A Brief History of Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart is a worldwide retailer headquartered in Bentonville which is a little city of Arkansas in US. It is the biggest public corporation by revenue. Its stock is traded quite a few international stock exchanges. The operating divisions of Wal-Mart Corporation are Marketside shops and Sam's Club. Wal-Mart stores trade beneath nearby names in some international markets like ASDA in UK, Mi Bodega or Superama in Mexico, Seiyu in Japan or Bompreço in Brazil.

Wal-Mart's history is like a curriculum vitae for the corporate founder Sam Walton. He began his discount store in 1950 by the name of Walton's Five and Dime. Walton had earlier operated a Ben Franklin retailer in Newport - Arkansas. He franchised it from 1944 to 1950 and then relocated in 1950 to Bentonville in Arkansas. He continued his association with Ben Franklin but renamed the retailer to Walton's Five and Dime.

Walton owned a modest network of Walton's 5 and Dime retailers by the late 1950s. He had realized that successful discount retailing meant passing the savings to the consumers in addition to receiving the ideal prices from suppliers. This approach of Walton was in plain contrast with his competition although the higher sales in Walton's shops have been proof that he had discovered a model that would encourage higher profits for his corporation.

Sam Walton owned 11 retailers by 1962. He and his wife Helen took a large gamble and reinvested anything into a new shop at Rogers in Arkansas. This became the very first branded shop of Wal-Mart. This idea resulted in instant success resulting in an remarkable development of the brand and 24 retailers by 1967. Sam Walton incorporated the shops as Wal-Mart Shops Inc in 1967. In 1972, the enterprise got listed in the New York Stock Exchange. This provided a cash injection and allowed the enterprise to 125 retailers by 1975 and then to 276 retailers by 1980.

Wal-Mart employees also felt the benefit of this incorporation. Quite a few were offered stock options in return for their loyalty. In 1970, Sam Walton started to sell shares to enterprise over the counter. Wal-Mart stock was worth $47by 1971, this was not sufficient to make millionaires but it enhanced to an incredible $49,875 per share in 1982. This was enough for college expenses of the little ones that was an ambition numerous Wal-Mart's staff have held.

The attitude of Wal-Mart was conservative with acquisitions but has been usually strategic in nature. The first two acquisitions had been purchasing the Mohr Worth Shops and Hutcheson Shoe Firm in 1977, and then buying Kuhn's Large K Shops in 1981. It would take yet another nine years till Wal-Mart would make one more acquisition. The internal growth of Wal-Mart has largely come from the numerous Wal-Mart stores.

Sam Walton stayed with the enterprise throughout his life, he continued visiting shops and meeting workers even walking with them around the shop as they performed their tasks. Walton promised to do the hula wearing a hula skirt outdoors the NYSE as a gesture of solidarity with the workers if the company produced a pre-tax profit of 8%. This would have made his gesture a uncomplicated public stunt. The staff finally created it a reality. In 1998, Walton was listed in Time Magazine as one of the one hundred most influential persons of the 20th century.

The sales and earnings of Wal-Mart continued to increase all through the early 21st century with no indicators of any unfavorable effects from the weakening international economy. By the end of 2006, Wal-Mart globally owned 6775 shops, had a lot more than two million employees and generated annual sales if almost $350 billion.


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