Walmart History Essay

In July 2, of 1962 the first Wal-Mart opened in Rogers, Arkansas (Kuhlken para.5). It was founded by the Walton brothers Sam and J. L. (Bud). Wal-Mart's concept involved huge stores offering customers a wide variety of name-brand goods at deep discounts that were part of an "everyday low prices" strategy (“Saving people money” para.5).Early in the 1970s, Walton implemented his warehouse distribution strategy. The company built its own warehouses so it could buy in volume and store the merchandise. This practice cut Wal-Mart's costs and gave it more control over operations because merchandise could be restocked as quickly as it sold and advertising was specific to smaller regions and cost less to distribute (“Saving people money” para.7). In 1972 the company became public traded and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The ticker for Wal-Mart Inc. is WMT. In 1977 the company made its first significant acquisition when it bought 16 Mohr-Value stores in Missouri and Illinois (Mendelson & Jay, timeline). Later on
(Mendelson & Jay, timeline) In the faltering economy of the recession that arrived after late 2008, Wal-Mart continued to draw customers who could no longer afford to shop at higher-priced stores. According to critics, the company's profits are often amassed to the detriment of their employees, who make an average of $8 an hour. Many of them are forced to depend on government assistance for food and health care (“Saving people money” para.14). The United Food and Commercial Workers union has established the Organization United for Respect at Wal-Mart (OUR Walmart) to lobby the retail giant for better wages and working conditions. By early 2012 thousands of employees in thirty states had joined the organization. 2011 Walmart established @walmartlabs, a hub for developing social, mobile and global platforms (Kuhlken