INTRODUCTION TO WALMART
Walmart Inc. is the largest retailer in the United States. It is the largest public service company in the world. Just to give you an idea about the size of its operations, if Walmart was a country, it would have been the 25th biggest economy in the world. As of 2016, Walmart has more than 11,200 stores across 27 countries and by the end of 3rd quarter of 2015 had $15 Billion worth of Inventories.
Walmart was founded in the year 1962 in Bentonville, Arkansas by Mr. Sam Walton. In its maiden year of operations, the company garnered revenues of $700,000 in sales. In the next 12 years, it made a drastic rise to $ 5.4 million in sales and subsequently crossed $ 1Billion mark in 1980. By the year 2002, the company’s revenues equaled to 2.3% of the GDP of USA, making it the biggest Retailer in the United States, having already overtaken K-mart in 1992 and in 2000. Walmart had a continuous exponential rise since its inception. This year the company reported revenues of $ 478 Billion with gross profit at staggering $ 121 Billion. This graphical representation shows Walmart’s growth in the past decade.
With these kinds of numbers, having an effective and efficient supply chain management strategy and system is imperative. The entire organization is committed to a business model of driving costs out of supply chains to enable consumers to save money and live better.
OPERATION OVERVIEW
So the question arises, how does Walmart manage it?
Strategically,
Wal-Mart, founded by Sam Walton in 1962, is the world’s largest retailer and public corporation. It operates over 6,500 stores worldwide, employs 1.9 million associates, and serves more
Walmart is a multinational corporation with 11,000 retail locations located in 27 countries and is the largest retailer in the world. With over 2.2 million employees, Walmart is the also largest employer in United States the world. The history of Walmart dates back to 1962 when founder Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas. By the late 1960s, total sales were over $12 million with 24 Walmart stores spread across Arkansas (Riffel, 2014). “By the end of the 1970s, Wal-Mart had expanded into a number of different services in its stores—selling pharmaceuticals, adding auto service centers, and introducing jewelry divisions.
Walmart stores Inc., started as a small discount store that grew into about 11,695 stores worldwide (Kamboj, & Kalia, 2011). Currently the store is the world’s largest commercial employer, and the second-largest employer in the world behind the Chinese military (Kamboj, & Kalia, 2011). Founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, the company is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas (Kamboj, & Kalia, 2011). In 2014, the firm recorded204.75 billion dollars in total assets and 485.65 billion dollars in revenue (Kamboj, & Kalia,
Few companies have moved so far so fast. Founded 40 years ago in rural Arkansas by Sam Walton, Wal-Mart has swelled to 4,300 stores in nine countries and a net income of $16.1 billion in 2015. Its computer network, a critical part of its success, rivals the Pentagon's. Everyone knows about Wal-Mart, but nobody realizes how immense they are and how powerful they are at the same time. A study commissioned by the Los Angeles City Council in 2003, found that Walmart is a net loss for the communities it moves into.
First, it is important to understand that Walmart, being the economic super power it is, developed extremely quickly. According to the Company Profile Walmart Stores, Inc., Walmart was established in 1969, and shortly thereafter in 1972 become publicly traded on the New York Stock exchange. As the company continued to grow, in the 1980’s the company diversified into Supercenters, Sam’s Club (membership warehouse club), and even international operations. Walmart expanded and began to sell household items (2000), the launch of their “No Boundaries” cosmetic line (2001), an online music store (2004), the completion of Walmart Site to Store (2007), Walmart prepaid debit cards (2007), their very own home furnishing brand “Canopy” (2008), and finally their very own line of Sam’s choice coffee (2008). In 2009 the company took a huge leap
Walmart is also the biggest private employer in the world with over two million workers employed. Walmart is a family owned business that is guided by the Walton family. Walmart is biggest grocery seller in the United States and one of the most valuable companies’ based on market value. Walmart’s organized into three separate division which are Sam’s club, Walmart, and
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (which was incorporated in October, 1969) is presently the world’s largest retailer; it sells a wide variety of products at economical prices when compared to competitors (Reuters, 2016). Wal-Mart’s business affairs are operated in three sectors: Walmart U.S., Walmart International and Sam 's Club (Reuters, 2016). The U.S. portion of the company runs retail stores in all states as well as Puerto Rico, my way of three main store set-ups, and digital retail (Reuters, 2016). The international wing of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., features business activities in 26 foreign countries (that is, outside of the United States) and comprises several formats separated into three main classes:
Wal-Mart is widely recognized as one of the leading discount variety store chains. It is the nations largest discount department store chain, and also one of the largest discounters in the nation in terms of sales dollars.
When opening the first Wal-Mart store, Sam Walton traveled the country to learn more about discount retailing and gained a new perspective on what he though Americans desired in a store (WalMart). Contrary to popular opinion, Sam Walton believed that discount stores could be successful in rural America so Wal-Mart’s early beginnings were rooted in the establishment of a small discount store in Rogers, AR opened by Sam Walton in 1962 (Wal-Mart). From there ,Wal-Mart continued to grow and was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in 1969. Once the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the growth skyrocked, growing from a chain of small discount stores to large supercenters
Background- WalMart is a Bentonville, Arkansas global corporation that runs chains of discount department and warehouse stores. It is the world's largest public corporation ranked by revenue, the largest private employer with over 2 million employees, and the largest retailer in the world. It was founded in 1962 and now has almost 9,000 stores in 15 countries under 55 different names (walmart.com).
Wal-Mart is a world-wide active American retail trade company and currently the largest retail company in the world. Beginning in 1962, Wal-Mart has made the transition from a small firm in Arkansas to the largest employer with 3, 800 store units in the United States with record revenues today. But nevertheless, since Wal-Mart launched its online branch, it had to suffer from substantial setbacks from competitors such as Amazon.com or Ebay.
Walmart is a multinational retail company that runs a network of more than 11,000 discount retail stores as well as warehouse stores distributed in more than 27 countries. Its headquarters are located in Bentonville, United. It ranks as the world’s leading private employer with over 2.2 million employees serving in different countries’ retail stores. Walmart operates as a family owned organization that is managed by the Walton family. The Walton siblings own more than 50% of this company through managing the Walton Enterprises as well as through individual holdings (Charles, 2014).
Wal-Mart was founded by businessman Sam Walton in 1962 as a small retail store in Arkansas, USA. From there it has grown to become the largest retail giant in the world. Ranked by Forbes 2000 list for 2011 as the 18th largest public corporation in the world, Wal-Mart is the highest revenue generating public entity in the world as of 31st January 2011, with gross revenue of 422 billion US Dollars (Walmart Annual Report, 2011). It is also noted for being the largest private employer in the world having just over 2 million employees serving in 8500 stores, in 15 different countries, under 55 different names, worldwide. (Daniel, 2010)
Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world employing over 2.2 million associates with 1.3 million of them being Americans. The first Wal-Mart was opened in Rogers Arkansas in 1962 by Sam Walton. The company’s stock went public in 1970 and the financial success lead to the company’s rapid growth. Mr. Walton believed the success of the company was due to what is now Wal-Mart’s marketing strategy everyday low prices. Wal-Mart’s top executives are Doug McMillon CEO of Wal-Mart stores, Charles M. Holley, Jr. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Wal-Mart, Michael J. Bender Chief Operating Officer, Greg Foren, President and CEO of Wal-Mart U.S., Gisel Ruiz Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Wal-Mart
Bustillo (2010) gives a background on how Walmart commenced operations in 1962 as a local discount store in Rogers, Arkansas. Furthermore, how it was originated by Sam Walton who successfully ran a retail store called Walton’s Five and Dime, an extension of a franchise store called Ben Franklin. Then after five years, Mr. Walton completed 24 stores across Arkansas with annual sales of $12.6 million. In 1968, Walmart expanded outside the state to Missouri and Oklahoma. In October 31, 1969, Wal-Mart was incorporated as Walmart Stores, Inc. Bustillo (2010) further explains that in the next year, the retailer consisted of 38 stores with 1,500 employees with sales totaling over $44 million. Walmart became public trading company on NYSE with a stock split the following year at $47 per share. By 1975, sales totaled just over $340 million and growing rapidly. The store celebrated its 25th anniversary in the 1980s, highlighting its sales of $16 billion and 200,000 employees. Walmart invested $24 million for new technology of a satellite network to track inventory and sales to its corporate office in Bentonville, Arkansas. This gave a great competitive edge as they developed its first super store which opened in Washington, Missouri. By late 1990s, the store expanded operations to overseas. In the UK, Walmart purchased ASDA retailer for $10 billion. In 2000, Walmart sales grew to $165 billion. Two years later, it was listed as Americas largest corporation by the Fortune