It would be an understatement to say that Walmart is a big company. In fact, Walmart is the largest corporation in the world with sales 2.2 million employees and over 11,000 stores as of 2014 (Our History.) How is it that a business that began with one store has been able to grow to such great proportions? Much of this success and growth can be attributed to Walmart founder, Sam Walton (1918-1992). His seemingly simple business model has revolutionized retail and even earned him a Medal of Freedom from President H. W. Bush (Our History.) This man’s influence on Walmart is unmistakable, and his values still stand as the model of the company.
What, then, are the values that lead to such enormous success? Sam Walton was always concerned with efficiency and prices. After all, customers could be best benefitted from
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In Speaking of Walmart’s history, Time magazine says, “You don’t become one of the most powerful private organizations in the history of human civilization without turning over a few apple carts…It is the story of an unwavering pursuit of innovation and efficiency and the casualties of that pursuit” (Matthews.) There are certainly costs to be considered as major retailers like Walmart cause bankruptcy and an exodus of jobs from America to Asia. Nevertheless, Walton’s influence and the benefits of low prices and convenience of shopping is undeniable. In fact, economists have found surprising benefits to the building of a Walmart in a community, “Our estimates suggest that a new Walmart store actually increases housing prices by between 2 and 3 percent for houses located within 0.5 miles of the store and by 1 to 2 percent for houses located between 0.5 and 1 mile” (Pope et al.) What is most interesting about opposition to Walmart is that is a true American start-up. No company founder wears the title of self-made American than Walton, a captain in the US military and an Oklahoma native (Our
Walmart is bad for America, as some say. The Globalization essay that was handed out in class had many good points. It states that Walmart puts many smaller businesses out of service. A recent study by David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine and two associates at the Public Policy Institute of California, "The Effects of Wal-Mart on Local Labor Markets," uses sophisticated statistical analysis to estimate the effects on jobs and wages as Wal-Mart spread out from its original center in Arkansas. The authors find that retail employmen...
Wal-Mart has had a significant economic impact on the US, as well as the economies of countries that have relations with the US. Wal-Mart is the world’s biggest company of any kind, with 80 percent of the households in America purchasing something from the superstore; it is the nation’s largest retailer. Wal-Mart’s continuing price reduction has given Americans the advantage of being able to afford 15 to 20 percent more than they previously could. (Hansen) In a world governed by globalization and greed, competition has become rigid; as a result firms like Wal-Mart have utilized advanced marketing strategies to insure that they are on the ‘neck’ of competition, and are the core deciders of the market. (Ortega) However, Wal-Mart made decisions that were of a disadvantage to aspects of the economy, including the depletion on a small scale of Small Town USA.
The retail giant started operations in 1962 and was founded by Sam Walton. Current, Wal-Mart is the fastest growing and the biggest retailer with a total of 3,400 stores within the United States and 3,300 other stores in other parts of the major cities in the world. The retail stores have 1.5 million employees and annual revenues of more than $350 Billion.
Wal-Mart was conceived and founded by Sam Walton in 1962, at Rogers, Arkansas. Sam Walton started with just a few small variety stores, funded with borrowed money. His goal was to provide affordable products to the public to make life easier. After his success with the first few stores, Sam Walton borrowed more money to build more stores, creating the Wal-Mart empire as we see it today. The retail giant proves its stoic presence in our lives with its $401 billion sales for fiscal year 2009.
C. Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, received a $25,000 loan from his father-in-law in 1945 after returning as an Army officer in WW2. He then used that loan to open up his first discount store in Newport, Arkansas and later opened his first Walmart in 1962. Over the next 2 decades Walton managed to turn that one store into a franchise worth $45 Billion. Now that’s what I call the “American Dream”. Walmart is criticized for actions that aren’t true and can be backed up by facts if necessary. People make assumptions about it without knowing the truth behind what they are saying. These assumptions should be changed because Walmart is indeed a very successful cooperation and benefits the economy and communities around it.
This is a good question. Walmart started as a small five and dime in the city of Bentonville, Arkansas by a man named Sam Walton. After a great success Sam and his wife Helen moved to Rogers, Arkansas where he opened his very first Walmart. He had some retailing experience after his time in the war and he chose Bentonville for the hunting season and because his wife wanted to live in a small town. His ideas of not pocketing extra cash from manufacturers, but rather giving deals to customers and trying to make profit off of how much he sold, changed the way retailers make money in America. Sam had a cheap mindset, not only for his customers, but for himself. Even when he became the richest man in America he continued to get his hair done for
Walmart a name known globally they are a true empire. They are known as one of the largest company in the world. Sam Walton founded Walmart opening the first store in 1952 and Arkansas since then in has grown. According to Snyder Walmart is located in over 27 counties they have over a 11,000 stores and over two million employees. Walmart stands by the mission statement “We save people money so they can live better.” Walmart is known for is super low prices, and they compete with anyone who tries to enter their market. Walmart has a very formal and bureaucratic structure. There is a very clear hierarchy and commands come from the top and flows to the bottom. Although Walmart is so successful they have received lots of backlash due to some
It’s a place everyone knows, much like the post office or even city hall. Wal-Mart. That is where the oddity lies, in the fact that a retail store is just as well known as staples for towns across the nation; not to mention the fact that Wal-Mart isn’t just in the United States, but around the world. Founder of the billion dollar industry, Sam Walton, did expect success from his endeavor, but no one could have foreseen just how influential the retail store would be. Wal-Mart is an astonishingly successful business with humble beginnings, but may have a rocky road ahead in terms of social issues due to the treatment of employees and it's strong effects on the economy.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is in the discount, variety stores industry. It was founded in 1945, Bentonville in Arkansas which is also the headquarters of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart operates locally as well as worldwide. It operated 1209 discount stores, 1980 super centers, and 567 Sam’s Club by January 31, 2006. It has also extended its operations to many international countries. It runs its retail stores in two forms: Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart Stores. The Sam’s Club sells assorted product lines such as hardwares, electronics, jewelry, and to mention a few. The Wal-Mart stores also offer similar products in addition to the following: health and beauty products, apparel for women, men and children, household appliances etc (www.yahoo.finance.com). The Vision Statement, Mission Statement, Values and Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance: Directors, Executive Management, Committees and Stakeholder will be the key elements that will discussed in this report as it relates to Wal-Mart. In addition to that, the major trends in the general/macro environment and industry will be analyzed.
