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The Great A&P And The Struggle For Small Business In America (2011)

by Marc Levinson(Favorite Author)

3.79 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0809095432 (ISBN13: 9780809095438)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Hill and Wang

review 1: Persuasive take on how capitalism can make life better for the many, and worse for a few, and how those few try to stop it. You can tell Levenson is trying to draw parallels to Wal-Mart, though he doesn't get explicit til the end. Still, there seems to be a difference between opposition to Wal-Mart and opposition to A&P. Opposition to Wal-Mart is broader, while he portrays opposition to A&P as mostly embraced by their competitors (who were legion). But lots of people who don't sell cheap plastic crap hate Wal-Mart. The book's a little quotidian in some ways (sometimes I would ask myself "am I really reading a book about a grocery store chain?"), but that also gives it its power. You see the business in a fairly fine-grained way, and see the opposition also in a fine-graine... mored way, and it helps you understand how so many other things work in a capitalist economy. I'd recommend it, if you have a relatively high tolerance for the mundane. Otherwise, best skip it. But if you're a capitalism-skeptical liberal like me, it will make you rethink some of your assumptions, which is a good thing.
review 2: I remember going to A&P with my grandparents, so I had a vague memory of my experience in the store, even though by that point it was in its decline. Levinson's placement of A&P at the center of his story also reveals much that was happening alongside the evolution of this enterprise, pulling together the leadership styles that propelled and spelled the downfall of the store, and historical, political and economic events and trends going on. I listened to the book on CD and found the flurry of details to sometimes be a bit of a blur and a little hard to stick with, but overall still found the book an interesting read. less

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