Sam Walton and Wal-Mart

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Sam Walton and Wal-Mart

Sam Walton was born on March 29, 1918 to Thomas Gibson and Nancy Lee Walton near Kingfisher, Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, they owned and lived on a farm until 1923. The Walton's then decided that the farm was not profitable enough to raise a family on. So, Sam and Jame's (Sam's younger brother born in 1921) dad decided he would go back to being a Farm Loan Appraiser. Once this job started the Walton family moved out of Oklahoma and moved from town to town in Missouri. This would traumatize most children but for the Walton boys though it was no big deal. This could be seen when Sam was in 8th grade at Shelbina he became the youngest boy in the state's history to become an Eagle Scout and this was only a start of his many of accomplishments.

As Sam Walton grew up he was always an ambitious boy. He attended Hickman High School in Columbia there he played basketball and football, in which he was the starting quarterback for the football team and lead them to the state title in 1935. He wasn't the most smartest person at school but he was determined to do good so with hard work and lots of studying he became an honors student. Besides being athletic and smart he was also a political figure at school, too. He severed as Vice- President of his Junior Class and President of the Student Body his senior year. Don't think this is all Sam did though, he also had to help support his family, along with his father and brother because money was lacking due to the depression. Sam's job was to milk the family cow, bottle the milk, and then deliver the surplus of to customers and then went off to deliver newspapers afterwards. When he graduated from high school he was voted the "Most Versatile Boy" in his class. During this time it would have been easy for Sam to just give up on school and go to work full time. Seeing though how his family was struggling to make ends meet, he decided he was going to stay in school and attend the University of Missouri.

At the University of Missouri Sam majored in Economics. He could not really afford to attend school so he worked extra hard to get the money. Sam waited tables in exchange for meals, lifeguarded at the school pool, and also delivered newspapers. While he was not doing that he was either at his fraternity in which he was an officer, or at a student government meeting since he was a member of the stud...

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...et. More than 600,000 Americans work at Wal-Mart. The reason for its popular success it still follows Sam Walton's values: by hometown identity, each person is welcomed personally by People Greeters, each store honors a graduating high school senior with a college scholarship, bake sales to benefit a local charity, associates determine where charitable funds are donated, and the prices are low and customers do not have to wait for a sale to see savings. This is only to name a few of the things that Wal-Mart does for the community. Wal-Mart goes according to what Sam Walton believed, "Each Wal-Mart store should reflect the values of its customers and support the vision they hold for their community" ( The Wal-Mart Story). With this saying always in mind the Wal-Mart community outreach programs are steered by local associates who grew up in the area and understand its needs.

Sam Walton always made quite an impression on everyone. Sam Walton has done so much for the retail world. He has gone beyond what any other owner or manager has ever done or will ever do and was honored for all his hard work in March of 1992 when he received the Medal of Freedom from President George Bush.

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