Walmart - History, Culture, Swot, Goals

History and Corporate Culture

Walmart’s history can be traced as far back as to May 9, 1950 when Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, opened his first retail discount store in Bentonville, Arkansas under the name Walton’s 5 & 10. After establishing a well-known brand name, Mr. Walton founded the first Walmart store in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. Just six years later (1968) Walmart expanded outside of Arkansas to Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma. On October 31, 1969, the discount department and warehouse store was integrated as Wal-Mart, Inc.

Two years later, in 1971, Walmart opened its first distributions center and Walmart Home Office in Bentonville, Arkansas. The following year (1972) the firm was listed on the New York Stock Exchange Market at a market price of $47.50. By 1974, Wal-Mart expanded to five more states (Kansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi) and made its first acquisition by taking over 16 Mohr-Value stores in Michigan and Illinois one year later. In 1978, Walmart expanded its divisions to the Walmart pharmacy, jewelry and auto service center. By the end of the decade, Walmart had over 21,000 employees working in 11 U.S. states. At that time, the company’s sales revenue was $1.248 billion.

In 1981, Walmart acquired 92 Kuhn’s Big K stores in Georgia and South Carolina. The first Sam’s Club was finally open in 1983 in Midwest City, Oklahoma and the market price saw an increase to $81.625. David Glass became the company’s president in 1984. On the 25th anniversary in 1987, Walmart employed 200,000 associated in 1,198 stores with annual sales revenue of $15.9 billion.

At the beginning of the 1990’s, Walmart became the number one retailer in the United States providing its services in 35 states. Due to its enormous expansion within the borders, the company decided to expand to the international market with its first location in Mexico City in 1991. On April 5, 1992, the inspiring founder of the retail chain Sam Walton passed away leaving everything behind to his son S. Robson Walton who became the new chairman of the board. Walmart continued to expand by acquiring 122 Woolco stores in Canada and introducing three discount stores to the Asian market in Hong Kong in 1994. Two years later, the firm entered China though a joint venture agreement. In 1998, Walmart entered the European market for the first time by acquiring 21 Wertkauf units and 71 Spar units in Germany. At the same time, the company moved to Korea under another joint-venture agreement.

In the year of 2000, H. Lee Scott Jr. was appointed as the CEO of Walmart. By 2005, Walmart had expanded dramatically to 3,800 U.S. stores and 3,800 international discount stores (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the United kingdom) making revenue of $312.4 billion.