$8,500,000 Judgment Day

$8,500,000 Judgment Day is a revealingand true account of what happened after a Mississippi-based Walmart employee was falsely accused by the retail giant of shoplifting, and later fired.  How he took on the world's number one retailer and gave it a 'country whippin' in court is only part of the story.

Author Lamon Griggs takes us behind the clever slogans, discount clothing and saccharine greeters to give us a view of the Walmart that countless broadcast and print media sources have been reporting for years.  Walmart isn't quite the good neighbor or benevolent retailer their marketing department wants us to believe they are.  Griggs is neither a novelist nor an investigative journalist, but that's what makes $8,500,000 Judgment Day all the more disquieting.  While Griggs documents how Walmart mistreats it's employees, supports overseas manufacturing and even profiles it's customers, he's the first to tell you that the retailer has excellent prices in its pharmacy.  He immerses us completely in the Walmart culture -warts and all- without any unnecessary Walmart bashing.  He's got a story to tell and does so in his unhurried, thoughtful southern cadence.  After all, this is a former Mississippi Highway State Trooper who spent almost 5 years of his life and nearly lost everything to prove that he did not steal a dollar and fifty cents worth of chewing tobacco.

Very quickly, $8,500,000 Judgment Day becomes a destined-for-Hollywood-must-read guilty pleasure once you're introduced to Walmart's cadre of senior level executives, department managers, missing witnesses, and high-priced shark attorneys (one of whom is now a gubernatorial candidate!). And yes, there's even a happy ending here for Griggs. 

If you were anti-Walmart before reading $8,500,000 Judgment Day, you'll be even more so after just two chapters.  And loyal shoppers may think twice before ever entering the store again.

As the saying goes, "You couldn't make this stuff up".  With $8,500,000 Judgment Day, you won't have to.