Wal-Mart Swot Analysis

In many states and towns across the United States Dollar General is a household name. The first Dollar General store opened in Springfield, Ky. on June 1, 1955, as a wholesale business in Kentucky, to dispose of a large quantity of lingerie. Their concept was simple no item in the store would cost more than one dollar. The idea became a huge success for J.L. Turner and his son Cal Turner Sr., other stores were quickly converted. By 1957, annual sales of Dollar General’s 29 stores were $5 million. J.L. passed away in 1964. Dollar General History (n.d.). Four years later, the company Cal Turner Jr. co-founded went public as Dollar General Corporation, posting annual sales of more than $40 million and net income in excess of $1.5 million. In 1977, Cal Turner Jr., the third generation Turner, succeeded his father as president of Dollar General. Cal Turner Jr. directed the company until his retirement in 2002. Today Dollar General is a leading discount retailer now have 13,000 stores in 43 states. The company remains true to their humble ethic of hard work and friendly customer service exemplified by the founding family.

The History of Walgreens started in 1901, with a medication store at the intersection of Bowen Ave and Cottage Grove in Chicago, possessed by Galesburg local Charles R. Walgreen, Sr. by 1913; Walgreens had developed to four stores on Chicago's South Side. It opened its fifth in 1915, and four more in 1916. By 1919, there were 20 stores in the chain. As an aftereffect of liquor disallowance, the 1920s was an effective time for Walgreens. At the time, liquor was unlawful. On the other hand, solution bourbon was accessible and sold by Walgreens.

Walgreens headquarters is located on 200 Wilmot Road in Deerfield Illinois (Walgreens Corp. Office), they currently operate 8,173 stores in all fifty states, district of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (Facts & FAQ). With this many locations they have a large workforce, employing over 240,000 people (Facts &FAQ). About 30% of employees are healthcare providers which include pharmacy technicians, pharmacists and other heath-related professions (Facts & FAQ).

Lowe’s is a hardware store that sell products from vacuum and dishwashers to wood and other hardware equipment. Lowe’s sell products for home improvement and construction. Lowe’s was originally founded in Wilkesboro, North Carolina in 1921 by Lucius Smith Lowe. His daughter Ruth inherited the store in 1940 after Lucius passed away. She then sold the franchise to her brother Jim. Jim partnered with Carl Buchan in 1949 under the management of Buchan. Jim and Carl had several disagreements as far as the expansion and diversification so in 1954 the partners split making Carl the sole owner. He successfully expanded the business to other cities in North Carolina. Then he passed away in 1960 leaving the store to his executive team of five people. They made the company public in 1961. The former headquarters for Lowe’s was originally located in Wilkesboro, now located in Mooresville, North Carolina. The once small town business has expanded to a well-known name brand is currently located in several countries.

Who would have thought a native Chicago pharmacist would be the founding father of a leading billion dollar pharmaceutical retailing business? In 1901, Charles R. Walgreen, Sr. purchased a local drugstore where he worked as a pharmacist and with his drive and energy had a vision to be an industry leader. (Walgreens Historical Highlights, 2015) By sheer determination and some very good ideas, Mr. Walgreen was able to expand in 1909 opening a second Walgreens location. (Walgreens Historical Highlights, 2015) One of his key successes was manufacturing his own line of drug products to ensure high quality and low prices. (Walgreens Historical Highlights 2015)

CVS and Walgreens continue to fight as top competitors in a growing market. CVS has over 7,000 stores nationwide and is expanding, as is Walgreens today with over 8,000 stores. This market isn’t particularly easy to enter as a major player in the market early because of all the work that needs to be put in to install as many brick and mortar stores or get that much of the market share in a short amount of time. It takes many years to be truly established as a pharmacy chain as Walgreens has experienced, being founded in 1901 and CVS being founded in 1963. This is why the barriers to entry are somewhat high because of the high fixed costs with the construction of brick and mortar stores.

Walgreens is a company with many strengths. Their first strength is that they have over 250,000 employees. Having so many employees allows the company to provide maximum support to their users. This is also great because having so many people working reduces the unemployment number. The more people working in the United States, the better the economy will be. Their second strength is that Walgreens covers the US, Columbia and Puerto Rico with over 8,300 stores. Having this many stores allows for them to take up a large percentage of the market share. Being this dominant can also reduce the risk of total failure. Meaning, that if one store fails, the rest of the chain can be sufficient coverage for the loss of revenue. Their third strength is that they have a strong and effective distribution network.

