Walmart is one of the biggest multinational retail stores with over 2.2 million employees that operates a chain of discount department stores, hypermarkets, variety, and other grocery stores.
Till 2019, Walmart has more than a total of 4,700 stores in the US, and more than 90% of the total population of the US lives within a 10 miles radius of a Walmart storefront.
Walmart even uses robots to scan the shelf-inventories in more than 350 stores and has its own museum. It is funny how the total area of all the parking lots of Walmart will roughly add to the total area of Tampa, Florida.
Walmart would be the 28th largest economy if it were a country itself!
So, how exactly did discounting a retail store grow to become such a giant in the retail industry?
This is exactly what I will be taking you through in this article. The history of Walmart is rich and so intense that you will even be stunned to know it all!
History Of Walmart: The Beginning
The founder, Sam Walton, started Walmart as an experiment, hoping that anything would just be a success in the post-war and consumer-driven market of America in the 1950s.
The history of Walmart dates back to 1950 when Sam Walton purchased the variety store of Luther Harrison in Bentonville, Arkansas, and opened it as the Walton 5-10 store.
Before this, Walton had been working as a manager in a Ben Franklin franchise variety store in Newport, Arkansas, and witnessed a potential for variety and grocery stores only to increase in the upcoming years.
The first Walton 5-10 store was operated as a part of the Ben Franklin franchise, and the Walton store was a massive success. Upon witnessing this, Sam Walton came up with the thought of establishing his own discount stores.
This was how Walmart was born.
History Of Walmart: The First-Ever Walmart
On July 2nd, 1962, Sam Walton established the first-ever Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas. This was one of the very first stores that was not under the Ben Franklin franchise.
The name “Wal-Mart” was given by Bob Bogle, Sam’s assistant, and it has been a constant ever since its birth.
Sam had realized that despite the good performance of the variety and grocery stores, the lack of players that were focused on rural and suburban communities at that time.
All the bigger giants at that time were bundled up to compare against each other in the cities. This paved the way for Walton to position Walmart as a discounting store for the masses and majorly focused on catering to the needs of the rural and suburban population.
Talk about top-tier Segmentation even before the STP model came into existence!
Soon, the approach of “selling brand merchandise at low prices” became the key driving model for every Wal-Mart store that was further established.
The second Wal-Mart store opened in Harrison, Arkansas, in 1946, which was the neighboring city to Rogers, Arkansas.
Firstly, most of the brands were pretty skeptical of the viability of this so-called “discount” model and denied providing him with any merchandise at a lower price. This was aggravated by the fact that the opening of the second store of Walmart didn’t go as planned, and things just picked up from a bad start.
But, it was the efforts and hard work of Sam Walton and his team that proved that the “everyday low price” model was just efficient but also highly scalable and profitable.
History Of Walmart: Growth And Expansions
Just three years after establishing its first store, the brand had opened 24 stores all throughout the state of Arkansas by 1967 while also reaching $12.6 million in sales.
In 1968, Walmart had expanded beyond Arkansas in states including Missouri and Claremore, Sikeston, and Oklahoma. The next state that it expanded to was Kansas, and Walmart, as a full-fledged company, was first incorporated in October 1969 in Delaware.
In May 1972, Walmart first went public with a market share price of $47. This followed further expansion to other cities and states in the upcoming years that included-
Expansion to Tennessee in 1973.
Expansion to Kentucky and Mississippi in 1974.
Expansion to Texas in 1975.
Expansion to Illinois in 1977.
By the time of its expansion to Texas in 1975, Walmart had more than 125 operational stores with over 7,500 employees, including associates, and a sales figure that calculated $340.3 million.
List Of Things That You Can Buy At Walmart
Here are the categories that you can easily find at Walmart:
Babycare
Clothing & Accessories
Laundry supplies
Kitchenware
Kid toys
Pet supplies
Personal care
Coffee makers
Cleaning supplies
Fitness accessories
Pillows
However, these were only some of the top items that you may find at a Walmart; it is safe to say that the retailer is your one-stop destination for everyday needs.
Wrapping Up
The history of Walmart is rich and intensive. The retail giant is one of the biggest of its kind in the whole of the US. Anything you want, you get it at Walmart.
Customers mostly get confused with a few questions, which include “does Walmart accept Apple Pay?” or “ Does Walmart accept Samsung Pay?” but that is a story for later!
