DESC: John Dicker provides a fascinating amount of information about America's largest retailer, as he makes the Wal-Mart phenomenon accessible in a user-friendly manner, telling how it works and trying to find out why it works. Dicker makes clear that the company is a force to be reckoned with and that there are those who love it and those who loathe it. He uses enough terminology such as "category killer," to make this a book for the Business Week reader, yet his exposition of the Sam Walton story, and his discussion of just why shoppers shop at Wal-Mart (the prices), makes it accessible to a general audience. THE UNITED STATES OF WAL-MART is also a book about issues. Dicker summarizes the controversy over wages and benefits paid to Wal-Mart workers, and explores whether the government, in effect, is asked to subsidize Wal-Mart by providing benefits to its lowest-paid workers, and he discusses the issue of whether Wal-Mart acts as "cultural gatekeeper" when it decides whether or not to stock CDs, magazines, or