Walmart Inc.

Logo since June 29, 2008[a]
Walmart location in Onalaska, Wisconsin
Formerly	Wal-Mart Discount City (1962–1969) Wal-Mart, Inc. (1969–1970) Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (1970–2018)
Company type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: WMT DJIA component S&P 100 component S&P 500 component
ISIN	US9311421039
Industry	Retail
Predecessor	Walton's Five and Dime
Founded	July 2, 1962; 62 years ago (1962-07-02) in Rogers, Arkansas[1] October 31, 1969; 54 years ago (1969-10-31) in Wilmington, Delaware (incorporation)
Founders	Sam Walton, Bud Walton
Headquarters	Bentonville, Arkansas , U.S. 36°21′56″N 94°13′03″W / 36.36556°N 94.21750°W / 36.36556; -94.21750
Number of locations	10,586 stores worldwide (October 31, 2022)[2][3][4]
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Greg Penner (Chairman) Doug McMillon (President, CEO)
Products	Food, drinks, groceries, clothing, footwear, beauty products, jewelry, accessories, furniture, decor, bedding, bath, electronics, appliances, housewares, toys, games, books, movies, musical instruments, pet supplies, baby products, hygiene products, health products, school and office supplies, tools, gifts, garden center, pharmacy, photo center, sporting goods, and auto center
Services	Walmart-2-Walmart
Revenue	US$648.12 billion (FY2024)[5]
Operating income	US$27.0 billion (FY2024)[5]
Net income	US$16.27 billion (FY2024)[5]
Total assets	US$252.399 billion (FY2024)[5]
Total equity	US$90.349 billion (FY2024)[5]
Owner	Walton family (50.85%)[6]
Number of employees	2,100,000 (Jan. 2024)[5]
Divisions	Walmart U.S. Walmart International Sam's Club Global eCommerce
Subsidiaries	List of subsidiaries
Website	walmart.com
Footnotes / references [7][8][9]

Walmart Inc. ( /ˈwɔːlmɑːrt/ ^ⓘ; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas.^[10] The company was founded by brothers Sam and James "Bud" Walton in nearby Rogers, Arkansas in 1962 and incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law on October 31, 1969. It also owns and operates Sam's Club retail warehouses.^[11][12]

As of October 31, 2022,^[update] Walmart has 10,586 stores and clubs in 24 countries, operating under 46 different names.^[2][3][4] The company operates under the name Walmart in the United States and Canada, as Walmart de México y Centroamérica in Mexico and Central America, and as Flipkart Wholesale in India. It has wholly owned operations in Chile and a majority stake in Massmart in South Africa. Since August 2018, Walmart held only a minority stake in Walmart Brasil, which was renamed Grupo Big in August 2019, with 20 percent of the company's shares, and private equity firm Advent International holding 80% ownership of the company. They eventually divested their shareholdings in Grupo Big to French retailer Carrefour, in transaction worth R$7 billion and completed on June 7, 2022.^[13]

Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue, according to the Fortune Global 500 list in October 2022.^[14] In February 2023, Walmart announced that its FY2023 total revenue was $611.3 billion.^[15] Walmart is also the largest private employer in the world with 2.2 million employees. It is a publicly traded family-owned business, as the company is controlled by the Walton family. Sam Walton's heirs own over 50 percent of Walmart through both their holding company Walton Enterprises and their individual holdings.^[16] Walmart was the largest United States grocery retailer in 2019, and 65 percent of Walmart's US$510.329 billion sales came from U.S. operations.^[17][18]

Walmart was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. By 1988, it was the most profitable retailer in the U.S.,^[19] and it had become the largest in terms of revenue by October 1989.^[20] The company was originally geographically limited to the South and lower Midwest, but it had stores from coast to coast by the early 1990s. Sam's Club opened in New Jersey in November 1989, and the first California outlet opened in Lancaster, in July 1990. A Walmart in York, Pennsylvania, opened in October 1990, the first main store in the Northeast.^[21]

Walmart's investments outside the U.S. have seen mixed results. Its operations and subsidiaries in Canada,^[22] the United Kingdom (ASDA),^[23] Central America, South America, and China are successful, but its ventures failed in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and Argentina.^{[24][25][26][27]}

