After serving in the US army during the Second World War, Walton opened a franchised Ben Franklin five and ten cent variety store in Newport, Arkansas in 1945. Over the next five years he ran a succession of Ben Franklin stores in various rural communities in the state of Arkansas.
These were traditional small-town stores with relatively high price marks up on the merchandise. Walton suggested to Ben Franklin company executives that they introduce the stores into the urban market as a discount chain.
When they rejected his proposal Walton decided to start a chain on his own. On July 2, 1962, Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, selling a wide variety of brand name merchandise at low price.
Walmart’s global mission was to save people money so they could live better. This was Sam Walton’s vision when he opened the doors to the first Walmart in 1962 and continued to be the focus of its day-to-day operations.
At that time, American manufacturers disliked discount retailing because it threatened their control of the market place, and traditional retailers hated the practice because it meant having to sell more goods for the same return.
However, in the same year that he opened his first Wal-Mart, S. S Kresge launched its discount K-Mart chain in the United States, F. W. Woolworth started Woolco, and Dayton Hudson launched its Target chain.
The big American chain located their discount stores in or near large cities, but Walton set out to prove that discounting could also work in small town.
Once committed to the concept, he resolved not just to imitate the other franchised chains but to become a leader in the discount retail field. By 1967, The Walton family owns 24 stores, ringing up $12.7 million in sales.
Volume buying directly from manufacturing and a cheap and efficient delivery system enabled Walmart to sell high-quality, low-cost merchandise in locations where there was little competition from other retail chains. ‘Low process every day’, became Walton’s slogan.
Walton strategically situated his stores in rural locations where they could simultaneously serve two or three small communities. He built large warehouse within one day’s driving distance from these out of the way locations to keep the stores constantly supplied with merchandise, using Walmart’s own trucking system.
In 1980s, Walmart reached $1 billion in annual sales, opened the first Sam's Club and Walmart Supercenter. By the late 80s, Walmart had 276 stores and employed over 21,000 associates. In 1987 Walmart opened larger Hypermart USA stores which combined a grocery store, a merchandise market and other services such as restaurants and video rental stores.
History of Walmart Stores
