About Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart store opened in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas, it has been focused on making a difference in the lives of each and every one of its customers. Sam Walton's exemplary leadership, along with countless of his employees focused on helping their customers along with its communities “save money and live better.” The multi-billion dollar American company was begun with the intent of providing a discount shopping store. After becoming anxious and afraid of surrounding competitive discount chains, Walton and his wife Helen began educating themselves with other forms of new product ideas. Wal-Mart would finally grow into a billion dollar, international company, with approximately 4,600 stores functioning worldwide (Wal-Mart Stores, 2014)
Wal-Mart would strive in a number of productions including general merchandise, drug stores, grocery stores, retail variety stores, and eating places. These foundations are solely focused in the retail sales of various products at affordable and popular prices. Sales are made on cash as well as a carry basis, with the open selling method system and customer selection of products (Wal-Mart Stores, 2014).
A decade after the store opened, the company later grew and emerged into Wal-Mart stores Inc. However, a year after the company successfully opened the first manufacturing center and main office in Bentonville, Arkansas before eventually going public on the New York stock exchange. The first Wal-Mart supercenter was established in 1988 and Wal-Mart established its first international center in Mexico City in 1991 (Wal-Mart Stores, 2014).
Today Wal-Mart has become very successful operating more than eleven thousand production stores globally, under sixty-nine banners and e-commerce web...
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... from crooks and liars: http://crooksandliars.com/kenneth-quinnell/wal-mart-improving-its-environmen
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To begin with, some store history may be helpful. In 1914, Anna Albrecht opened a small store, Albrecht Discount, in the town of Essen, Germany. By 1948, her sons had taken over the business and had expanded it to four locations. In 1962, the store’s name changed from Albrecht Discount to Aldi. In 1976, Aldi makes their debut in the United States, opening a store in Southwestern Iowa. Today, in 2014, Aldi has 1,300 locations in the United States and 4,000 locations worldwide (Aldiuscareers.com). In 1962, Wal-Mart opens in Rogers, Arkansas. In 1983, Sam Walton opened the first Sam’s Club in Midwest City, Oklahoma. By 1988, Walton had opened the first Wal-Mart Supercenter in Washington, Missouri. Wal-Mart went global in 1991, opening a Sam’s Club in Mexico City, Mexico. Today, in 2014, Wal-Mart employs 2.2 million associates, serves 200 million customers, with 11,000 stores in twenty-seven countries (Corporate.walmart.com).
The retail giant’s policies to offer lowest prices on the market is one that gives the company an upper hand since it can leverage on its massive economies of scale, but ultimately the low prices throw the local economy into turmoil. The many small businesses within the regions find it extremely difficult to compete with the low prices offered by the retail giant, Wal-Mart. According to Wolff-Mann (2016), the opening of Wal-Mart in North Carolina resulted in a 30% drop in the sales of a 44-year-old grocery store. Whenever the grocery store cut prices to retain its clients which were being lost to Wal-Mart, the giant retailer would always undercut or match the price. This unfair practice led to the close down of the store, while other businesses in the region succumbed to the stiff and unfair competition. Therefore, when Wal-Mart moves into a small town, things do not get better; the company introduces unsustainable economic models which makes thing worse within the
"Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 9 Apr 2014. .
Canning, Kathie. “Cover Story.” Art of Transformation: Walmart’s betting on a revamped Great Value lineup—and many other strategic changes—to keep the momentum going post-recession. (Aug. 2009): 20-26. Small Business Resource Center. Web. 5 Nov. 2009.
In April 1983, the Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. opened its first Sam's Club store, a membership-based discount warehouse club, in Midwest City, Oklahoma. In 1985, their stock was being traded on the Pacific Stock Exchange (PSE). By the company's 25th anniversary, in 1987, there were 1,198 stores nationwide, employing 200,000 associates, with sales of $15.9 billion. In February 1988, Sam Walton stepped down as the CEO of Wal-Mart, and was succeeded by David Glass. The same year, the first Wal-Mart Supercenter was opened in Washington, Missouri. The supercenter contained everything found in a regular Wal-Mart discount store, along with a tire and oil change shop; optical center; photo processing lab & portrait studio; and numerous small outlets like banks, cellular phone stores, hair & nail salons, video rental stores, and several fast food restaurants.
In 1962, Wal-Mart opened their first store in Rogers, Arkansas. In 1970, Wal-Mart's first distribution center and home office in Bentonville, Ark. open and Wal-Mart went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Just nine years from that, Wal-Mart's annual sales exceeded one billion dollars. In 1988, Wal-Mart super centers opened across the country. In a merely three years from that, Wal-Mart opened their own store in Mexico City, Mexico; making Wal-Mart an international corporation. Not even sixty years has past, and yet, Wal-Mart is over-powering our country.
Wal-Mart’s competitive environment is quite unique. Although Wal-Mart’s primary competition comes from general merchandise retailers, warehouse clubs and supermarket retailers also present competitive pressure. The discount retail industry is substantial in size and is constantly experiencing growth and change. The top competitors compete both nationally and internationally. There is extensive competition on pricing, location, store size, layout and environment, merchandise mix, technology and innovation, and overall image. The market is definitely characterized by economies of scale. Top retailers vertically integrate many functions, such as purchasing, manufacturing, advertising, and shipping. Large scale functions such as these give the top competitors a significant cost advantage over small-scale competition.
The first Wal-Mart store was built in Rogers, Arkansas. Wal-Mart's were gradually put up around the United States and then moved to other countries such as Japan. Marshall Fields & Company was started in 1881, which moved to Dayton Dry Goods Store into the Dayton Co. The Dayton Co. enters into the world of discount merchandising, starting with the first Target.
Currently, Wal-Mart does not have a formal mission statement, but its main mission can be tied to its (3) basic beliefs which are Respect for the Individual, Service to Customer, and Strive for Excellence (www.walmartfacts.com). Thus, based on its core values and beliefs, Wal-Mart’s mission is focused on providing exceptional services and "everyday low prices" to its customers.
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.
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).
The first Wal-Mart was opened in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. By 1969 it was incorporated into Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and in 1972 went public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company grew steadily across the United States, and by 1990 was the nation's largest retailer. In 1991 and 1994, Wal-Mart moved into Mexico and Canada respectively. By 1997 it was incorporated into the Dow Jones Industrial Average. As of 2005, Wal-Mart has stores in the United Kingdom, and Puerto Rico, and brings in revenue of close to 300 billion dollars a year. In 2006, Wal-Mart invaded the China and India's markets. During the last two decades, Wal-Mart has been able to take advantage of the rise of information technology and the explosion of the global economy to change the balance of power in the business world (Wikipedia, 2006). Today Wal-Mart continues to grow and their success is not only from their sound strategic management planning but also from its implementation of those strategic plans. In other words operational planning has been an important key to their success.
Walmart’s marketing strategy focuses on ‘Everyday Low Prices”, which allows customers to shop anytime without waiting for a sale. Many competitors still use weekly advertisements with hope to gain market share. Walmart runs 13 advertisements per year, to showcase new items or reflect the season with items listed at regular everyday prices. The ‘everyday low price’ provides customers with piece of mind, that they do not have to wait for a sale to get a better deal.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is a renowned retail goods superstore that sits atop the Fortune list at number one. It would be very difficult to find an individual who is unaware of Walmart’s position as the largest brick-and-mortar retail chain in the world. The company has thrived over the past few years and continues to grow by effectively managing its store operations and distribution strategies. One of the major contributors to the business consistently meeting market expectations is directly attributable to their management approach. Walmart has revolutionized the way retail companies manage their supply chains in more ways than one.