Wal-Mart: The Global Retailer
Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer. In fact, it's the world's largest company, with sales last year totaling nearly $220 billion. Of that total, $35.5 billion were from the fast-growing Wal-Mart International Division. Wal-Mart is growing at an incredible clip, both at home and abroad. In the early 1990s, its sales were a little less than $85 billion; it had 2,200 stores and no international division. Today, it has over 3,200 stores, with about 1,100 of them outside the United States. Even though Wal-Mart continues to open stores in the United States, the biggest opportunity for future growth lies in international expansion.
Wal-Mart first "went abroad" to Canada when it purchased 122 Canadian Woolco stores in 1993. By mid-2002, it had 196 stores in Canada, where it was ranked the best retailer and the ninth best company for which to work. Following its move north, the retailing giant turned south into Mexico, using joint ventures and sometimes buying companies outright. Wal-Mart opened its first Mexican store in 1991. By mid-2002, it had opened 66 supercenters, 47 Sam's Clubs, 454 Superama supermarkets, 51 Suburbia Apparel outlets, 245 restaurants under the Vips division, and 110 Bodego units carrying a limited assortment of discount merchandise. In the first half of 2002, sales in Mexico totaled $4.9 billion, and the company announced plans to add 60 new stores in Mexico by the end of 2003. Obviously, Mexico has been a big success for Wal-Mart.
From Mexico, Wal-Mart moved to another Latin market, Puerto Rico. During the next 10 years, Wal-Mart opened 11 more Puerto Rican stores. In 2002 it announced that it would buy Supermercados Amigo, Puerto Rico's second largest grocery retailer. After the purchase, Wal-Mart would have 47 stores and an estimated $1.5 billion in Puerto Rican sales. Sensing a good market, Wal-Mart intended to invest $400 million more in Puerto Rico in the next five years.
Next, it was on to South America. In late 1995, Wal-Mart established stores in Brazil and Argentina. These have been Wal-Mart's most disappointing ventures in the western hemisphere. For one thing, the Argentinean economy is troubled; Argentina's presidency seems to be a revolving door, and inflation is spiraling upward. There's not much Wal-Mart can do about these environmental factors, but it has maintained 11 stores there in the hopes that the economic picture will eventually turn around. The picture in Brazil is a little brighter.
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).
Wal-Mart represents the sickness of capitalism at its almost fully evolved state. As Jim Hightower said, "Why single out Wal-Mart? Because it's a hog. Despite the homespun image it cultivates in its ads, it operates with an arrogance and avarice that would make Enron blush and John D. Rockefeller envious. It's the world's biggest retail corporation and America's largest private employer; Sam Robson Walton, a member of the ruling family, is one of the richest people on earth. Wal-Mart and the Waltons got to the top the old-fashioned way: by roughing people up. Their low, low prices are the product of two ruthless commandments: Extract the last penny possible from human toil and squeeze the last dime from its thousands of suppliers, who are left with no profit margin unless they adopt the Wal-Mart model of using nonunion labor and shipping production to low-wage hellholes abroad." (The Nation, March 4th 2002 www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020304&s=hightower).
Wal-Mart has been a staple of America since July 2, 1962, when Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City store. Within a few years, Wal-Mart Discount City stores began to spread across the country. In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas, in Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma. Sam Walton found success in offering consumers options and variety. Since that first store opened, Wal-Mart has now entered the grocery business and now the company controls about 20% of the retail grocery and consumables business. This says a lot about a man who began his retail career after working just 18 months at J.C Penny. Sam Walton found success early on with offering variety, and options when no one else was.
Wal-Mart, a "Big-Box Retailer" employs more than 2.1 million associates worldwide and has two-thousand seven-hundred stores in the United States with many more in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Central America, Chile, China, Germany, Japan, Korea, India, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom, making Wal-Mart the largest retailer in the world. "Wal-Mart accounts for upward of 30 percent of U.S. sales, and plans to more than double its sales within the next five years" (Lynn 29-36). Why is Wal-Mart so successful, and is Wal-Mart actually bad for America?
Since 1962 and the beginning of the discount retailer market Wal-Mart has been ahead of the retail game. By 1967 there were 24 Wal-Marts that had grossed 12.6 million dollars. In just 7 years Wal-mart had spread into 9 states. By 1979 Wal-Mart was the fastest store to reach a billion dollars in sales. In 2005 Wal-Mart has 3,800 domestic stores along with 3,800 stores internationally, and had made over 312 billion dollars. As you can see the Wal-Mart empire has grown monumentally. To move into this segment of the market would be tough.
Wal-Mart was able to enter the international market by opening Club Aurrera in Mexico City in 1991 and a Wal-Mart store in Puerto Rico the following year. On April 5, 1992, Sam Walton passed away, and was succeeded by his eldest son, S. Robson Walton, as Chairman of the corporate board of directors. In 1996, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE). The following year, the company replaced Woolworth on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Also, this same year, the company had its first $100 billion sales year, with sales totaling $118.1 billion.
Wal-Shop was established in 1962 by Sam Walton. Walton's imagined objective when he opened his initially store was to spare individuals cash to enable them to carry on with a superior life. The primary Wal-Bazaar store was opened in Rogers, Arkansas. It is currently the biggest staple retailer in the Unified States. There are more than 8,800 Wal-Shop stores situated in 15 nations. There are 2.1 million workers around the world. In 1983, the principal Sam's Club stockroom was opened. The primary supercenter opened in 1988. After ten years, Wal-Shop presented the area showcase. The first stores are currently known as rebate retail establishments. The central station and conveyance focus are situated in Bentonville, Arkansas. In
"Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world's largest retailer, with $285.2 billion in sales in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2005. The company employs 1.6 million associates worldwide through more than 3,700 facilities in the United States and more than 2,400 units in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. More than 138 million customers per week visit Wal-Mart stores worldwide." (Walmartfacts.com)
WALMART store inclusive is the largest retailer and the largest company in terms of revenue.
Wal-Mart is seen as a global company, but it wasn’t until 1991 that Wal-Mart opens its fir...
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.
Walmart Canada Corp., the Canadian division of Walmart, was founded on March 17, 1994 and has more than 395 stores in Canada,
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
Today Wal-Mart servers around 130 Million people world wide and it has employees over 1.3 million people across the globe. They have been increase in growth of sales over 11% which amounted $6.4 billion US dollars. The earnings of the Wal-Mart are far ahead of its French competitors Carrefour although it is having its branches in 32 countries it earning and saving far behind. With wide range of suppliers the Wal-Mart has it has been one of the successful retail chains in the world today.
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.