Wal mart stores company. History of Wal-Mart. Innovation in management

Wal-Mart is an American retail company that operates the world's largest retail chain operating under the Walmart brand. Headquarters are in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company ranks 1st in the Fortune Global 500 (2010).

About 50% of the shares in Wal-Mart stores belong to the heirs of the company's founder, Sam Walton. Chairman of the Board of Directors is Robson Walton. Chief Executive Officer - Lee Scott. Hillary Clinton, wife of President Bill Clinton, served on the Wal-Mart board of directors from 1986-1992.

Walmart is the world's largest retail chain, which includes (as of 2012) more than 10,130 stores in 27 countries. These include both hypermarkets and supermarkets selling food and industrial goods. The chain's strategy includes such components as maximum assortment and minimum prices, tending to wholesale ones. Walmart's main competitors in the US retail market are Home Depot, Kroger, Sears Holdings Corporation, Costco and Target. Walmart is a leader in the implementation of technologies related to the use of RFID tags in retail.

The total number of personnel of the company is 2.1 million people (January 2010). The company's turnover in 2009 was $405.0 billion (in 2008 - $401.2 billion), net profit - $14.33 billion ($13.4 billion in 2008), operating profit - $23.95 billion ($22.7 billion) in 2008).

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2018

Savings of $200 million after switching to LED lighting

On October 16, 2018 it became known about reduction of annual expenses of Walmart by $200 million in connection with transition to LED lighting (LED). The world's largest retailer saved another $20 million by using a new floor polish.

According to him, such a project is not only aimed at caring for the environment, but also allows the retail chain to significantly reduce costs.

As CNBC notes, in the US alone, Walmart spends tens of billions of dollars on goods and services that the company does not sell in its stores, but uses itself. We are talking, for example, about travel services and all kinds of spare parts. One of these things is floor polishing mastic.

Walmart's slogan is “Everyday Low Prices.” To follow this motto, the company needs to sell cheap goods, and for this it needs to save money itself. The fewer expenses Walmart has, the more shoppers save on purchases, CNBC reports.

In addition, Walmart is forced to save money due to the acquisition of companies. Thus, in 2018, it acquired a 77 percent stake in the Indian retailer Flipkart for $16 billion. In connection with this transaction, Walmart worsened its earnings forecast for the 2019 financial year, including expenses of $0.25 per share related to financing the purchase leader of the Indian e-commerce market.

Online cinema

The American retail chain Walmart confirmed in July 2018 rumors about its intention to launch a video-on-demand (VOD) service as early as 2018. According to Advanced Television, the streaming service is planned to launch in the last quarter of 2018 through the Vudu platform, which operates on an advertising model. Walmart acquired this platform in 2010 for $100 million.

The service will provide access to a library of licensed TV shows, films and original programs at a lower price than key competitors Netflix and Amazon offer. Also, apparently, the possibility of launching the service on a free model supported by advertising is being considered.

Launch of virtual 3D shopping

At the end of June 2018, Walmart launched a 3D virtual shopping service on the Internet. In a special section on the retailer’s website, customers can “walk into” a designed apartment filled with items available for instant purchase. While exploring a home, buyers click on items they're interested in to get more information about them.

By the time the service was announced, there were about 70 products available there, both from third-party manufacturers and from Walmart itself. Mostly furniture and most important household goods are available. In the virtual apartment you can find a Microsoft Xbox One game console and a Samsung refrigerator, but it is not yet possible to select and order them.

In July 2018, Walmart will allow product groups to be added to cart so users can select multiple home decor items to purchase and imagine how they would look together.

Opening of the first high-tech mini-store

In early April 2018, Walmart launched what the company claims is its first high-tech mini-supermarket. In it, purchases can be paid through the messenger, and most products are also available for purchase via the Internet.

As the Reuters news agency reports, citing a statement from Walmart, this outlet, which is open in the southern part of the city of Shenzhen, offers more than 8 thousand products, including fresh fruits, fried mussels and much more. Visitors can pay for purchases using the WeChat messenger using their smartphones.

At the end of March 2018, Walmart and the Chinese holding Tencent entered into an agreement under which the American retailer began using the WeChat Pay service to pay for purchases in all its stores in the west of China. The supermarket in Shenzhen was the first in this project.

In addition to the ability to pay for products through a mobile application, the new point of sale is also interesting because about 90% of the entire assortment is available in the Walmart online store on JD.com, part of which is owned by the American giant in the field of online retailing.

