Though economics and the practical application of its theories have always been important to the health of our societies, the fiscal tempests unleashed by both the 2008 Financial Crisis and the forces that triggered it have refocused our collective consciousness on the roles they play in capitalist societies. Is it wise to have such enormous influence concentrated in the hands of the few who run the financial sectors of our economies? Should our governments be involved in regulating private businesses? Just what kind of business, big or small, a large or an efficient employer, is most beneficial to our communities?
These are all valid questions, questions yet without answers. And so we shouldn't expect Mr. Levinson's history of the A&P grocery chain to reveal all. And yet, he goes a long way to elucidating complex and controversial issues that have plagued us since the inception of capitalism.
In the midst of the American Civil War, what became the A&P grocery chain, a supermarket behemoth that heralded the age of Walmart, began modestly as an unremarkable wholesaler of tea in New York City. With a single store and no advantages over its competition, it bore no outward appearances of becoming the grocery powerhouse that would still be minting fortunes for its stockholders nearly a century later. And yet, over time, helmed by three remarkable men, each of whom possessed disparate but complementary talents, A&P survived and evolved, creating new kinds of advertising and a whole new way of distributing goods on its way to market domination.
From the cramped economy stores to the spacious supermarkets, from its marketing geniuses to the steady hands of the Hartford clan who lead it into the 20th century, Mr. Levinson describes, vividly, the cultural, economic, and social forces that allowed the A&P to flourish into the Walmart before Walmart. But as much as this is a biography of both the genteel Hartfords and their phenomenally successful business, it is also a treatise on the nature of commerce. For in fashioning their business into an enormously successful enterprise, the Hartfords not only changed the manner in which American shopped for and consumed food, they not only drove thousands of businesses out of work through the inevitable forces of Creative Destruction, they not only managed to to reduce through the consolidation of goods the cost of food to the consumer, they set into motion a political fight over big business that, as both a political and a practical issue, lingers to this day. A powerful legacy indeed for a company that began, 150 years ago, as one of a thousand distributers of tea.
The Great A&P is captivating work. Mr. Levinson juggles the Hartfords, their company, the reconfiguration of American food distribution, and a number of complex political issues and legal cases that engulfed the A&P, managing, throughout, to find an admirable balance between all these intertwined but competing narratives. Though he does a wonderful job explicating the private Hartfords, he is unquestionably at his best in laying out the various business models that brought them so much success. The author is so effective that, as the attentive reader attempts, inevitably, to decide which is better for society, a big, impersonal business that reduces costs to the consumer, or a small, local business that is expensive but supports and actively participates in the community, he finds himself torn in two; for Mr. Levinson has expertly made the case for both sides, leaving the reader as frustrated and indecisive as the US government was when, out of fear of big business, it attacked and contributed to the fall of the A&P.
An excellent biography, economic treatise and political primer. Good enough that I will hed any subsequent project Mr. Levinson applies himself to. This is no less than the distillation of a profound, contentious, cultural argument we've been having for 60 years. And though the work can offer no conclusive solutions, it furnishes the reader with enough data to draw his own educated conclusions about the nature of good business. Fantastic... (4/5 Stars)
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