The first Walmart was opened in Rogers, Arkansas in the year 1962 by a 44-year-old man by the name of Sam Walton. When he first envisioned Walmart, Walton believed that a successful business could be built around offering lower prices and great service. Despite his retail rivals laughing at his supposedly unsustainable business model, the company became hugely successful, and its success exceeded even Walton's expectations. The company went public in 1970, and the proceeds financed a steady expansion of the business. Today, Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, as it has 8,500 stores spread across 15 countries and annual revenues of $400 billion dollars. Moreover, Walmart is the
The Wal-mart is the largest retail chain in United States and in the world. The wal-mart was founded in the year 1962 by Mr Sam Walton. It was originally named as Wal-Mart discount city in Rogers, Arkansas. At the time when the Wal-Mart stores started in the year 1962 it was focused only in small rural cites and town which had a population of 5000 to 25000. It was soon increased to 18 stores in 1969. In the next 30 years it had more than 4750 stores across 50 states in USA and 9 countries with $245 billion sales. It started its international operations in Mexico in the year 1991 and then it expanded it to different countries across Europe and Asia.
Wal-Mart as we know it today evolved from Sam Walton’s goals for great value and great customer service. Mr. Walton’s competitors thought his idea that a successful business could be built around offering lower prices and great service would never work. Mr. Walton also credited the rapid growth of Wal-Mart not just to the low costs that attracted his customers, but also to his associates. He relied on them to give customers the great shopping experience that would keep them coming back. Sam shared his vision for the company with associates in a way that was nearly unheard of in the industry. He made them partners in the success of the company, and firmly believed that this partnership was what made Walmart great.
The first Wal-Mart store opened in July of 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas by Sam Walton who believed that the future of retailing was in discounting and to avoid competing with established giants like Sears and Woolworth, Wal-Mart’s stated out of the large cities in the beginning and this strategy help avoid competition, while in rural areas Wal-Mart began growing their customer base by offering ways to save money and shorter travel distance, Sam Walton felt the best way to make customers happy was to provide the low prices every day (Farhoomand, 2006). The company needed to continually find ways to control the operating costs so the savings would then be passed on to Wal-Mart customers in the form of lower prices than the competitors. Walton was opposed to having any kind of employee unions for its company and saw them as a disruption and an inconvenience (Farhoomand, 2006). The continued search for lower prices made him aware of business related travel cost, Wal-Mart executives stayed in low cost hotels when they traveled and the cost related to the services provided by suppliers, Wal-Mart helped suppliers improve operations and efficiency to produce lower cost. Walton wanted the suppliers to correct any nonessential or insufficiencies existing in their business structures as a way of gaining lower prices and higher value products for its Wal-Mart stores. To further push savings Wal-Mart forced cost down by eliminating the middleman and buying directly from the manufacturers. This cost saving also applied to executive salaries Walton felt providing employees with stock options, training opportunities, and allow employees to grow and develop would be a better way to engage and involve them in his vision (Farhoomand, 2006).
Wal-mart has a reputation for caring for its customers, of course their employees, and for the prospective public. So Wal-Mart can be an industrial leader for the world of shoppers with an eye for lower affordable prices, company decision makers would continue it's systematic strategies that it's founder and president established years ago. Sam Walton believed in three guiding principles in his strategy planning they were to provide the customer with good value and service, to have a good relationship with its associates, and to be involved with the community.
Walmart has had a long-standing presence in America society since the middle of the 20th century, seen as a place to get everything done, Walmart has become a fixation in our society. From grocery shopping, to changing your oil and even filing your annual tax returns, Walmart is always there, everyday. Started by Sam Walton in 1962, it began as a small operation catering to a small Arkansas community. It was started on principles very similar to small local businesses in small towns. Today Walmart has gotten a different, darker reputation. On the surface, Walmart may seem like the solution to everyday issues. Low-income families are attracted to the low prices, and people who work odd hours benefit greatly from the 24 hours a day that many Walmarts are open. Lately, Walmart has also managed to be publicly recognized as a store that sells many of today’s green products, including organic food, environmental conscious cleaning products, as well as, paper products made from recycled paper. However, underneath all this, Walmart has a different side. Exploitation of its workers is widespread amongst Walmarts who do not belong to a union, especially in the United States. Wal...