Introduction
Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer and consumer products chain. The first Wal-Mart store opened July 2, 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. Within 5 years, the company expanded to 24 stores across Arkansas with total revenues of $12.6million. By 2005, Wal-Mart had a total of 5289 stores, with 1587 of them being international spread across all the states in US and across 15 countries worldwide. The total revenues had reached $285 billion. Sam Walton was the founder of the Wal-Mart. He was succeeded by David Glass in 1992. After David’s retirement in December, 2000, Lee Scott was chosen as Wal-Mart’s third president and CEO.
Wal-Mart’s part of strategy was operating on a multiple store format. They came up with four different retail concepts: Wal-Mart Discount Stores, Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and Sam’s Club.
The merchandize line at Wal-Mart stores include house wares, consumer electronics, sporting goods, lawn and garden items, health and beauty aids, apparel, home fashions, paint, bed and bath goods, hardware, jewelry, automotive repair and maintenance, toys and games, and groceries.
Wal-Mart’s performance and extraordinary growth story has fetched them many awards. It has been named as the “Retailer of the Century” by Discount Store News, made the Fortune 500 “Most Admired Companies in America” in the year 2003, 2004 and 2005. They have also been ranked second in the Fortune “Global Most Admired Companies”. Wal-Mart received the 2002 Ron Brown Award and in 2003, Wal-Mart was also awarded with the Corporate Patriotism Award.
Along with its huge success, it has met with severe criticism for its continuous pursuit of low costs resulting in substandard wages, bad labor standards, political corruptness, insufficient medical b ...