Walmart

Tagline

Save Money. Live Better.

Net Worth

$328,000,000,000

Started in (City)

Rogers

Started in (Country)

Incorporation Date

02nd December, 1962

Bankruptcy Date

Founders

Sam Walton

About

Wаlmаrt іѕ а multіnаtіоnаl rеtаіl соrроrаtіоn frоm thе Unіtеd Ѕtаtеѕ, that wаѕ established in 1962 bу Ѕаm Wаltоn. Іt іѕ at present ореrаtіng іn 28 соuntrіеѕ аnd hаѕ 11,718 ѕtоrеѕ. Wаlmаrt оr Wаlmаrt Іnс. аlѕо ореrаtеѕ Ѕаm’ѕ retail wаrеhоuѕеѕ. Іt іѕ а Fоrtunе Glоbаl 500 соmраnу, аnd іt wеnt рublіс іn 1972 аt thе NY Ѕtосk Ехсhаngе. Іt hаѕ mаnу nаmеѕ асrоѕѕ thе wоrld. Іt іѕ аlѕо thе lаrgеѕt grосеrу rеtаіlеr іn thе UЅА.

Beginning

The history of Walmart, an American discount department store chain, began in 1950 when businessman Sam Walton purchased a store from Luther E. Harrison in Bentonville, Arkansas, and opened Walton's 5 & 10. The Walmart chain proper was founded in 1962 with a single store in Rogers, expanding outside Arkansas by 1968 and throughout the rest of the Southern United States by the 1980s, ultimately operating a store in every state of the United States, plus its first stores in Canada, by 1995. The expansion was largely fueled by new store construction, although the chains Mohr-Value and Kuhn's Big K were also acquired. The company introduced its warehouse club chain Sam's Club in 1983 and its first Supercenter stores in 1988. By the second decade of the 21st century, the chain had grown to over 11,000 stores in 28 countries.

Road to Success

In 1981, Walmart expanded into the southeastern US market, opening stores in Georgia and South Carolina, and acquiring 92 Kuhn's Big K stores. They expanded into Florida and Nebraska in 1982. In April 1983, the company opened its first Sam's Club store, a membership-based discount warehouse club, in Midwest City, Oklahoma. They also expanded into Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, and North Carolina and implemented "people greeters" in all of their stores. The first stores opened in Virginia in 1984. In 1985, with 882 stores with sales of $8.4 billion and 104,000 associates, the company expanded into Wisconsin and Colorado, and the first stores opened in Minnesota in 1986. By the company's 25th anniversary in 1987, there were offices to track inventory, sales, and send instant communication to their stores. Continuing their technological upgrades, they had equipped 90% of their stores with barcode readers by 1988, to further assist in keeping track of their large inventory. By 1988, Wal-Mart was the most profitable retailer in the United States, though it did not outsell K-Mart and Sears in terms of value of items purchased until late 1990 or early 1991. By 1988, Walmart was operating in 27 states, having expanded into Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, New Jersey, and Wyoming. By 1990, they expanded into California (which marked Walmart officially becoming a fully nationwide retailer), Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Utah. The Walmart Visitor's Center also opened this year on the site of Sam Walton's original store. The 1990s saw an era of furious growth on an unprecedented scale and the incorporation of several new ideas and technology into the business. In 1990, US sales had quadrupled to $32 billion over the previous five years and Walmart acquired The McLane Company, a food service distributor, which was later sold to Berkshire Hathaway in 2003. In 1991, the company expanded into Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York. Walmart expanded worldwide this year, with the opening of their first store outside the United States in Mexico City. They also acquired Western Merchandisers, Inc. of Amarillo, Texas. 1991 also saw the launch of the Sam's American Choice brand of products "Made in America" initiative, to stimulate American suppliers to produce more products and lower the price.

Challenges

Walmart has been subject to criticism from various groups and individuals, including labor unions, community groups, grassroots organizations, religious organizations, environmental groups, firearm groups, and the company's own customers and employees. They have protested against the company's policies and business practices, including charges of racial and gender discrimination. Other areas of criticism include the company's foreign product sourcing, treatment of suppliers, employee compensation and working conditions, environmental practices, the use of public subsidies, the company's security policies, and slavery. Walmart denies doing anything wrong and maintains that low prices are the result of efficiency. In April 2016, Walmart announced that it plans to eliminate eggs from battery cages from its supply chain by 2025. The decision was particularly important because of Walmart's large market share and influence on the rest of the industry. The move was praised by major animal welfare groups but a poultry trade group representative expressed skepticism about the decision's impact. Walmart's cage-free eggs will not come from free range producers, but rather industrial-scale farms where the birds will be allotted between 1 and 1.5 square feet each, a stressful arrangement which can cause cannibalism. Unlike battery cages, the systems Walmart's suppliers will allow the hens to move around, but relative to battery cages they have higher hen mortality rates and present distinct environmental and worker health problems.

Failures

Walmart is criticized for having a poor record on labor rights, especially regarding anti union activity. It has also been criticized for once promoting made in America for its products but now largely importing the products it sells, from developing nations. Many of these jobs replaced manufacturing jobs in the US. along with the fact that Walmart retail jobs replaced many mom and pop stores in the US. In 2005, movie director Robert Greenwald made a documentary movie called Walmart The High Cost of Low Price that criticized Walmart. After this movie was announced, director Ron Galloway made a film that ended up being released at the same time called Why Walmart Works and Why That Drives Some People CRAZY. This movie had a positive view of Walmart. Over the last decade or so Walmart has become involved in numerous lawsuits for a variety of reasons. The majority of the suits are class action lawsuits in which employees are suing for unpaid wages. They have also run into numerous discrimination cases in which employees are suing for being profiled out of money or out of jobs. For example, there were two separate cases, one in 2004 and one in 2005, in which black employees were suing two different Walmarts for denying them jobs based on race. These became so popular that the Reverend Jesse Jackson intervened and spoke during both of the proceedings. There are also many lawsuits in which women are suing Wal-Mart for discriminating against them. In one article written in 2004 USA today mentioned 32 different lawsuits that involved women suing Walmart. But still Walmart has prevailed. All of this has not had any effects on Walmart financially however, according to Fortune 500, Walmart still had $351 billion in revenue ($11 billion in profit) in 2007, a new high for the corporation. Walmart shut down five stores in 2015 and also announced a year later that it would be closing 269 more of its stores.The company acquired "Moosejaw" in February 2017.From February 2018, the company was renamed as Walmart Inc. In March of the same year, the company produced meal kits under 'Blue Apron'.

Achievements

Best Places to Work in Atlanta 2021
Best Company Work-Life Balance 2020
Best Product Teams 2017

Subsidies

Walmart Argentina S.R.L
Massmart
Walmart Brazil

CEOs

Doug McMillon
Sam Walton