Thanks Ben.

Seems like quite a shrewd move for World.

I'm a bit conflicted about the other article. Not exactly 'small is beautiful', eh? * Snapper, the 'little guys', are a pretty big operation themselves, with 650 workers. * Odd that they are considered successful when they laid off half their employees in a decade. * There's no real critique of the Walmart way of doing things, just a pragmatic decision for this one firm. * The audience with Walmart sounds like an audience with a dictator. Belittling, undignified. * Keeping one's grass neatly trimmed is an interesting and wacky ritual.

Well, 650 staff is pretty small compared to most "corporations".

Yeah, I felt the same about laying off their staff, but wasn't sure whether he was saying that was a good thing or not. However, if those people are motivated, they'll likely as not be productive somewhere else.

Does keeping one's hair trimmed fall into the same category? I guess both are something of a fashion statement. In the country, long lawn can look beautiful; in a city, somehow it looks unkempt. (Heh, article idea for next issue.)

Laying off staff isn't automatically a sign of failure, Matthew. Other factors have to be considered (factors that aren't mentioned in the article).

'The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart' didn't seem to be making much of a point. I thought it was 'quality is better than quantity' but then Weir reportedly said that Wal-Mart had done the US a great service. Perhaps it's just a nice story. Nothing wrong with that I suppose.

Incidentally, I've been wondering lately whether it's more godly to produce a huge quantity of crappy, cheap products or to produce a small number of good quality, more expensive goods. Or maybe that's a *false dichotomy*.

By the way, I like the 'If you're clever with html' thing on this comments page. Very helpful.

Oh and Matt,

Psalm 72:6a
'May he come down like rain upon the mown grass'

...lawn mowing is even in the Bible.