All people coming to the Walmart smart supermarket, as well as JD.com users, can order delivery of purchased products. However, the store will only deliver goods to places located within a 2 km radius. It is claimed that delivery will be carried out in a maximum of 29 minutes.

Walmart is actively introducing new technologies into its retail network. Thus, at the beginning of 2018, about 100 of the retailer’s grocery stores received the Scan & Go service, which allows customers to scan product barcodes in a mobile application and pay for purchases via phone. Thanks to the innovation, there is no need to stand in queues and use the services of cashiers. By the end of 2018, Scan & Go should be available in 200 Walmart supermarkets.

2017: Retailer Wal-Mart accelerated warehouse accounting with the help of robots

American retail chain

2013: Wal-Mart figured out what to do with big data

In May 2013, it became known that one of the largest retailers in the world, Wal-Mart, had found an interesting use for the so-called “big data”: Wal-Mart’s accounting systems accumulate data on transactions when purchasing goods and the list of items purchased by a specific person. Based on the analysis of this data, Wal-Mart intends to create individual shopping lists and send them using a mobile application.

Gibu Thomas Gibu Thomas, Wal-Mart's head of mobile technology, said this is just one of the initiatives aimed at increasing in-store sales through e-commerce. “The future of retail, paradoxically, is in its past, in creating personal interactive communication with each customer individually through smartphones,” he said. Citing an unnamed study of the US market, he also added that in-store shopping, fueled by mobile technology, could double the size of the e-commerce market in 2016.

Wal-Mart's Head of Mobile: "The best shopping list is the one you don't have to make"

Mobile devices already account for about a third of Walmart.com's traffic, according to Thomas. Moreover, those users who use the Wal-Mart app for smartphones visit the chain's offline stores more often than other shoppers and spend 40% more, he added. At the same time, the majority of network clients have smartphones at their disposal.

The Wal-Mart app already has a shopping list feature, but it requires user input. It also tells you where to find a specific product on the shelf and also provides digital discount coupons. Wal-Mart is also testing a system called “Scan and Go,” which works by having shoppers scan each item with their smartphone as they add it to their shopping cart, and then use their smartphone at checkout to check out. shopping.

Sam Walton is the late 20th century retail king. In just a few decades, he turned a small store in the center of a provincial town into the world's largest retail chain.

First steps.

At the beginning of the century, American cities somewhere in Oklahoma were not much different from those we are used to seeing in movies. The main street, where there was a bank, city hall, police station, hospital, saloon with a theater, school, library, post office, church, fire station and, finally, the largest store in the city. Many alleys with houses of local residents and dozens of tiny shops branched off from this street. It was in one of these Oklahoma towns, Kingfisher, that Sam Walton was born in 1918. Soon after his birth, the Walton family moved to exactly the same town in Missouri. Almost its only difference from Kingfisher was that the stadium, where Sam often ran, and the Scout House, where he learned the basics of oratory, were located not in the center, but on the outskirts of the city.
In general, Sam Walton did not like to remember his childhood, overshadowed by the constant squabbles of parents who hated each other. His detailed biographies usually begin in 1940, when he graduated from the University of Missouri, where he received a bachelor's degree in business and from where he went to the J.C. trading company. Penney. Sam didn’t like it there - neither the pay nor the team - and very soon he moved to the Claremore trading company. It was more fun here, although he didn’t gain much in salary. But he met his future wife, Helena Robson, whom he married in 1943 on Valentine's Day. By a lucky coincidence, Helena's father turned out to be quite wealthy.

Soon after his marriage, Sam was drafted into the army: the United States finally decided to fulfill its duty as an ally and opened a second front. True, fate spared Sam from feeding on lice in the trenches and touching fraternization with Soviet soldiers on the Elbe: he was diagnosed with either heart failure, or cardiac arrhythmia, or both at once. And when the military registration and enlistment office additionally learned that Walton had some experience in trade, he, without hesitation, was appointed quartermaster (in our opinion, warrant officer-supply officer) of the air unit. So in the army, Sam Walton finally decided that trade was his destiny.
After his demobilization, an extended family council (with the participation of Helena’s father) took place, at which Sam posed a question to his father-in-law: either his daughter will drag out the miserable existence of the wife of a living sales agent, or a loving father will help the young people get back on their feet. Dad loved his daughter very much, so there was no doubt about his choice - Sam Walton was given a loan for $20 thousand.
With this money, Sam and Helena opened a store in Newport, Arkansas with a proud Ben Franklin sign. Only experts knew that this was not the name and surname of the US President, whose portrait adorns the $100 bill, but the trademark of the franchise company of the same name.