The early years of the Walgreens organization focused on expanding the footprint of the operation. (Wagner & Orvis, 2013) To support this expansion Walgreens used a “command and control” strategy as a means of exercising leadership and communicating with employees. (Wagner & Orvis, 2013) As the competitive landscape began to change, Walgreens recognized that it too needed a makeover. (Wagner & Orvis, 2013) New competition entered the market such as mail order pharmacies, big box retailer pharmacies, and internet options such as Google and Amazon were selling the same products as Walgreens. (Wagner & Orvis, 2013) The healthcare industry was changing. Heightened by the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Walgreens recognized that it needed

The first weakness identified is an obvious lack of quality leadership by store and warehouse management. A quick review of a review website for Costco will show a significant number of reviews by current or former employees where they bring up their perceived problems with their managers (Glassdoor). Poor management-employee relationships seem to be a

Jcpenny was opened and established by James Cash Penney; he began his career in retail management, when he opened The Golden Rule store, in partnership with Guy Johnson and Thomas Callahan, on April 14, 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming. He participated in the creation of two more stores, and purchased full interest in all three locations, when Callahan and Johnson dissolved their partnership in 1907. In 1909, Penney moved his company headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah to be closer to banks and railroads. By 1912, Penney had 34 stores in the Rocky Mountain States. In 1913, all stores were consolidated under the J.C. Penney banner. The so-called "mother store", in Kemmerer, opened as the chain's second location in 1904. It still

JC Penney stores sell conventional merchandise including clothing as well as shoes and also an array of leased departs like Sephora, salons, optical centers and portrait studios. In 2006, JC Penney has begun the partnership with Sephora to lure in young female consumers and aims to have a total of 140 Sephora stores in JC Penney by 2017 (Kezar, 2017). Sephora has since then been one of the most profitable sector in JC Penney. In 2016, home appliances is also brought back to select stores for the first time in 30 years (Bailey, 2017). This includes the introduction of new appliance showrooms for the home department expansion. In addition to adding Sephora and home department to JC Penney, women’s apparel product has also revitalized by adding more products selection and improve shopping experience. During the first quarter of 2017, Nike products is added to all stores and adding Adidas products to more than 400 locations. JC Penney also expands footwear and Boutique+ brand which is a plus-sized women’s wear to cater more audience(Kezar, 2017).

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retail and departmental store chain. Having business operations in 27 countries with 69 different brand names, Wal-Mart is able to serve a huge number of customers per day. Wal-Mart is the fastest growing and the most successful retail brand in the world. The factors which make it the strongest brand in its industry include large customer base, sound financial strength, strong brand image, and huge supply chain network. Wal-Mart has certain weaknesses in its operations and business setup like low acceptability of certain products, high employee turnover, and less recognition of newly introduced brands. These weaknesses can be overcome by availing attractive opportunities from the market and investing more in the most profitable areas. Wal-Mart faces the biggest threat from its competitors and ever-changing customer preferences.

Walmart and Amazon have become global, household names in the US and for good reason: both of these companies have revolutionized the way in which we shop. Amazon offers a convenient experience, and an ever-expanding selection of products whereas Walmart has a wide network of store locations and famously low prices. As investments, these companies highlight the dichotomous nature of the retail industry – brick-and-mortar vs e-commerce; high growth vs steady growth; US vs International; actual vs market expectations. This report provides an in depth comparative analysis between Walmart and Amazon. We will first summarize the industry and these companies, followed by an analysis of market position and financials, and finally an

Wal-Mart is arguably the most dynamic corporation in the last 50 years in the United States, if not the world. Arising from its beginnings in Bentonville, Arkansas, it has grown to over 4,400 discount stores, super centers and corner markets worldwide. Wal-Mart continues to expand despite public criticism of its labor practices as well as complaints about their treatment of competitors. The many strengths of Wal-Mart, like their low cost production and marketing practices, will aid Wal-Mart as it continues to grow in the retail

Wal-Mart embraced different ideas and strategies to face the competition and sustain in the market. It came into existence in 1980s when it started deploying technology by using Internal data interchange to communicate internally and externally. In 1990s, it came up with online store where they pushed their online sales in belligerent manner. However, in 2015, it came across with “next generation technology of radio frequency identification” which turned out to be expensive yet had a hope of higher-level tracking with positive response. It was awarded as the “most admired company in U.S in 2003” by Fortune despite of its weak international status. They lacked in their evaluation benchmark. No supplier was recruited who could supervise the employees taking into consideration the policies of Wal-Mart. It went global covering many countries in Europe, North and South America and China. They faced complications initially in Germany and Japan due to various factors like cultural differences and government policies but somehow managed to earn $2 billion in operating profit with the net sales increment at the rate of 16.6% which was a good move.