Wal-Marts History and Impact essays

Wal-Mart's History and Impact essays Sam Walton, in founding the Wal-Mart Corporation, not only changed the face of business in Arkansas but retailing and business as a whole on the planet. The Wal-Mart epic has been nothing short of a unique business phenomenon. Sam Walton single handedly turned a dying Ben Franklin Five and Dime store into a multi-billion dollar corporation without compromising his own ethics and morals, and became one of the worlds largest and most generous philanthropists and, for a time, the richest man in the United States of America. Wal-Mart has also been criticized for its effects on small town so called mom and pop businesses and several studies have been performed analyzing said effects. These small town effects can be expected when more than 93 million people a week (Slam-Dunking) flock to Wal-Marts around the country to shop their unmatchable prices. Of course, one of Wal-Marts keys to success has been their lack of competition. Wal-Mart did what their competitors would have never tho ught to do- build in rural areas where people are being forced to drive 20 to 30 miles to shop for groceries. Building in rural communities created an economic and social center for the community without the element of competition and created several hundred jobs for members of the community. Sam Walton started his career in business as the owner of one of Ben Franklin's 5 and 10 store franchises. He began to become unhappy with the state of his failing business, and was in a store were all previous owners had failed. So he began to breech the understood rules of a franchise and ordered merchandise directly from the manufacturers in order to undersell his competitors. This greatly displeased his superiors but they were forced to tolerate it because of the success of a store that had failed so many times. Walton took what he learned from Franklins 5 and 10 and used it to create the first Wal-Mart in my hometown of Roge...