History: Beginning to Today Wal-Mart is a general merchandise discount retailer, which was incorporated in 1962. Wal-Mart’s history is based on one man, Sam Walton, who changed the course of retailing forever. Sam Walton first entered retailing when he was a management trainee at J.C. Penny Co. in 1940 in Des Moines, Iowa. After serving in the Army in World War II, Walton acquired a Ben Franklin variety store franchise with his brother James Walton in Newport Arkansas, until they lost the lease to the store in 1950. By 1962, when the first Wal-Mart Discount City was opened in Rogers Arkansas, both Walton’s were operating fifteen stores under the “Walton 5 & 10” name, and were the largest Ben Franklin franchisee in the country. Limited pricing, low gross margins, and high inventory turnover characterized these stores. Walton phased out the stores in 1976 in order to focus on the emerging Wal-Mart stores. In 1978, the first distribution center was built, followed by the first Wal-Mart Supercenter in 1983 and a Sam’s Club in 1988.Important to Walton, and ultimately Wal-Mart, are certain philosophies that were amounted over time. Walton held these values tightly, and engrained them in the Wal-Mart cultures. From his experience at J.C. Penny Co. he was impressed with the philosophies they used (e.g. “The Penny Idea”) and used them to mold Wal-Mart. This included referring to employees as “associates”, serving the public to their complete satisfaction, and receiving a fair profit from services rendered. Walton’s theory on what Wal-Mart should be is “a conveniently located one-stop shopping unit where customers could buy a wide variety of quality merchandise at discount prices.” And as Wal-Mart grew, management sought a firm that was a “discount department store chain offering a wide variety of general merchandise to the customer.” It was on these ...