In five years, Sam had turned his store into the most profitable store in the Ben Franklin chain, so the owner of the trademark really decided that it was not who ran the store, but its name. One day he refused to renew Walton's contract and took up the matter himself. He realized his mistake quickly: as soon as he found out how successful the new Walton store was doing.
It was a shop in Bentonville, also in Arkansas, called Five & Ten Cents (“Five and Ten Cents”), the meaning of which can not be deciphered. Now this building houses the Wal Mart Stores Museum, where samples of goods from half a century ago are displayed. Among them is a large thermometer that one customer returned to Walton, saying it "keeps the time wrong."

Innovations in management.

Over the next ten years, Sam opened nine more stores in Arkansas and Missouri, studied the theory of merchandising and practiced several self-invented principles of store management. By 1962, when Sam opened his first supermarket, his trading credo had already been generally formed.
As Helena Walton recalls, two passions were always fighting in Sam: one - for shops like Mom & Pop (“Mom and Dad”, where mom is an accountant and salesman, and dad is a director and loader); the other - to the supermarkets located in the city center.
He visited the center very often and studied their work. " Wherever we are, - Helena recalls, - if we came across a store on our way, we would stop and Sam would look at it, or even go inside" This passion for exploring other people's stores remained with him throughout his life.
By the way, all of Walton’s stores of the described period were Mom & Pop, although in principle he could have opened a large supermarket long ago. The only problem was where to open such a store. Sam's acquaintances, also owners of small shops, dreamed that one day they would open a supermarket in the city center. However, Walton decided to open it on the outskirts.

The supermarket, which opened in 1962 on the outskirts of Rogers, Arkansas, was named Waltons Five & Dime. This is where the formation of the world-famous Wal Mart Stores network began, which today has more than three thousand supermarkets in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, China, Puerto Rico and Germany.
This chain is growing steadily: over the past five years, the company has been spending $3-4 billion a year on opening new stores. Meanwhile, the key principle remains the same. Wal Mart is opening supermarkets in residential areas, not in the city center. This is Sam Walton's first invention.
The second is that each of the Walton stores is essentially the same Mom & Pop, but very large. The buyer is attracted not so much by the wide range and low prices, but by the friendly atmosphere of the store: the opportunity to discuss the latest gossip with the seller, an old acquaintance, and make a purchase in the meantime. Today, thanks to many sociological surveys, this is well known, but back then, in the early 1960s, it was quite difficult to draw such a conclusion. Sam did. And in his supermarkets he tried to maintain the atmosphere of a tiny shop. He always told his employees: “ The larger Wal-Mart stores become, the more we must avoid megalomania while maintaining a small-store atmosphere».

Walton always led by example. He tried to communicate with store personnel as often as possible and demanded the same from members of the company’s board of directors: “ Our best ideas came from clerks and warehouse workers (Among them are free parking at the store and permission to take carts with goods directly to the car). If you take care of store employees, then they, in turn, will take care of customers in the same way." All his life, Walton, as an ordinary sales agent, drove a pickup truck. And once, having lost some argument to his partner David Glass, he danced the Hawaiian national dance hula on Wall Street in a Hawaiian grass skirt. After that, his stores only had more customers.

Scandals and secrets.

However, there is one very big blemish in Walton’s history, which all his ill-wishers pay attention to (and he, like any rich person, always had many of them). He ruined the owners of tens of thousands of small Mom & Pop shops: customers began to visit one big Mom & Pop - his. Moreover, Walton was accused of destroying the foundations of America, its concept of the “main street”, dooming provincial towns to extinction, erasing the unique American charm with his supermarkets.
In the early 1990s, when Wal-Mart's annual sales reached $50 billion and criticism peaked, Walton was forced to write his memoirs, where he explained how the largest retail chain in the world was created. The public finally learned a big secret: by placing his stores on the outskirts, Walton did not even think about destroying the foundations of America. He simply built them where land was cheaper and taxes were lower. In doing so, it “offered low prices and saved billions of dollars in the wallets of local residents, not to mention creating hundreds of jobs.”

Another uncovered secret is a charity that Walton had never previously advertised. Having lived all his life in provincial towns and driving around them in his pickup truck, he knew their problems well. In parallel with the construction of the new store, its employees found out the addresses of local charitable foundations. After opening, each store established scholarships for local college students and periodically held charity sales. In addition to educational institutions, money was donated to zoos, libraries, hospitals, theaters, churches, firefighters - in general, all those institutions that are traditionally located on the main street of the city. Walton did not ignore even the mayors of small towns. He created the American Hometown Leadership Award, which recognizes those heads of provincial municipalities who implement long-term projects in their fiefdoms.

