This is the story of Sam Walton, born in a small peasant family, who started cheap and good goods shops keeping in mind the villages and small cities and brought them to every corner of the world. Sam Walton was born on 29 March 1918 in Kingfisher, a small town in Oklahoma. In childhood, he did small tasks like distributing newspapers, selling milk and selling magazine’s membership. In high school, he was called the “Most Versatil Boy” (the most worthy boy). He studied Economics from University of Missouri in 1940 and then J.C. Started a job in a retail company called Penny. Here he used to get only $ 75 a month. After serving the army in World War II, he bought a small shop in 1945 with a loan of $ 25,000. He raised this money with the savings of his wife Helen and some borrowings.
Where did Walmart start
Sam Walton’s early retail journey was full of innovation. He achieved a small store in the city of Nuport in Arkansas with his new thinking. Sam believed that if the goods are sold at a low price and there is a large amount of sales, then there will be good profit. This ideology set the direction of his business journey.
By the beginning of the 1960s, Sam and his brother James “Bud” Walton had run a small chain of 15 Ben Franklin stores. Through these stores, he got an understanding of the needs and markets of consumers of small cities. Sam proposed to the company that a chain of discount stores be opened in small towns, but Ben Franklin company rejected the idea.
After being rejected, Sam began to feel that he would have to separate his path. Taking the risk, he decided to start his own discount retail chain. This was the time when Walmart’s foundation was laid. On 2 July 1962, he opened the first Walmart Store in the city of Rogers in the state of Arkansas. Their aim was – without any frills, give everything to customers at low prices. Here clothes, household items, toys, electronics were all found. And that too at the wholesale price. Along with opening the store, he built large warehouses and made such a system that every store could ask for goods within a day. This system was later called “Walmart Effect”.
How to spread business
7 years after the first store opened, by 1969, the Walton family had 18 stores and the annual sales had reached above $ 3 million. In 1970, Walmart entered the stock market and expanded rapidly by raising capital. By 1979, the company had 276 stores and sales had crossed $ 1 billion. In the 1980s, Sam Walton also launched membership -based shops like ‘Sams Club’. Then in 1988, the first super center opened, in which both grocery and common items were found.
Use of technology
Sam Walton’s mantra was- every day low prices. He also made a lot of use of technology. In the 1970s, Walmart launched a computerized billing system and established the US largest private satellite network in 1987, connecting each store to the company’s headquarters. By 1990, Walmart overtook the US’s largest retail company Sears and then started opening its stores at the international level as well. Today, Walmart has more than 10,500 stores worldwide and it sells more than $ 600 billion every year.
SAIL of $ 1.64 billion every day
In 2024, Walmart’s shares increased by 80 per cent, leading to the wealth of the Walton family further rapidly. The company’s average daily sale is around $ 1.64 billion, and millions of people shop from shops every day. Walmart has also established himself in online shopping, and further strengthened its digital business by acquiring companies like jet.com.
Although the company also faced criticism about the behavior and environmental impacts with the workers many times, Walmart has also taken positive steps in areas like environmental protection and solar energy. Sam Walton always preferred products made in the US and introduced the ideal of walking with local communities.
Goodbye to the world in 1992, now the company handed over to children
In 1992, Sam Walton died of cancer at the age of 74. He was behind him by a $ 50 billion company and a system that was handled by his wife Helen and his four children (Rob, John, Jim and Alice). He handled his stake in Walmart through a family holding company called “Walton Enterprises”, which reserved the family’s property.
How much donation, how much property
The Walton Family Foundation, launched by Sam and Helen in 1987, today donates more than $ 500 million every year, in which education, environment and social development are given priority. Donation of $ 300 million to Arcansus University and cooperation to Charter schools are examples of this.
Their assets are more than the royal families of the Gulf countries. Although now all these people are not involved in the daily operation of Walmart, but family members are involved in the company’s board. Rob’s son -in -law Greg Penner is now the chairman of the company and CEO Dag McMillan Sam is pushing forward the thinking.
Flipkart of India also bought
On 9 May 2018, Walmart bought a 77 per cent stake in India’s largest e-commerce company Flipkart for $ 16 billion. The deal was completed on 18 August 2018 and it evaluated Flipkart to about $ 20-22 billion. The acquisition also included a new equity funding of $ 2 billion.
Image – Moneycontrol
After this deal, Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal sold his 5.5 per cent stake, taking a complete exit from the company, giving him about 1 billion dollars. At the same time, Binny remained in the company as CEO of Bansal Group. Existing investors such as Tensant, Tiger Global and Microsoft maintained their small stake. However, later some media reports also came that Binny Bansal also sold his stake.
The deal was a strategic move for Walmart, so that it could compete with Amazon in India’s fast growing e-commerce market. Walmart’s strong supply chain experts and the technical capacity of Flipkart expected that they would strengthen their hold in the e-commerce market in India, which is expected to reach $ 200 billion by 2027.
