Walmart - History and diversity issues

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A brief history on the Walmart Corporation

Sam Walton began his retail career in 1940 at a store in Iowa. In 1945 he met a retailer that owned a chain of stores called Ben Franklin. He was offered a store in Arkansas which he ran very successfully. When he was unable to renew the lease on the store, he opened new store and called it 'Walton's Five and Dime'. He achieved good sales by having a lesser markup than competitors. In 1962, Walton opened the first Walmart Discount store in Arkansas. Within five years, he expanded to 24 stores across Arkansas. In 1968 he opened his first store outside Arkansas. The Walmart Stores Inc was incorporated in 1969. In 1970 it became a public limited company and was listed in the New York Stock Exchange. By 1971 Walmart was operating in five states: Arakansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma. By 1975 it had also entered Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Texas. Now there were 125 stores and 7500 employees. By its 25th anniversary in 1987 there were 1,198 stores and 200,000 associates. Walmart invested in the largest satellite network at that time, in 1987, which allowed the corporate office to track inventory and sales and communicate with all its stores.

Sam Walton, the founder CEO, stepped down to be replaced by David Glass in 1988. The first Supercenter was opened in 1988 in Washington. Walmart entered South America in 1995 and Europe in 1999. In 1998 Walmart opened the first Neighborhood stores . In 2002 it was listed as America's largest corporation in the Fortune 500 list with revenues of $219.8 billion. In 2005, Walmart controlled 20% of the grocery ...