Price Wars

Library Journal

Winninger, who has maintained a research database on over 1500 companies for over 15 years, presents a how-to guide for small merchants to help them compete successfully with the large warehouse chains-e.g., Sam's Club, Walmart, Price Club, Barnes & Noble, Home Depot, Pace, and CosCo-that are appearing in areas all over the United States. Winninger suggests how to prepare for their incursion into your market area and provides steps you might take once they come in by selling "value" vs. "price." He packs a great deal of information into 13 chapters, beginning each with a major premise or step, defining the step, and then providing an example or case study illustrating and fleshing out the problem and its solution. He lists and discusses "battle tactics" and explores all aspects of marketing. A worthwhile book for merchants as well as for libraries that serve them and teach them.-Littleton M. Maxwell, Business Information Ctr., Univ. of Richmond, Va.

David Rouse

The advent of large discount merchandise and fast-food chains has seen a corresponding demise in mom-and-pop and small-town diners and variety, hardware, and grocery stores unable to compete. Wal-Mart is only the most recent example of a big chain bullying Main Street merchants, but Winninger refers to this tactic by what he calls the "price merchants" as the "Walton Paradigm" (after Wal-Mart's founder Sam Walton). The author, founder of his own Winninger Institute for Competitive Strategy, offers more than 100 practical strategies for independent and small-business owners to use in fighting back. His advice is to avoid price competition and concentrate instead on value-added service and targeting specific and overlooked market niches. This is the sort of book that librarians hoping to emphasize their role as partners in community economic development can point to when they want to emphasize the resources they have available.