Walmart Case Study

In 1950, Sam Walton purchased a store and opened Walton’s 5 & 10 in Bentonville, Arkansas. This later became the home office of the now multi-billion dollar company. As business became more successful, Walton opened more stores and renamed the chain “Wal-mart.” Now, Walmart has stores all around the globe, with 5,229 stores in the US alone. It is considered the largest retail company in the world.

Walmart is known throughout the entire world as one of the most popular chain department stores. Actually, most have probably visited a Walmart store in the past week. Though Walmart stores seem to be a normal part of life the average person more than likely has little knowledge that pertains to Walmart’s success and business culture. This paper will guide one through the history of the organization, why Walmart is successful, what could threaten or open new opportunities, and how might they hold a competitive advantage.

From its very first store in Bentonville, Arkansas and now having numerous branches all over the globe, Wal-Mart has not stopped believing in the “business philosophy” that the customer is always the “number one” priority. Mr. Sam Walton, the main man behind the huge retail department store corporation, set forth a simple yet practical “culture” wherein “serving the customer’s needs first” is equivalent “to serving” its employees and “stakeholders” from within. Some of the business tactics that the firm sustains are its extraordinary bond with suppliers, well-organized management schemes putting great emphasis on Walton’s idea of constantly lowering

Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the globe and the third among the largest corporations in the world, is known to apply a wide range of logistic and supply chain techniques in meeting the dynamic demands from their clients. Additionally, the need to stay at the top in the world of business has made this concept mandatory for the multinational organization. Wal-mart, in its drive to achieve these ends has presented a number of implications, not only to the organization but also to its clients and the society at large (Fishman, 2006). Various positive attributes, say the history of the corporation, its application of information technology and computerized systems and the culture of the organization has, to a great extent catapulted the organization to great heights (Keil & Spector, 2005). Other attributed that have been of help to the organization and its client base include the corporation's strong global marketing procedures, practical distribution networks and strategic geographical locations just to mention but a few. On the negative side of the corporations activities and performance include the likes of rapacious pricing, poor labour and employees relations and poor working conditions among others.

Wal-Mart opened its doors in 1962 by founder Sam Walton. In just 5 short years he had expanded his company to 24 stores in its home state of Arkansas. Wal-Mart saw increasingly rapid

This store was twice as big as the original Walton 5 and 10 in Bentonville and sales were $975,000 in the store's first year. In 1962 three other future retail giants opened their doors: the first Kmart opened in Garden City, Michigan, Woolworth's department store opened its Woolco discount chain, and Dayton Hudson opened the first Target store. Within the first five years Wal-Mart had 18 stores with sales of $9 million while Kmart had 250 stores with sales of more than $800 million.# Wal-Mart was incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. Wal-Mart is now the largest grocery retailer in the United States. Fast forwarding to present times in the year of 2009 Wal-Mart generated 51% of its $258 billion sales in the U.S. from grocery sales. It also owns and operates Sam's Club retail warehouses. Sam Waltons' overall business strategy was to achieve higher sales volumes by keeping sales prices lower than his competitors by reducing his profit margin. The same strategy is still used today and has not changed in forty nine years.

The Wal-Mart company was established on July 2, 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas (History Timeline). The company was based on the vision of Sam Walton, who believed in giving his customers the lowest prices, anytime, anywhere. By 1967 the Walton family owned 27 different stores, and in 1969 they officially incorporated, becoming Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Just a year later in 1970 Wal-Mart went National, proving the wide spread appeal of Sam Walton's beliefs (History). This same year Wal-Mart became a publicly traded company, with its first shares priced at 16.50. A short year later the company was listed in The New York Stock Exchange (History Timeline). The 80's were a major success for this company. In 1983 the first Sams Club opened, this was and still is a store that sells product in bulk to small businesses and individuals. In 1988 the first Wal-Mart Super center opened. The Super center combined a full scale supermarket with general merchandise to create one stop shopping convenience (History). In 1992 the company suffered a hard hit when Sam Walton passed away at the age of 74. Although they lost the man at the heart of the company they were determined to carry on with his vision, and so they did. In 1996 they opened their first stores in China (History Timeline). By 2002 they reach the top of the Fortune 500 ranking of Americas largest companies. In 2012 Wal-Mart celebrated 50 successful years of business. Today the company employs 2.2 million associates worldwide and serves