Recipes for prosperity.

Naturally, in his memoirs, Walton did not ignore the traditional recipes for prosperity for this genre; in particular, he emphasized: “ Small store owners can easily coexist next to Wal Mart if they create their own niche. For example, they will specialize in paints, which are available in limited quantities at Wal Mart».
Not surprisingly, Walton's 1992 autobiography « Made in America: My Story» quickly became a bestseller and caused such a resonance that his services to the fatherland could no longer be ignored. And in March 1992, US President George W. Bush presented Sam Walton with the Medal of Freedom.
Walton died shortly thereafter. But he died, one might say, with his head held high. As for his critics, you can bet that they sometimes shop in his department stores. And this, in my opinion, is enough to drop all charges.

Wal-Mart in Russia.

Rumors that the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, is entering the Russian market have appeared since the beginning of 2003, but so far the American chain has not taken concrete steps in this direction. In 2004, information was spread that most likely the less saturated market of St. Petersburg would be the first to meet Americans. Today, according to A. T. Kearney, Russia has so far managed to maintain a leading position in the Retail Trade Development Index developed by the company. However, Americans have their own limiting factors.
The main obstacle is officially said to be the inability to find a suitable area for trading in Moscow with a sufficiently developed infrastructure. As a result, the American player risks appearing in Russia almost as the last one. However, they continue to wait for it, linking with the increasing presence of foreigners hopes for the dominance of Western standards of service and prices in Russian retail.

Sam Walton- creator of the empire Wal Mart .

Mr. Sam was a truly unique person. Probably the most successful entrepreneur in the history of the world. His company, which had sales of more than $300 billion in 2005, continues to grow rapidly today. With nearly 7,000 stores worldwide and 2 million jobs, Wal-Mart is a force to be reckoned with. Interestingly, Sam Walton never intended Wal-Mart to be the largest company on the planet; his goal was to be the best company!

Company Wal-Mart has been pursuing a low price strategy since its founding. A strategy through which it can offer products cheaper than other competitors.

On the one hand, this is, of course, a huge plus for buyers. But on the other hand, this entails such consequences as low salaries for employees, the ruin of Wal-Mart's smaller competitors (including local players), through which many people lose their jobs. Finally, Wal-Mart is helping to lower the quality of some products in this eternal race for low prices.

At the same time, the quality of not only goods that are sold in Wal-Mart, but also those who challenged the company by abandoning it. They still have to make adjustments to their production process because Wal-Mart's low prices keep them from breathing freely. Wal-Mart dictates his conditions for suppliers. Even as big as Procter & Gamble. Everyone doesn't like it, but there is no choice. After all, it all started with a smile...

Founder of Wal-Mart Sam Walton All my life I believed that success could only be achieved thanks to perseverance, continuous improvement and friendly attitude towards clients and partners(= company employees). America remembers its hero with a constant smile on his face, greeting clients in such a way that he talks to employees. Walton had a big goal, and he pursued it with his values ​​in mind.

Youth

The future “king of trade” was born in the small town of Kingfisher, Oklahoma, in 1918. Little is known about his childhood, and he himself was not inclined to remember it. His parents often quarreled and generally did not get along well with each other. Therefore, Sam often had to gain life wisdom in street universities. He disappeared either at the stadium or with scouts. And from childhood I learned two lessons well: you can achieve something only with perseverance, and a smile helps in this.

Sam began working at the age of 7 as a morning newspaper delivery boy. In addition, the future founder of Wal-Mart was actively involved in sports - basketball and American football. Subsequently, he will remember that it was football that taught him how to play as a real team. It was there that he realized how he could compensate for his shortcomings at the expense of his partners.

After school, Sam Walton went to the University of Missouri, from which he graduated in 1940. His specialty was economics. After all, already at that time he showed great interest in retail trade. At the same time, he worked as a manager in a small company. All this was necessary experience for him. At 42, Walton was drafted into the army. True, not for war. Sam was diagnosed with heart problems, through which he was sent to serve at one of the DuPont gunpowder factories. The service turned out to be successful, because it was there that Sam met a girl named Helen Robson, with whom he would live for the rest of his life.