History

1945–1969: Early history

In 1945, businessman and former J. C. Penney employee Sam Walton bought a branch of the Ben Franklin stores from the Butler Brothers.^[28] His primary focus was selling products at low prices to get higher-volume sales at a lower profit margin, portraying it as a crusade for the consumer. He experienced setbacks because the lease price and branch purchase were unusually high, but he was able to find lower-cost suppliers than those used by other stores and was consequently able to undercut his competitors on pricing.^[29] Sales increased 45 percent in his first year of ownership to US$105,000 in revenue, which increased to $140,000 the next year and $175,000 the year after that. Within the fifth year, the store was generating $250,000 in revenue. The lease then expired for the location and Walton was unable to reach an agreement for renewal, so he opened up a new store at 105 N. Main Street in Bentonville, naming it "Walton's Five and Dime".^[29][30] That store is now the Walmart Museum.^[31]

On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City store at 719 W. Walnut Street in Rogers, Arkansas. Its design was inspired by Ann & Hope, which Walton visited in 1961, as did Kmart founder Harry B. Cunningham.^[32][33] The name was derived from FedMart, a chain of discount department stores founded by Sol Price in 1954, whom Walton was also inspired by. Walton stated that he liked the idea of calling his discount chain "Wal-Mart" because he "really liked Sol's FedMart name". The building is now occupied by a hardware store and an antiques mall, while the company's "Store #1" has since expanded to a Supercenter several blocks west at 2110 W. Walnut Street. Within its first five years, the company expanded to 18 stores in Arkansas and reached $9 million in sales.^[34] In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas in Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma.^[35]

1969–1990: Incorporation and growth as a regional power

The company was incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law as Wal-Mart, Inc. on October 31, 1969, and changed its name to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in 1970. The same year, the company opened a home office and first distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas. It had 38 stores operating with 1,500 employees and sales of $44.2 million. It began trading stock as a publicly held company on October 1, 1970, and was soon listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The first stock split occurred in May 1971 for $47 per share. By this time, Wal-Mart was operating in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma; it entered Tennessee in 1973 and Kentucky and Mississippi in 1974. As the company moved into Texas in 1975, there were 125 stores with 7,500 employees and total sales of $340.3 million.^[35]

In the 1980s, Wal-Mart briefly experimented with a precursor to the Supercenter, the Hyper-Mart. Four stores combined features of discount stores, supermarkets, pharmacies, video arcades, and other amenities.^[36] Wal-Mart continued to grow rapidly, and by the company's 25th anniversary in 1987, there were 1,198 Wal-Mart stores with sales of $15.9 billion and 200,000 associates.^[35] One reason for Wal-Mart's success between 1980 and 2000 is believed to be its contiguous pattern of expansion over time, building new distribution centers in a hub and spoke framework within driving distance of existing Supercenters.^[36]

The company's satellite network was also completed in 1987, a $24 million investment linking all stores with two-way voice and data transmissions and one-way video communications with the Bentonville office. At the time, the company was the largest private satellite network, allowing the corporate office to track inventory and sales and to instantly communicate with stores.^[37] By 1984, Sam Walton had begun to source between 6% and 40% of his company's products from China.^[38] In 1988, Walton stepped down as CEO and was replaced by David Glass.^[39] Walton remained as chairman of the board. During this year, the first Wal-Mart Supercenter opened in Washington, Missouri.^[40]

With the contribution of its superstores, the company surpassed Toys "R" Us in toy sales in 1998.^[41][42]

1990–2005: Retail rise to multinational status

While it was the third-largest retailer in the United States, Wal-Mart was more profitable than rivals Kmart and Sears by the late 1980s. By 1990, it became the largest U.S. retailer by revenue.^[43][44]

Prior to the summer of 1990, Wal-Mart had no presence on the West Coast or in the Northeast (except for a single Sam's Club in New Jersey which opened in November 1989), but in July and October that year, it opened its first stores in California and Pennsylvania, respectively. By the mid-1990s, it was the most powerful retailer in the U.S. and expanded into Mexico in 1991 and Canada in 1994.^[45] Wal-Mart stores opened throughout the rest of the U.S., with Vermont being the last state to get a store in 1995.^[46]

The company also opened stores outside North America, entering South America in 1995 with stores in Argentina and Brazil; and Europe in July 1999, buying Asda in the United Kingdom for US$10 billion.^[47]

In 1997, Wal-Mart was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.^[48]

In 1998, Wal-Mart introduced the Neighborhood Market concept with three stores in Arkansas.^[49] By 2005, estimates indicate that the company controlled about 20 percent of the retail grocery and consumables business.^[50] Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Walmart_Chile
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