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Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Walmart logo, used since June 30, 2008 Type Traded as Public NYSE: WMT Dow Jones Industrial Average Component S&P 500 Component Retailing 1962 Sam Walton Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S. 362151N 0941259W 8,970 (2011) Worldwide Mike Duke (President & CEO) S. Robson Walton (Chairman) Apparel/Footwear Specialty, Cash & Carry/Warehouse Club, Discount Department Store, Discount Store, Hypermarket/Supercenter/Superstore, Supermarket US$ 446.950 billion (2012) US$ 26.558 billion (2012) US$ 15.699 billion (2012) US$ 193.406 billion (2012) US$ 71.315 billion (2012) Walton family 2.2 million (2012) Walmart Canada

Industry Founded Founder(s) Headquarters Number of locations Area served Key people Services

Revenue Operating income Net income Total assets Total equity Owner(s) Employees Divisions

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Asda, Sam's Club, Seiyu Group,Walmex


Wal-Mart Stores.com Walmart.com

Sam Walton's original Walton's Five and Dime store in Bentonville, Arkansas, now serving as the Walmart Visitor Center Main article: History of Walmart Sam Walton, a businessman from Arkansas, began his retail career when he started work on June 3, 1940, at a J. C. Penney store in Des Moines, Iowa where he remained for 18 months. In 1945, he met Butler Brothers, a regional retailer that owned a chain of variety stores called Ben Franklin and that offered him one in Newport, Arkansas.[11] Walton was extremely successful in running the store in Newport, far exceeding expectations.[12] However, when the lease came up for renewal, Walton could neither come to agreement on the existing store's lease renewal nor find a new location in Newport. Instead, he opened a new Ben Franklin franchise in Bentonville, Arkansas, but called it "Walton's Five and Dime." There, he achieved higher sales volume by marking up slightly less than most competitors.[13]

On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Walmart Discount City store located at 719 Walnut Ave. in Rogers, Arkansas. The building is now occupied by a hardware store and an antique mall. Within five years, the company expanded to 24 stores across Arkansas and reached $12.6 million in sales.[14] In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas, in Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma.[15] Incorporation and growth The company was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on October 31, 1969. In 1970, it opened its home office and first distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas. It had 38 stores operating with 1,500 employees and sales of $44.2 million. It began trading stock as a publicly held company on October 1, 1970, and was soon listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The first stock split occurred in May 1971 at a market price of $47. By this time, Walmart was operating in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma; it entered Tennessee in 1973 and Kentucky and Mississippi in 1974. As it moved into Texas in 1975, there were 125 stores with 7,500 employees and total sales of $340.3 million.[15] Walmart opened its first Texas store in Mount Pleasant on November 11, 1975.[16] In the 1980s, Walmart continued to grow rapidly, and by its 25th anniversary in 1987 there were 1,198 stores with sales of $15.9 billion and 200,000 associates.[15] This year also marked the completion of the company's satellite network, a $24 million investment linking all operating units of the company with its Bentonville office via two-way voice and data transmission and one-way video communication. At the time, it was the largest private satellite network, allowing the corporate office to track inventory and sales and to instantly communicate to stores.[17] In 1988, Sam Walton stepped down as CEO and was replaced by David Glass.[18] Walton remained as Chairman of the Board, and the company also rearranged other people in senior positions.

Inside a Walmart Supercenter in West Plains, Missouri In 1988, the first Walmart Supercenter opened in Washington, Missouri.[19] Thanks to its superstores, it surpassed Toys "R" Us in toy sales in the late 1990s.[20] The company also opened overseas stores, entering South America in 1995 with stores in Argentina and Brazil; and Europe in 1999, buying Asda in the UK for $10 billion.[21] In 1998, Wal-Mart introduced the "Neighborhood Market" concept with three stores in Arkansas.[22] By 2005, estimates indicate that the company controlled about 20% of the retail grocery and consumables business.[23] In 2000, H. Lee Scott became President and CEO, and Walmart's sales increased to $165 billion.[24] In 2002, it was listed for the first time as America's largest corporation on the Fortune 500 list, with revenues of $219.8 billion and profits of $6.7 billion. It has remained there every year, except for 2006 and 2009

In 2005, Walmart had $312.4 billion in sales, more than 6,200 facilities around the world including 3,800 stores in the United States and 2,800 elsewhere, employing more than 1.6 million "associates" worldwide. Its U.S. presence grew so rapidly that only small pockets of the country remained further than 60 miles (100 km) from the nearest Walmart.[31] As Walmart grew rapidly into the world's largest corporation, many critics worried about the effect of its stores on local communities, particularly small towns with many "mom and pop" stores. There have been several studies on the economic impact of Walmart on small towns and local businesses, jobs, and taxpayers. In one, Kenneth Stone, a Professor of Economics at Iowa State University, found that some small towns can lose almost half of their retail trade within ten years of a Walmart store opening.[32] However, in another study, he compared the changes to what small town shops had faced in the past including the development of the railroads, the advent of the Sears Roebuck catalog, as well as the arrival of shopping malls and concluded that shop owners who adapt to changes in the retail market can thrive after Walmart arrives.[32] A later study in collaboration with Mississippi State University showed that there are "both positive and negative impacts on existing stores in the area where the new supercenter locates

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