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Enthusiastic and Ruthless Sam Walton: Founder of Wal-Mart

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Sam Walton was born on March 29, 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. Shortly after he was born his family uprooted and moved to Missouri. Sam grew up in Missouri playing sports in high school and was a good student. He later attended the University of Missouri where he graduated with a degree in economics. After serving in World War 2, he opened his first business, a Ben Franklin franchise in Newport, Arkansas. Over a 20 year period he came to own 15 Ben Franklin stores with the help of his brother. Walton became frustrated with the management of the chain and decided to branch out on his own. In 1962, Walton opened the very first Wal-Mart. The economy during the 1960’s was at an all-time high. It had reached its longest uninterrupted period of economic expansion. Sam Walton sure picked a good time to open a brand new franchise. By 1976 Wal-Mart had a share value well above $176 million. By the end of 1980, Walton, had opened 276 stores and planned to increase that number by 100 every year. The same year that Walton had opened Wal-Mart, two other stores of the same fashion opened as well; Kmart and Woolco. Wal-Mart is an example of an Oligopoly franchise because Wal-Mart has limited competition, especially in the 1960’s. Sam Walton had a vision of a discount retail store; he saw his opportunity and went after it. In 1883 he opened Sam’s Wholesale club, and was very successful as well. Sam’s Club was aimed at small business owners that needed to purchase merchandise in bulk for

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