5. There is only one boss. The customer. And he
can fire everybody in the company from the
chairman on down, simply by spending his
money somewhere else.
6. Samuel Moore "Sam" Walton
Born at March 29, 1918
Born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma U.S.
Walton died on Sunday, April 5, 1992, of multiple
myeloma, a type of blood cancer, in Little Rock,
Arkansas
Founder of Wal-Mart
7. While attending eighth grade in Shelbina, Sam
became the youngest Eagle Scout in the state's
history
Upon graduating from David H. Hickman High School
in Columbia, Missouri, he was voted "Most Versatile
Boy".
8. He milked the family cow, bottled the surplus,
and drove it to customers.
Afterwards, he would deliver newspapers on a
paper route. In addition, he also sold magazine
subscriptions
9. Upon graduating from University of Missouri in
1940 with a B.A. in business administration, he
was voted "permanent president" of the class.
During this time, he worked various odd jobs,
including waiting tables in exchange for meals.
10. Walton joined JC Penney as a management trainee in
Des Moines, Iowa three days after graduating from
college.
This position paid him $75 a month.
He resigned in 1942 in anticipation of being inducted
into the military for service in World War II.
In the meantime, he worked at a DuPont munitions
plant near Tulsa, Oklahoma.
11. Walton joined the military in the U.S. Army
Intelligence Corps, supervising security at
aircraft plants and prisoner of war camps.
In this position he served at Fort Douglas in Salt
Lake City, Utah.
He eventually reached the rank of captain.
12. In 1945, after leaving the military, Walton took over
management of his first variety store at the age of
26.
With the help of a $20,000 loan from his father-in-
law, plus $5,000 he had saved from his time in the
Army, Walton purchased a Ben Franklin variety store
in Newport, Arkansas. The store was a franchise of
the Butler Brothers chain.
13. It was here that Walton pioneered many
concepts that would prove to be crucial to his
success.
Walton made sure the shelves were
consistently stocked with a wide range of
goods.
14. His second store, the tiny "Eagle" department
store, was down the street from his first Ben
Franklin and next door to its main (Newport)
competitor.
Walton leased the space mainly to prevent his
competitor from expanding. It held its own, but
didn't fare as well
15. Despite forcing Walton out, Holmes bought the
store's inventory and fixtures for $50,000,
which Walton called "a fair price".
16. Walton negotiated the purchase of a small store in
Bentonville, Arkansas and the title to the building, on
the condition that he get a 99 year lease to expand
into the shop next door. The owner of the shop next
door refused 6 times, and Walton had thus given up
on Bentonville when his father in law, without Sam's
knowledge, paid the shop owner a final visit, and
$20,000 to secure the lease.
17. Before he bought the Bentonville store, it was
doing $72,000 in sales. After the expansion,
and 5 years under Walton, it was doing
$250,000 in sales annually.
18. Walton went on to open more Ben Franklin Stores
with the help of his brother, father-in-law, and
brother-in-law.
In 1954, he opened a store with his brother James
"Bud" Walton in a shopping center in Ruskin Heights,
a suburb of Kansas City.
He opened another in Arkansas, but it failed to be as
successful as his other stores.
19. Walton offered managers the opportunity to
become limited partners if they would invest
in the store they oversaw and then invest a
maximum of $1,000 in new outlets as they
opened.
This motivated the managers to always try to
maximize profits and improve their
managerial skills.
20. Walton decided to concentrate on the retail business
instead of the shopping centers and opened larger
stores which were called "Walton's Family Center."
By 1962, Walton and his brother Bud owned sixteen
variety stores in Arkansas, Missouri, and Kansas
(fifteen Ben Franklin and the one independent
Fayetteville store).
21. The first true Wal-Mart opened on July 2, 1962 in
Rogers, Arkansas.
It was called the Wal-Mart Discount City store and
located at 719 West Walnut Street. Soon after, the
Walton brothers teamed up with the business-savvy
Stefan Dasbach, leading to the first of many stores to
come.
22. He launched a determined effort to market
American-made products. Included in the effort
was a willingness to find American
manufacturers who could supply merchandise
for the entire Wal-Mart chain at a price low
enough to meet the foreign competition.
23. Walton supported various charitable causes,
including those of his church, the Presbyterian
Church (USA).
The Sam and Helen R. Walton Award was
created in 1991 when the Waltons made a gift
of $6 million which included an endowment in
the amount of $3 million to provide annual
awards to new church developments that are
working in creative ways to share the Christian
faith in local communities.
24. In 1998, Walton was included in Time's list of
100 most influential people of the 20th Century
Walton was honored for all his pioneering
efforts in retail in March 1992, when he
received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
from President George H. W. Bush.
25. Forbes ranked Sam Walton as the richest man
in the United States from 1982 to 1988.
Wal-Mart operates in the U.S. and in 15
international markets, including Argentina,
Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Japan,
Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and the United
Kingdom.
26. At the University of Arkansas, the Business
College (Sam M. Walton College of Business) is
named in his honor.
Walton was inducted into the Junior
Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in
1992.