Returning to his native land, and feeling like a hero, Sam decided to put pressure on his father-in-law in order to take a loan from him. The father-in-law could not resist, and the start of his own business was made. Sam Walton was given a loan for $20,000. Having borrowed another 5 thousand from relatives, Sam and Helen used this money to open a store in Newport, Arkansas with a proud sign “Ben Franklin” - a well-known trademark (under a franchise agreement).

Walton's store was ridiculously small even for Newport with its 4 thousand inhabitants. The only large store in town was owned by Mr. Sterling. It seemed futile to compete with him. But it only seemed so. Sam knew for sure: persistence and a charming smile can change a lot.

He personally greeted each visitor at the door and showed such cordiality, as if he had seen a long-awaited, dear and close person. He communicated with him as if he had opened his shop solely for his sake. He spent hours talking to each client about everything under the sun. He talked tirelessly about his son Robson and family affairs.

First successes and failures

And the ice has broken! Less than a year later, the gloomy Sterling was forced to cede buyers to Sam Walton, and then the palm in all financial reports.

Success inspired. To earn money again, Sam expanded his trade: he bought a tray of ice cream. Now he felt real business excitement. The fact that there were long lines of children for ice cream gave him great pleasure. Maybe even longer than the lines at the store checkout.

Five years later, Walton's small store turned into the most profitable outlet in the Ben Franklin chain. And the owner of this brand began to be tormented by envy. He decided that it was not the seller’s attempts at all, but the brand. When the next deadline for extending Sam's contract for renting retail space approached, he was refused.

Wal-Mart is born

In this city, Sam opens his first store called Five & Ten Cents. That's when he turned his attention to a low-price strategy. To do this, Walton tried in every possible way to avoid intermediaries, buying goods from the manufacturers themselves. In addition, he lowered prices, making smaller profits than competitors. Sam Walton believed that it would pay off in the long run. He was right.

For 10 years there was o 10 Five & Ten Cents stores have been opened. However, some of them are outside of Arkansas - in Missouri. During these 10 years, Walton devoted himself not only to his family, but also to the study of trade. He wanted to combine small family stores, where the sellers are their own owners, and huge supermarkets located in large cities. It was clear that he needed atmosphere from the former, and scale from the latter. At the same time, Walton not only read a lot, but most of all he loved to visit shops and supermarkets, and note in his notebook interesting ideas that constantly came his way.

It was then that Wal-Mart's future strategy was formed. The whole point was that it was simply impossible to open a large supermarket in a large eastern city. Expensive land, labor, competition with large and rich companies - all these were factors that small provincials could not cope with. Walton thought, why not start by opening large supermarkets in small towns on the outskirts. The big players of that time did not look there. Rent was much cheaper, and labor was not as expensive as in the center of a big city.

In 1962, the first Wal-Mart store was opened, which was then called Waltons Five & Dime. The store was located on the outskirts of the city of Rogers, and immediately attracted the attention of local residents. They all noted that it was a really big supermarket, like in big cities. But besides this, it differed from them in its low prices and the friendly atmosphere of a small family store. Finally, it is worth noting that the Walton family hired local residents to work in such stores, which made them even more attuned to the company. Subsequently, it turned out that several generations of a family worked at Wal-Mart all their lives. Hence the belief that Wal-Mart creates many new jobs. It was like that before, but not now.

Five years later, in 1967, he already had 24 stores, and sales reached $12 million. Sam remains faithful to his chosen strategy, and it does not let him down. He goes to buy goods himself, and is not afraid to take risks and lose, because he is confident that he will succeed.

Sam always told his employees: “There is one boss - the customer. He can displace anyone in the company: from the director to the loader, by simply spending the money elsewhere.”

Later, in memoirs Sam Walton formulated ten universal commandments for success .

Be committed to the business.

Share profits with partners (that’s what he called the store staff).

Motivate your partners.

Discuss problems with partners.

Appreciate what your partners do.

Celebrate success.

Listen to each partner.

Provides for customer expectations.

Control your expenses.

Float over the course.

In general, some of them are quite vague. Although for the author they are clear and not only tested, but also hard-earned through rich practice.

Please note that half of these commandments apply to partners. By them Sam meant his store workers. He tried to communicate with them as often as possible and demanded the same from members of the company’s board of directors.

« The best ideas came to us from clerks and warehouse workers (among them - free parking at the store and permission to take carts with goods directly to the car). If you take care of store employees, then they, in turn, will take care of customers in the same way.“, he said... All his life, Walton remained friendly with everyone, and especially with the junior staff.

