A Pit Bull in Poodle's Clothing is a novella that tells a tale too often seen across the landscape of contemporary America. It is a thinly-veiled description of the diabolical deeds committed by Walmart in small towns and cities across the country. By promising everything from economic revitalization and desirable jobs to $9.99 sneakers, Walmart insinuates itself into every nook and cranny that will offer it tax breaks and zoning variances. In return, Walmart wreaks havoc by destroying small businesses, eroding local economies, and perpetuating suburban sprawl, among countless other misdeeds. This novella explores the consequences involved when a desperate town is willing to sell its soul in exchange for Walmart's false promises.

The setting of the novella is Weimar, Pennsylvania, a sleepy town of approximately 7,000 inhabitants. Weimar is nestled snugly between two peaks of the Blue Mountains in the once-prosperous zinc belt region. Until the middle of the 20^th century, nearly all of the town's men and many of its women were employed by the Weimar Zinc Company; by 1980, however, the zinc industry had begun to slip down a slope of decline. By 1999, the year in which A Pit Bull in Poodle's Clothing takes place, Weimar Zinc has forever closed its doors, leaving hundreds of people unemployed and with bleak prospects in a region that had not yet reached the post-industrial age. The company's two plants still stand like intimidating fortresses at either end of Weimar, guarding a town which has nothing left to protect.

Principal characters of the novella include:

Jim Farmer, recently laid-off foreman of the Weimar zinc company and the mayor of Weimar for 10 years. As an unemployed father of three, Jim is frightened by his unemployment and lack of prospects; as mayor, he feels compelled to find some way to enable Weimar to rise like the Phoenix from the ashes of the zinc company's waste. He is therefore quite vulnerable and conciliatory when Schafmart begins its overtures to build a new store in Weimar.

Lou Schafer, self-made billionaire who amassed his fortune building discount stores like Schafmarts and Lou's Clubs all over America. By ruthlessly undercutting locally-owned businesses and fostering a cult-like employee culture, Lou Schafer ensured that Schafmart dominated every retail market it entered. By 1997, Schafmart was the biggest private employer in the country. By 1999, Lou Schafer had been dead for seven years; however, his legacy was still felt as Schafmart continued to spread like a virus across America, preying especially on economically-depressed towns such as Weimar.

Mavis Tophel, Schafmart executive in charge of finding new locations in the Northeast region of the country. She specializes in pitting neighboring small towns against each other in a battle to claim a Schafmart for their own, thereby ensuring the Schafmart corporation the biggest tax breaks and subsidies offered by the most desperate town.

The novella begins with a scene of Jim Farmer sitting glumly in his garage, which serves both as a venue for his hobby of car repair and as a makeshift mayoral office (necessary for a town with no city hall). He is pondering the bleakness of the town's predicament as well as his own. Having had no success in finding a new job and having been forced to go on welfare, as well as having no means to improve the town's near economic collapse, he is feeling melancholic to the point of pondering suicide. Farmer suspects ( probably correctly) that his meager pension from the zinc company would render him worth more to his family dead than alive. As he contemplates closing the garage door and allowing carbon monoxide from his car to engulf him, a radio commercial for Farmer's Department Store sings from his small radio. Farmer's, built by his great grandfather and operated currently by his mother, was once the centerpiece of Weimar's downtown shopping district; hurt by the region's economic depression as well as nearby malls, it is now barley hanging on. The jingle reminds him of his childhood, when his grandfather's towering store and the zinc company's imposing fortresses enchanted him: he was sure that one or the other would bring him the prosperity he saw all around him. Simultaneously reinvigorated by his memory and disheartened by its drastic incongruity with his current plight, Farmer resolves to keep trying to find a solution that will save both his town and himself.

A few days later, Farmer is back in his garage, sitting at his desk and furiously scribbling down ideas on how to bring new economic life to Weimar. He grows increasingly frustrated with his inability to formulate a satisfying plan. His frustration is exacerbated when a pit bull suddenly runs into the garage, wildly barking. The pit bull's entrance surprises Farmer; the family next door had had several of the dogs, but they had left months ago when the only job the father could get was in Ohio. Farmer ignores the pit bull and returns to his work. Continuously annoyed by the yowling of the dog, Farmer angrily ejects the pit bull and sits back down at his desk. Out of nowhere, a female voice inquires, "Mayor Farmer, may I have a word with you?" Farmer turns around to find Mavis Tophel standing in the doorway of the garage.

