Walmart History

History

Sam Walton's original Walton's Five and Dime, now the Wal-Mart Visitor's Center, Bentonville, Arkansas.

Main article: History of Wal-Mart

Sam Walton's retailing career began when he accepted a job offer at a JCPenney store in Des Moines, Iowa on June 3, 1940 where he remained for 18 months. In 1945, he met with Butler Brothers, a regional retailer that owned a chain of variety stores called Ben Franklin. Butler Brothers offered him a Ben Franklin store in Newport, Arkansas.

Walton could not come to agreement on his lease renewal and could not find a new location in Newport; so he located a new variety store in Bentonville, Arkansas which he would open as another Ben Franklin franchise, but called "Walton's Five and Dime." Walton achieved higher sales volume by selling products with slightly smaller markups than most competitors.[3]

In 1962, Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store, Wal-Mart Discount City and within five years the company expanded to 24 stores across the state of Arkansas and reached $12.6 million in sales. In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas, in Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma.[4]

The company was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on October 31, 1969, and in 1970 opened its home office in Bentonville, Arkansas, and its first distribution center. There were now 38 stores operating with 1,500 employees and sales of $44.2 million. The company began trading stock at this time as a publicly held company on October 1, 1972, and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange shortly thereafter. The first stock split occurred in May 1971 at a market price of $47. By this time, Wal-Mart was operating in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma, and entered Tennessee in 1973, and Kentucky and Mississippi in 1974. As it moved into Texas in 1975, there were 125 stores with 7,500 employees, and total sales of $340.3 million.[4]

Wal-Mart continued to grow rapidly during the 1980s, and by its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1987, there were 1,198 stores with sales of $15.9 billion and 200,000 associates.[4] This year also marked the completion of the company's satellite network, a $24 million investment, linking all operating units of the company with their Bentonville Office via two-way voice, data, and one-way video communication. At the time, this was the largest private satellite network, and allowed the corporate office to track inventory, sales, and send instant communication to their stores.[5] Company founder Sam Walton stepped down as CEO the following year, and was replaced by David Glass.[6] Walton remained on as Chairman of the Corporate Board of Directors, and the company also restructured their senior management positions, elevating a cadre of executives to positions of greater responsibility.

Also in 1988, the first Wal-Mart Supercenter opened in Washington, Missouri.[7] Wal-Mart expanded their superstore concept during the 1990s, and shortly thereafter surpassed Toys "R" Us in toy sales.[8] The company also opened overseas stores during this period, entering the South American market in 1995 with stores in Argentina and Brazil, and purchasing ASDA in the United Kingdom for $10 billion in 1999.[9] In 1998, Wal-Mart entered the grocery business, introducing their Neighborhood Market concept with three stores in Arkansas.[10] By 2005, estimates indicate that the company controlled approximately