Small Towns and Big Business comprehensively examines the phenomenon of local protests against Wal-Mart superstores. Using fieldwork and archival sources, Halebsky situates these protests in the context of economic restructuring and the expansion of retailing; explains how some local social movements were able to successfully fend off the world's largest retailer; and assesses the implications for efforts to limit corporate power, resist McDonaldization, and protect local quality of life.

During the 1990s, a new type of controversy began occurring across the United States: controversies over the siting of superstores, also known as big box stores. In these disputes, which often involve Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, local citizens mount organized opposition to the proposed siting of a superstore in their town or neighborhood. Opponents criticize Wal-Mart superstores for putting local independent merchants out of business, siphoning money from the local economy, providing substandard jobs, disrupting residential neighborhoods, contributing to the 'McDonaldization' of...