In this paper, I have researched to find out how this grant empire has become and remain so successful. I found out that one of the reasons is because it has been able to maintain the goals and standards that its owner, Mr. Sam Walton has built it upon. Even after his death, Wal-Mart continues to expand and grow in other countries. Wal-Mart is considered one of the top ten global companies today. Mr. Walton’s main goal was to sell products at a low price so that people could live a better life. Another reason is because Wal-Mart uses certain market mix strategies such as the four P”. These strategies, price, promotion, product and place.

On the other hand, another control system the organization is their rewarding strategy; as they link their performance and abilities to meet goals and targets to pay raise and promotion.

When Sam Walton founded the first Wal-Mart in 1962, the idea of bringing in a discount-shopping store into rural America was almost unheard of, except for the local five and dime stores. When Walton noticed that he had a lot of competition from regional discount chains, him and his wife Helen traveled the country to study other new retailing concepts, and were convinced that it was the wave of the future. With Walton's vision, Wal-Mart grew to be a multi-billion dollar, international company, operating about 4,600 stores around the world.

The premier Wal-Mart location opened in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. Walton and his wife Helen set up 95% of the cash for the endeavor. Only six years after the fact Wal-Mart started extending outside of Arkansas State. Wal-Mart stores opened in two more southern states, Missouri and Oklahoma. On October 31, 1969, Wal-Mart had become incorporated. In 1971, Wal-Mart stock had its first 100% part and was sold at a stock price of price of $47. By 1972, Wal-Mart was being traded on the New York Stock Exchange. By its 18th birthday, Wal-Mart turned into the speediest organization to reach $1 billion in sales. The chain included 276 stores, 21,000 partners, $1.248 billion in sales. All through the 1980s, Wal-Mart developed to have areas in 13 new states. By 1991, Wal-Mart proceeded onward to the international business sector, opening its first

This paper concerning Walmart will give a brief history and development story of the retail outlet. The research will also feature the gender discrimination claims that have been made against the retail outlet store.

Walmart Corporation was open in 1962 by Sam Walton. The first Walmart was open in Roger, Arkansas to save money or better people life and live a better. Walmart has over 8,800 stores sites in 15 countries with 2.2million employees worldwide. Bentonville, Arkansas has the headquarters and distribution center of Walmart. The discount departs stores are known as the original stores.

Starting out with a single store in Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart has not stopped expanding. The First Wal-Mart store was opened in 1962 by a Mr. Sam Walton. He opened the store with one intention: sell products people need at the lowest price available. Wal-Mart has since blown up into a globally known and used corporation. Currently, more than fifty percent of all Americans live within five miles of a Wal-Mart store, which is less than a ten mile drive away. Ninety percent of Americans live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart. (Fishman, 2006). Wal-Mart is bordering on 9000 locations worldwide including operations in Mexico, United Kingdom, Japan, and India.

Wal-Mart is sitting at number one on the Global Fortune 500 list. Sam Walton would never have thought that his creation of Wal-Mart in 1962 would lead to a global dynasty. By 1972 Wal-Mart went public which gave an infusion of money and capital for Mr. Walton that gave them 276 stores by 1980. In the mid 80's Wal-Mart expanded to having member only warehouse stores, Sam's Club. From there Wal-Mart opened supercenters that included full grocery and 36 departments of regular merchandise. By the end of the 1980's there were 1,402 stores and 123 Sam's Clubs (Wal-Mart corporate 2012).