review is an insider's view of the Wal-Mart culture, and interesting for what the retailer thinks of itself.)

It's obvious from the title of their respective books what Bianco and Fishman think of Wal-Mart. The former, whose book was inspired by a 2003 cover story (Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?) he wrote for BusinessWeek, is worried about the retailer's "everyday low prices" wreaking havoc on the American economy in terms of impoverishing retail workers, squeezing suppliers and crowding out other retailers. Bianco says he wouldn't be worried if Wal-Mart were a small-town retailer doing such things. But "it is something else entirely for a company whose decisions set the wage-and-benefit standards for an entire industry..." to behave in such a manner. "Corporations with enough power to materially affect the world's largest economy need to think and act differently..." he argues. But Bianco admits that Wal-Mart saves, directly and indirectly, billions of dollars for shoppers; $263 billion (Rs 11,83,500 crore) in 2004 alone.

Fishman, too, makes the same points, but with much less hysteria. His criticism of Wal-Mart is vastly more balanced and measured. He does bring you horror stories from employees and vendors, but his characters are able to see-even if they fail to appreciate-why Wal-Mart is such an inexorable force in their lives. Fishman beautifully sums up what the Wal-Mart debate in America is really about: "In democracy, do we want a single company to have the reach and power that Wal-Mart has-a power that right now is accountable to no one?" Then he flips the question around: "But what could be more democratic than a company that is literally built up from the choices made every day by ordinary Americans voting with their debit cards, compelled by nothing, but their own choice?"

The only problem with this argument is that what's good for consumers need not necessarily be good for America. But as long as Wal-Mart does not do anything illegal or unethical, regulators and governments will have little reason to slow down the retail juggernaut. For the time being, though, Wal-Mart isn't thinking about its critics, but how to get bigger and more powerful still.