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.

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)

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.

Save money, live better this philosophy transformed an idea into a lucrative multinational corporation, Sam Walton’s vision, “To be the best retailer in the hearts and minds of consumers and employees” is the foundation of the Wal-Mart we know today. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fostered on a vision with authentic leadership, paramount innovation, and the everyday consumer in mind began as a single discount store in a small town; today it has grown into the world's largest one stop shop retailer. Wal-Mart surpassed its competition in the retail industry, increasing its revenues of over 480 billion dollars. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. operates over 11,000 stores and warehouses worldwide; they house over 2 million employees, generating over 900,000 customers

Wal-Mart is a large and powerful corporation that uses its retail stores as its primary means of income and profit. The sheer size and influence this company possess on the global marketplace makes it a useful candidate for strategic management analysis. The purpose of this essay is to internally analyze Wal-Mart Corporation using SWOT methods to gain further knowledge about business operations and strategic planning. This essay will investigate the strengths of the company, explore the competitive advantages that this company possesses and finally determine some of the internal weaknesses that Wal-Mart faces.

Walgreens provides a look into their locus in the industry through declarations of purpose, vision, mission, and guiding principles or “stars”. These statements give the public an idea of where they have been, their intent on delivering value to consumers, and what their business is based upon. We learned previously that family was a large part of where Walgreens originated from. Their purpose statement says “We help people across the world lead healthier and happier lives.” (Walgreens Boots Alliance, 2015, About Us) Just as the founder, Charles R. Walgreen, Sr. indicated in the way he conducted business, so too is today’s company focused on the same objective.

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).

The Walmart Effect by Charles Fishman is about how the global economy is being transformed by Walmart. Over the past 20 years Walmart has changed the way people do business and what the consumer expects from a store. When Sam Walton opened the first Walmart in 1962 his first priority was the lowest price for the customer. Sam’s values were: hard work, frugality, disincline and loyalty. (27) As the company grown occasionally that mentality has been pushed past the point of reason, and taken to extremes where laws have been broken and workers being over worked and under paid. Walmart is the world’s largest company and private employer. The book defines Walmart as “quintessentially American.” (246) The summation of this is

After reviewing the three videos that were recommended for me to watch about Walmart, I later had a different perspective of Walmart as a company. With Walmart opening in many countries and towns it has lessened the amount of the small businesses in the area by competition. 5,000 Walmart are opened and still counting. This is an ethical problem to a certain extent. Small business owners know that they are small and that there will be some type of competition, but they probably never imagined that the competition would be a multimillion dollar company. That is not ethically Walmart’s fault. Where Walmart has a problem with is the amount of money and benefits that they give their employees. Walmart doesn’t compensate their employees the amount

Best Buy, which is most commonly known for its wide variety of electronics, is a very profitable business because of their ability to keep up with the technology advances of the 21st century. Not only is this business seeing revenue from the United States, they also have hundreds of stores in other countries including Canada and Mexico that have seen an increase in revenue over the last few years. As a primarily electronic based company, they take advantage of advertising and promotional offers. Even though its diverse selection of electronics can be appealing to customers, Best Buy has many competitors.

Wal-Mart is a general merchandise discount retailer, which was incorporated in 1962. Wal-Mart’s history is based on one man, Sam Walton, who changed the course of retailing forever. Sam Walton first entered retailing when he was a management trainee at J.C. Penny Co. in 1940 in Des Moines, Iowa. After serving in the Army in World War II, Walton acquired a Ben Franklin variety store franchise with his brother James Walton in Newport Arkansas, until they lost the lease to the store in 1950. By 1962, when the first Wal-Mart Discount City was opened in Rogers Arkansas, both Walton’s were operating fifteen stores under the “Walton 5 & 10” name, and were the largest Ben Franklin franchisee in the

Wal-Mart’s sheer size gives it unrestrained economic power which allows it to drive down costs in the retail and manufacturing sectors and to enact its own standards with regards to its work force.

Walmart’s history dates back in 1945 when Sam Walton bought an outlet of the Ben Franklin retail stores with the aim of selling products at a relatively low cost, so as to generate huge sale volumes and make profits at a low margin. Although this portrayed the purchased outlet as a crusade for most consumers,

Offering products at everyday low prices is one of Wal-Mart’s many strategies. The company value chain helps identify activities associated with how Wal-Mart achieves their many strategies. First, Wal-Mart’s supply chain management is extremely cost effective. For example, Wal-Mart has been known to imitate competition’s successful merchandising concepts. Another cost-effective method in Wal-Mart’s supply chain management is their ability to track the movement of products through the entire value chain. Whether the product is in shipment, in distribution center inventory, in-store