Good deeds

Walton's kindness to people was not ostentatious, but sincere. It is characteristic that he never advertised his charity. Having lived all his life in small provincial towns, he knew their problems well. When building a new store, he forced his employees to find out the addresses of local charities. In order to make contributions later.

It became a rule that every store that opened, established scholarships for local college students and periodically held charity sales. Money was donated to zoos, libraries, hospitals, theaters, churches, and fire departments. The mayors of small towns were also not ignored. He created the American Hometown Leadership Award, which recognizes those chairmen of provincial municipalities who implement long-term projects in their fiefdoms.

In 1992, Walton published his autobiography, Made in America: My Story. It quickly became a bestseller and caused such a stir that his services to American society could no longer be ignored. And in March 1992, US President George H. W. Bush presented Sam Walton with the Medal of Freedom. Sam Walton died that same year.

Until the end of his days he remained himself. Star fever did not affect him. The billionaire was indifferent to fame. He still drove around his stores in a pickup truck, ignoring the luxury limousines. And he preferred the company of his beloved dogs to the company of bankers and oligarchs.

Wal-Mart today

Sam Walton's business is alive and well. Today this “empire” has more than 4 thousand stores scattered around the world, with a daily assortment of seventy thousand products. It is the world's largest retail chain operator, engaged in retail sales of toys, electronics, pharmaceutical products, shoes, textiles, etc.

Total sales exceed $200 billion annually. Wal-Mart stores serve more than 100 million customers a week. Today, according to the Financial Times, it is the most respected company in the world, symbolized by the wide smile of a cheerful man.

The principles that guided the creator of the trading empire are not outdated. They cannot become obsolete because they are based on the “human factor”. And not only trade, but any business will flourish if it is focused, first of all, on the person, on his needs. Seems like banal truths. But it was they who helped not only Walton, but also many others, become major businessmen.

If you visit a Wal-Mart store in America today, any salesperson or packager will kindly tell you about the 10 Step Law. This is a list of the above rules, crystallized by “Uncle Sam” half a century ago. But they are still relevant today, and therefore it is like an oath for a recruit.

Appreciate a smile

A future “partner” salesperson, when starting a job at any Wal-Mart store, solemnly swears that whenever a customer is within 10 steps of him, he will smile and ask if he needs help. “The larger Wal-Mart stores become, the more we must avoid megalomania while maintaining a small-store atmosphere,” argued Sam Watson. And this became an axiom.

And today, eleven years after his death, the progressive inertia of the great merchant’s ideas keeps the family’s income in the top ten billionaires of the world. They say that his children, who are well over fifty, have not done anything special for the prosperity of the family business. In his old age, he enjoys working in the garden and going in for horseback riding. Almost nothing is written about the sons of the Walton family.

Even Forbes magazine, which provides a short biography of each person included in the rating, took the liberty of writing the same thing in the accompanying article about Helen, Alice, Jimmy and Johnny Walton: about the merits of their father, to whom they owe this money. And the ubiquitous journalists are haunted by the thought: how many years will it take for the children to have nothing left of Sam Walton’s fortune?

Perhaps they are in vain slandering Sam's descendants. If they continue to sacredly cherish the principles bequeathed by the founding father, then envious people will never wait for the impoverishment of the Waltons. So far, they are all among the ten richest people on the planet. So, probably, his son Jim Walton occupies sixth position with his $20.8 billion, his other son John is seventh ($20.7 billion), daughter Alice is eighth ($20.5 billion). And Helen Walton, the widow of the late founder of the Walton empire, holds 9th place with a capital of $20.4 billion. Third son Robson was less fortunate, he is in tenth place ($18.5 billion).

Now count how many there are in the family as a whole. Over $100 billion! Where is Bill Gates? Therefore, value a person, value a smile, love your client as Sam Watson loved him and you will see that your business will go uphill!

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Wal-Mart is the largest retail chain in the world, which includes more than 10 thousand stores. In them, customers can purchase both food and household goods. Wal-Mart is the absolute leader in retail trade in America. And all this thanks to the legendary Sam Walton, the creator of the Wal-Mart chain. What he did in business is not something everyone can do. He himself believes that the secret of his success is his endless optimism, goodwill towards everyone around him (whether friends or enemies), and, of course, the pursuit of perfection. Everyone who knew Sam speaks of him as “a man with a constant kind smile on his face.” How did he manage to turn one store into a huge global chain?