They have a brief chat in which she informs him of the reason of her visit: Schafmart is very interested in building a new store in Weimar. Farmer is initially skeptical: he has heard his mother, and her mother before her, frequently lament the negative impacts that discount stores have had on their business. But Farmer grows increasingly hopeful that Schafmart may be the miracle he has been hoping for. The potential benefits for the town are enormous: one hundred new permanent jobs, another hundred construction jobs for the store's building, a kickstart to the town's economy that could revive Weimar to its previous prosperity. Before he can get many details, Mavis Tophel mentions that she is expected in nearby Brownsville for a similar meeting-Schafmart is also considering that town for its new store. Farmer tries to insist that Mavis Tophel tell him more, but she insists that she will soon return, at which time he can ask whatever questions he likes. A few hours later, Farmer awakens to find that he had fallen asleep at his desk. He groggily recalls the pit bull's intrusion and Mavis Tophel's visit, but suspects that it was all merely a dream. Sadly, he resigns himself to the belief that Mavis Tophel and the miracle she promised were merely an invention of his mind.

Mavis Tophel visits Farmer again one week later, proving to him that their previous conversation had not been a dream. She tells him that Schafmart has decided that Weimar will indeed be the location for the new store, which will be built on the site of the zinc company's defunct east plant. Farmer is elated at the prospect of single-handedly breathing new life into his beloved Weimar, but soberly notes that Schafmart would not merely build a store out of charity to the town. He asks Mavis Tophel what is expected in return, suspecting that the devil may be in the details. Schafmart insists on a plethora of concessions: reduced property taxes, tax-exempt bonds to pay for construction, perhaps a rezoning. Farmer does not know how his already dirt-poor town can afford such demands, but the potential in Schafmart's economic impact is too good to refuse; Farmer signs the contract that Mavis Tophel hands him and seals the town's fate.

The middle of the novella mainly focuses on the consequences of Farmer's pact. Initially, Mavis Tophel's promises seem to be fulfilled: over two hundred new jobs are created, including one for Jim Farmer, who joins the Schafmart staff as one of its ubiquitous greeters. Weimar's citizens are delighted that their sparse dollars can be stretched quite far with Schafmart's rock bottom prices. Jim Framer is widely regarded as the town's hero- as "the man who saved Weimar".

Over time, however, Farmer begins to notice some unintended consequences of his deal with Schafmart. He does not make enough at the store to enable him to get off of welfare, and an informal poll of his coworkers shows that many of them are in the same bind. Schafmart managers had always tried to ease the blow of low wages by promising stock options that-as they never tired of repeating-have single-handedly turned a few Schafmart employees into millionaires. However, Farmer learns that the store's high turnover rate ensures that very few employees serve the requisite three years before stock options become available. He becomes increasingly unsettled with the store's mandatory weekly employee meetings at which Lou Schafer's image is projected on a large TV screen and employees are made to end the meeting by stating in unison, "In Lou we trust". His mother's business, weak as it was, is on the verge of collapse: she assures him that it was headed downhill long before Schafmart's economic takeover of Weimar, but Farmer suspects that the undercutting that Schafmart engages in is sealing its fate. As time passes, Farmer grows increasingly uneasy with the unexpected ramifications of his pact.

Farmer's concerns are finally legitimized at the annual employee meeting held on April 30 in Walpurgis, Arkansas, where Schafmart's headquarters are located. The meeting is as much a worship service to Lou Schafer as it is a business meeting. Aside from the protesters gathered outside to decry Schafmart's vicious objection to the unionization of its workers, the crowd looks more to Farmer like a cult than it does a gathering of workers and shareholders. In speech after speech, Schafer is exalted as nothing less than a God who revolutionized retail and saved hundreds of towns that would have sunk into ruin had Schafmart not intervened.

In one corner of the Walpurgis Civic Center, Farmer notices a large display that depicts the economic impact each Schafmart store has had on the community in which it is located. It boasts that the Weimar store has had a five million dollar impact on the town. But looking at the fine print, Farmer notices that four million of that supposed impact occurred in place of the impact that had been generated by the local stores that Schafmart had forced out of business. The one million of true economic impact was far less than the amount that the town had invested in the store. Flabbergasted, he draws Mavis Tophel over to the display. Following is an excerpt from their exchange:

Farmer returns dejected to Weimar after the close of the meeting. A month later, he is summoned by Mavis Tophel to Blackton, a town several miles from Weimar. Below is an excerpt from the scene:

"Mavis, why did you ask me to meet you in this field?"

Farmer rushes back to Weimar, trying to make it in time before the end of the Weimar Chamber of Commerce's monthly meeting. A final excerpt follows: