Wal-Mart's Business Analysis

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The founder of Walmart is Sam Walton. He started off in the retail business with JC Penny’s in 1940. In 1945, he was offered a variety store called Ben Franklin in Newport, Arkansas. When the lease came up, the lease was not renewed. He then opened up a Walton’s Five and Dime store. Sam was very successful at selling high volume and low cost merchandise. His strategy was to have “The lowest Prices Anytime, Anywhere.” (Our History, 2016) The store is now a Walmart museum.
In 1962, the Walton brothers opened up a new business in Rogers, Arkansas. The store was Walmart, the first of many stores to come. By 1969, the Walton family own 24 stores with over 12 million in sales. Later that year they incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. In the 1970’s, many changes happened. Walmart calls it the “decade of incredible growth.” (Our History, 2016) The growth includes going national and going to a public traded company. Walmart finally opened up a home office and a distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas, just before going public. When they went to a publicly traded company in 1972 they are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (WMT). At that time, they had approximately 51 stores and sales of $78 million. Their stocks sold at $16.50 per share and today, July 17 they sell at $70.95 per share. When Mohr stores went into bankruptcy, Walmart bought sixteen of their stores and the next year they acquired Hutcheson Shoe Company. Near the end of the 1970’s Walmart expanded the stores to include: pharmaceuticals, auto service and jewelry. This pushed them to have sales of more than one billion dollars. In the 1980’s, there were many firsts.
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Walmart calls it the “Decade of Firsts” (Our History, 2016) Walmart had calculated that they had 276 stores and have employed 21,000 people. A warehouse bulk items were introduced with Sam’s Club in 1983. The warehouse is located in Midwest, Oklahoma. Another first was when Walmart incorporated cash register with a computerized point-of sale systems, which allowed them to have accurate and fast checkouts. By the late 1980’s Walmart had their company operations linked through voice, data and video communications. This was the largest private communication system in the United States at that time. They also opened up the very first Supercenter that included a supermarket along with their standard merchandise in Washington, Missouri. Walmart again expanded on their stores by adding: twenty-four hour shopping, groceries, banking, gas stations at some locations, and McDonald’s fast food, which then changed to Subway. In the 1990’s Walmart became “America’s Top Retailer.” (Our History, 2016) During this decade they went international with Walmart and Sam’s Club. …show more content…
Their first international store was with Cifra, this was a joint venture. They opened up in Mexico City. By 1992, Walmart has employed about 371,000 people and has 1,928 combined between Walmart and Sam’s Club. Unfortunately, Sam Walton died shortly after receiving the Medal of Freedom in 1992. The following year Walmart had their first $1 billion dollar sales week. Between 1994 and 1996 Walmart had expanded into Canada and China. By late 1990’s the company again celebrated their first $100 billion dollar sales year. Walmart added another international location in 1999, United Kingdome in England. In the new millennium Walmart decides to add online and mobile

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