Walmart Pros and Cons

Introduction

Wal-Mart has been one of the most successful companies in the past decade. Even though the company has enjoyed a lot of success, there has also been a lot of controversy. Wal-Mart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton. Sam Walton originally owned a variety store called Ben Franklin, but once his lease expired he decided to start his own store called Walton Five and Dime. Eventually the success of Walton's Five and Dime led Sam Walton to open a store called Wal-Mart in 1962. The key to Sam Walton Success was the concept of pricing his merchandise below his competitors. Sam Walton believed "The Secret of Successful Retailing is giving customers what they want" (Walmart.com). The opening of the retailer became an instant success. Within in five years of the first one opening, the company opened 18 stores, with sales reaching 9 million dollars (PBS frontline). Overtime Wal-Mart expanded all across American becoming one of the most popular retail chains. By 1995 Wal-Mart had expanded overseas to South America. Even though Wal-Mart was highly touted as a model of business excellence they were also embroiled in a lot of controversy over how they ran their business.

Pros

Many people consider Wal-Mart to be one of the best retailers for many reasons. Wal-Mart is considered a one stop shop store meaning that they sell almost any household item, a consumer may need. One stop shops stores are very beneficial to the consumer because it saves them a lot of time; because a lot of people have a busy schedule's either related to work or family. The consumers like the idea of not having to go to a couple of different stores fulfill there merchandise needs. As Wal-Mart locations expanded so did the various types of merchandise they carried. They also tired to implement a very friendly staff. They were one of the first stores to introduce a greeter, which would greet customers every time they entered the store. The most popular and most effective strategy that the retailer used was selling their products for the lowest price possible. Wal-Mart's main slogan "Low Prices Always" (NYTimes). This was an effective slogan because it attracted many consumers. Eduardo Castro-Wright Wal-Mart's former CEO stated "Each week 100 million customers, and more and 1/3 the US population stream through the doors of Wal-Mart (Wall Street Journal), this statistics was eye opening fact to show how successful Wal-Mart really is. Most people shop at Wal-Mart because there prices are very low and in most cases unmatchable. For many years now Wal-Mart has saved people across the world millions of dollars. For many consumers Wal-Mart is considered to be their favorite retailer to shop at.

Cons

Wal-Mart with its growing success has also been at the center of a growing controversy in America. There have been many