mid-semester report

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Recommended: Walmart's position in the retail industry

Retailing industry specializes in selling products and merchandizing. All goods are purchased from manufactures, importers and wholesalers, and retailers usually do not produce any goods themselves. Then those products are sold to consumers directly.
History of retailing in North America is very extensive and complex. Before 1945 stores in towns were owned by family businesses. Local consumers were able to buy what they needed in those stores. However, “general stores” were also available and they offered a variety of products that consumers may possibly need; anything could be bought in one place. Actual development of retailing business started in 1945 when the names of Woolworth, Sears, Macy’s and others became well known.
In 1972, the term of “category killer” has been introduced. Retail companies developed huge store chains which had an entire category of products available. For example, Best-Buy became electronics oriented, Sears focused on furniture. At that time, the US retail market became saturated and sometimes overwhelmed because of a huge number of malls, stand-alone stores etc. In the ‘90s retail businesses became more consolidated. Stores became bigger and more well-known; some local businesses were forced to leave the business. There were retailers that had the biggest market share. Walmart and Target became the monsters of the discount industry, Home Depot and Lowe’s took the home-improvement business, CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid operated in drugstore industry. Huge variety of big stores boosted people’s willingness to buy more products. Nowadays, low prices and a single destination for customers made Walmart the largest retailer in the US. (1)
Despite the industry constantly growing and developing, retail compan...

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.../2d/4fdf67184a359fdef07b1c3f4732/2013-annual-report-for-walmart-stores-inc_130221024708579502.pdf.
10. Google, Inc. NYSE:WMT Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Google Finance. [Online] March 14, 2014. [Cited: March 14, 2014.] https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1394827200000&chddm=1173&chls=IntervalBasedLine&q=NYSE:WMT&ntsp=0&ei=3UojU9k26orAA_PBAQ.
11. Thomson Reuters. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) Chart. Reuters.com. [Online] March 14, 2014. [Cited: March 14, 2014.] http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/chart?symbol=WMT.N.
12. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Walmart announces $11.8 to $12.8 billion FY2015 global capital expenditure plan. Walmart Corporate. [Online] October 15, 2013. [Cited: March 14, 2014.] http://news.walmart.com/news-archive/2013/10/15/walmart-announces-118-to-128-billion-fy2015-global-capital-expenditure-plan.

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