Wal-Mart

Both loved and hated by shoppers worldwide, the Wal-Mart family of discount stores has grown in less than forty years from a single business in a small Arkansas town in 1962 to one of the world's largest corporations. Wal-Mart operated eleven hundred stores around the world in the year 2000. The Wal-Mart strategy of combining low prices with a huge inventory and attentive customer service has changed retail sales practices across the United States. Many complain that large Wal-Mart stores change the nature of the towns where they open by taking business away from small, locally owned shops and forcing them to close. Others, however, cheer the coming of Wal-Mart to their town, because the stores make available a wide variety of goods at prices that working families can afford.

Wal-Mart was founded by Sam Walton (1918–1992), an Oklahoma native who had operated dime stores (see entry on under 1900s—Commerce in volume 1)—also called "five-and-ten stores"—first in Newport, Arkansas, then in Bentonville, Arkansas. Walton believed that the small towns of America offered great opportunity for the knowledgeable retailer. He opened his first Wal-Mart Discount City in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. Soon Wal-Marts were opening across the South and Midwest. Walton's philosophy of drawing customers in with deep price cuts and keeping them with friendly customer service proved successful.

However, Wal-Mart employees have not always been happy, nor have the citizens of the communities where the store opens. The store has been involved in dozens of legal disputes about discrimination against employees on the basis of sex and disability. Wal-Mart has also been accused of unfair business practices and selling goods made with sweatshop labor (employees who suffer poor working conditions, low pay, and long hours). Many activists have tried to prevent the store coming into their community, claiming that the presence of Wal-Mart takes business away from downtown areas and therefore weakens the entire town.

But Wal-Mart continues to grow, in small towns and in larger cities. By the early 1980s, sales had risen to $3.4 billion, and two new stores were opening each week. In 2002, Wal-Mart reached the number one position in the Fortune 500 list of largest companies in the United States. Walton was an enthusiastic manager, leading his employees in cheers and in "Sam's Pledge," which was recited with right hands raised: "From this day forward, every customer that comes within ten feet of me, I'm going to look him in the eye, I'm going to smile, I'm going to greet him with a 'Good morning,' or a 'Good afternoon,' or a 'What can I do for you?'—so help me Sam!"

—Tina Gianoulis

For More Information

Anderson, Sarah. "Wal-Mart's War on Main Street." The Progressive (November 1994): pp. 19–22.

Bowermaster, Jon. "When Wal-Mart Comes to Town: Independence, Iowa." New York Times Magazine (April 2, 1989): pp. S28–30.

"A Life of Fines and Beating." Business Week (October 2, 2000): pp. 122–25.

Quinn, Bill. How Wal-Mart Is Destroying America (and the World) andWhat You Can Do About It. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2000.

Sidey, Hugh, "The Two Sides of the Sam Walton Legacy." Time (April 20, 1992): pp. 50–54.

"Small-town Hit." Time (May 23, 1983): pp. 43–45.

Wal-Mart: Welcome to Wal-Mart Stores!http://www.walmartstores.com/wmstore/wmstores/HomePage.jsp (accessed March 13, 2002).

Walton, Sam. Sam Walton and Wal-Mart. New York: Doubleday, 1992.