Sam's birth and childhood

Sam Walton was born in 1918 in Oklahoma. His parents worked on a farm, and the family did not have a consistently high income, however, they did not live in poverty. In those years, small provincial towns in America were very similar to each other: in the center there was a city hall, a medical clinic, a bank, a school, a post office and other institutions, and around them there were small streets with residential buildings. When Sam was still a boy, his family moved to Missouri, to a city that looked almost exactly the same as their hometown. In his new place, Sam began playing sports at the local stadium and going to public speaking school.

Like many of today's great businessmen, Sam Walton began earning money on his own very early - at the age of seven he was delivering morning newspapers door-to-door. Sports played a big role in his life. Thanks to them, Sam learned to work in a team and interact effectively with other players. Later, it was this skill that helped him more than once in business.
After graduating from the University of Missouri, Sam began working in sales, changing jobs frequently. In one of the companies he met his future wife, whom he soon married. It's time to serve in the army. Due to a heart ailment found in Sam, he was forbidden to serve fully, however, he was sent to a military unit as a quartermaster (the person responsible for supplying troops).

Opening of the first store

After returning to civilian life, Sam convened a family council, at which he planned to decide the issue of his future activities. His wife's father was a fairly wealthy man, and Sam, deciding to take advantage of this gift of fate, asked him for a tidy sum to start his own business. His father-in-law did not refuse, and Sam had money to buy a franchise of the Ben Franklin retail chain. A small store was opened in the center of Newport, which very quickly became popular among local residents. Sam Walton took his first business more than seriously. He personally greeted each store visitor at the entrance and showed maximum attention to each one. Sam often told customers that the store did not belong to him personally, but to his entire family. And he often told visitors about his son Robson, whom he loved very much.

Very quickly, the store managed by Walton became the most successful in the entire Ben Franklin chain. When the time came to renew the franchise contract, the owner of the chain refused to do so. This is understandable: the owner wanted to manage the store with such excellent sales figures himself.

Sam Walton, his wife and children move to Bentonville. At that moment, Sam no longer doubted for a second that trading was his calling, and that was all he would do for the rest of his life. He opens the Five & Ten Cents store, the name of which already explains the price at which goods are sold there. The store now houses the Wal-Mart Museum, where anyone can look at the oldest products ever sold online. Among them there is an exhibit with a rather interesting history. This is the most ordinary thermometer that the buyer returned to the store with the words “this watch shows the wrong time.”
Sam continued to open stores throughout Arkansas, gaining experience and developing his own principles in the trade. When he decided to open his first supermarket, he was already a professional in his field.

Sam Walton's goal was to create stores that would harmoniously combine the pleasant atmosphere of small family shops and the scale of large supermarkets. In search of new ideas, Walton visited almost every store he came across and studied how they worked.

The Beginning of Wal-Mart History

The history of Wal-Mart would never have begun if Walton had not come up with the idea of ​​​​opening a large supermarket in a small town on the outskirts. The fact is that large stores were only available in large cities. But in them the cost of land and labor was very high for Walton. And large market players did not even consider small cities as a platform for business. Despite the doubts of his friends, Walton decided to try.

So, almost on the outskirts of the city of Rogers, a supermarket called “Waltons Five And Dime” was opened. Local residents liked this supermarket because it was as big as supermarkets in big cities, but the prices were much lower and there was a warm, almost family-like atmosphere. This principle is still present in the Wal-Mart chain: all stores open on the outskirts of cities, and not in their centers.

The first Waltons Five And Dime stores to open provided the opportunity to purchase goods not just at low prices, but at surprisingly low prices. Visitors were wary of this at first, but then realized that the quality of the goods was in no way inferior to similar goods in other stores.

Why was the chain renamed from “Waltons Five And Dime” to Wal-Mart? The thing is, the name “Waltons Five And Dime” was too long. At first, Walton wanted to rename his chain simply “Waltons,” but it turned out that the cost of each letter to erect a sign was quite high. Sam decided to save money and name the stores simply “Wal.” The prefix Mart (which means “market”) appeared a little later. During the first five years after the opening of the first store of the chain, 24 more of the same were opened.

Sam Walton always communicated with his subordinates and asked them for advice on improving store operations. For example, the idea of ​​allowing customers to bring shopping carts directly to their car was suggested to Walton by a loader at one of the stores, and the idea of ​​free parking for visitors was suggested by one of the clerks. Walton was not shy about driving a regular pickup truck and dressing in cheap clothes. And once he even danced a Hawaiian dance, dressed in a Hawaiian leaf skirt, right in the middle of a busy street, because he lost a bet to his friend.

