Sam Walton Essay

Words: 570
Pages: 3

Sam Walton was born on March 29th, 1918, in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. In 1942, at the age of 24, he joined the military. He married his love, Helen Robson in 1943. When his military career ended in 1945, Sam and Helen chose to move to De Moines, Iowa. During this time, Sam gained retail management experience by working for the J.C. Penney Company. In 1950, the Walton’s left for Bentonville, where Sam and his brother James, opened Walton’s 5&10 on the downtown square.
After running the business for over a decade, the Walton brother’s faced tension between the different management styles. This pushed Sam to venture out on his own. In 1962, Sam opened the first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Arkansas. By 1976, Wal-Mart was a publicly traded company with a share value of $176 million dollars. Sam Walton has continually proved that his business model to build variety, discount retail stores in rural communities was a very successful business idea. As of 2018, Wal-Mart Inc. is worth $446.95 billion dollars.
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Present Conditions (discuss the last three years of operations of the company) – As of 2016, Doug McMillon replaced Mike Duke as CEO. The company employed 2.3 million associates worldwide and served more than 200 million customers each week at more than 11,000 stores in 27 countries. Walmart announces a $2.7 billion investment over two years in its U.S. workforce, including raising its minimum wage to $9 an hour, implementing new training programs, and giving associates more control over their schedules. Walmart acquires 100% stake in Yihaodian, an e-commerce business in China, up from the 51% stake since 2012. Rob Walton retires as chairman of the board of directors for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. He continues to serve as a director. Greg Penner succeeds Rob Walton as chairman of Wal-Mart Stores,