Walmart is a multinational retail corporation from the United States, which was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton. It is currently operating in 28 countries and has 11,718 stores. Walmart or Walmart Inc. also operates Sam’s Club retail warehouses. It is a Fortune Global 500 company, and it went public in 1972 at the NY Stock Exchange. It has got many names across the world. It is also the largest grocery retailer in the USA.
Inception
Sam Walton, America’s richest man for seven consecutive years, created Walmart. In the beginning, it was named “Walton’s Five and Dime,” and it was set up in Bentonville. In 1962, the Walmart Discount City was created in Rogers, Arkansas. In a period of five years, it had 24 stores in Arkansas.
In 1968, the company started operating in Missouri’s Sikeston and Oklahoma’s Claremore. In October 1969, the company was renamed as “Wal-Mart, Inc..” A year later, it was renamed as “Wal-Mart Stores, Inc..” Walton soon went on to operate 38 stores and had more than 1,500 employees. The sales at that time peaked at $44.2 million. Later, the company became public and appeared on the NY Stock Exchange.
Evolution
By 1975, Walmart started operating in Texas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana, Kansas, and Arkansas. It had 125 stores and more than 7,500 employees. The sales reached $340.3 million.
When the company completed its 25th year of existence, Walmart had 1,198 stores, and the sales reached $15.9 billion. In 1988, David Glass became the CEO of Walmart. Walton was the board’s chairman. In the 1980s, Walmart faced competition with Sears and Kmart. By revenue, it became the No. 1 retailer in the United States by 1990.
In 1991 the company started operating in Mexico and 1994, it reached Canada. Walmart soon reached Argentina, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. H. Lee Scott was named as the CEO and President of Walmart in 2000.
In 2002, the company made profits of $6.2 billion. It soon expanded in many countries across the world. In 2007, the company started using the slogan “Save money. Live better”. In 2009, the company’s sales peaked at $401.2 billion.
Walmart shut down five stores in 2015. A year later, the company announced that it would be closing down 269 stores. The company acquired ‘Moosejaw’ in February 2017. From February 2018, the company was renamed as Walmart Inc. In March of the same year, the company produced meal kits under ‘Blue Apron.’
Awards & Achievements
Walmart’s founder has received several awards in his career, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom 1992. It is one of the leading companies in the world who has also been involved in charity. In 2007, the American Bar Association was given the Spirit of Excellence Corporate Award. Walmart and Walmart’s employee has also won many awards like Walmart China receiving the award of Green Cargo Owner of China Green Freight Initiative in 2016.
Net Worth of Walmart
As of December 2024, The estimated net worth of Walmart is more than $500 billion. The company is operating for five decades and is spread across the world. It has also been associated with several issues and has provided employment to thousands. Walmart today is operated by the Walton family, who has a net worth of over $190 billion. The youngest Walton, Jim, has a net worth of $42.5 billion. They are the wealthiest family in the United States.
Walmart is of the top multinational retail corporations in the world. Both in terms of revenue and employees, it is one of the leading corporations globally. In 2017, the revenue of Walmart was $485.87 billion. It operates under many names across countries. Walmart is highly successful in China and many other countries.