Accusations from other entrepreneurs

Because of Wal-Mart's success, many small stores began to die out. Customers simply preferred shopping in a large supermarket with low prices, while receiving a warm welcome and personal attention from the staff. Small stores began to go bankrupt, and their owners blamed Sam Walton, who was continuously expanding his supermarkets throughout America. There were also accusations of violating American traditions, which involved locating all large establishments and stores in city centers.

Walton considered such accusations unfair, and in the early 1990s he wrote a book in which he told the entire history of Wal-Mart from the very beginning. This is how people learned that Sam didn’t even have any thoughts of ruining anyone, he just did what he liked. He built shops on the outskirts not because he wanted to overturn the traditions of America, but because renting land there was cheaper.

In the same book, Walton talked about his charitable activities, which he previously preferred to remain silent about. Walton was born and raised in a small provincial town and knew very well what the residents of such cities suffered from. Therefore, when he started doing business, he donated sums of money to various charitable foundations to create scholarships for students, from time to time he held sales of goods for the poorest people, and donated money to zoos, clinics, libraries, and theaters.

After the release of this autobiographical book, the public finally recognized that Walton had done a lot for the country and its people. In 1992, the American President awarded Sam Walton the Medal of Freedom. That same year, Sam Walton passed away, and the business passed to his wife and children.

Walton's descendants

Today, many critics say that Walton's children did nothing useful for the company, but only reaped the fruits of their father's work and perseverance. Others say that Walton's descendants are still guided by the same principles that their father adhered to in doing business, and therefore Wal-Mart will never go bankrupt. One way or another, Sam Walton's children - Jim, Alice, John, Robson, and wife Helen - are among the richest people in the world, and if you add their fortunes together, then the richest family in the world.

Best Sam Walton Quotes

1. Always start talking to the person first. If I always waited to be approached or talked to, I would never build the network of contacts that is so necessary in business.
2. Your only boss is your customer. This person is capable of ruining an entire company, or demoting its director to a security guard, simply by starting to regularly buy goods from another store.
3. In any store, salespeople will treat customers the same way store management treats salespeople.
4. When asked about savings, I always say the same phrase: “I have purchased eighteen airplanes in my entire life. But I didn’t buy any of them new.”
5. Don't go with the flow. Swim above him.

Wal-Mart Stores has disclosed its financial statements for 2017.

Total revenue increased by 3.0% to $500.3 billion. At the same time, international segment revenue increased by 1.7% to $118.1 billion amid increased e-commerce revenue and favorable currency fluctuations. Geographically, 9 out of 11 markets showed positive sales dynamics. The segment's operating profit decreased immediately by 7.1%, and the operating margin fell to 4.5% due to the negative dynamics of the Brazilian e-commerce segment, as well as a number of other unplanned losses.

Walmart U.S. segment revenues grew by 3.5% to $318.5 billion due to growth in comparable sales resulting from increased traffic, as well as increased e-commerce turnover. Segment operating profit rose 0.7% to $17.7 billion, remaining pressured by rising transportation costs as well as continued investments in digital retail and information technology. Operating margin contracted 20 basis points to 5.6%.

The Sam's Club segment was able to increase its revenue by 3.2% to $59.2 billion, but operating profit fell by more than 40% to $982 million. In the fourth quarter, the company closed a number of clubs, which negatively impacted the profitability of the segment due to markdowns on liquidated inventories. In addition, a noticeable decline in cigarette sales made a negative contribution to the final result. The segment's operating margin decreased by 1.3 percentage points, amounting to 1.7%

The company's net financial expenses increased from $2.3 billion to $5.3 billion due to a loss from debt write-offs of $3.1 billion.

As a result, Wal-Mart Stores' net profit decreased by 27.7% to $9.9 billion. During the reporting period, the company bought back $8.3 billion of its own shares and paid another $6.1 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends.

Based on the results of the actual results, we lowered our earnings forecast for 2018, taking into account the company's revenue and operating margin guidance. As a result, the potential return of the company's shares has decreased.

We expect Wal-Mart to be able to generate net income of $13 billion to $16 billion over the next few years. We assume that the company's results could be higher than the upper end of this range, which could be possible due to an increase in retail space and the active development of online commerce . The company is expected to distribute all net profits it earns to shareholders, most of which in the form of repurchases of its own shares. However, the relatively weak potential returns resulting from the strong rally late last year and changes to the company's model make Wal-Mart's continued presence in our portfolios questionable.

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