The first Walmart store opened in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas by Sam Walton, Walmart's claim is that they want to make a difference in the lives of their customers. Walmart operates in 28 countries and have over 11,000 retail stores, they are roughly 2.2 million associates that work for Walmart and 1.3 million Walmart associates work in the United States. Sam Walton the founder of Walmart was born on March 29, 1918 in Fisher Oklahoma, Sam Walton made notation in his autobiography that his feelings towards money stems from his growing up during the hardship of the great depression. Sam Walton graduated in 1940 with a degree in Business from the University of Missouri, and during that time he obtained a job with a retail department store named J.C. Penny. .
Sam Walton also served in the military as a security supervisor at an aircraft plant and at P.O.W Camps located in The United States on September 1, 1945. Sam Walton was able to open his first retail store after borrowing $20,000 dollars from his father-in-law at the age of 27, with the $20,000 dollar loan Sam was able to purchase his first franchise store, the store was located in Newport Arkansas, and it was a Ben Franklin variety store.
The Ben Franklin store was considered a money losing store and he was able to turn it around in four short years. In order for Sam Walton to maintain his competitive edge he conducted a survey of his competition to gain access to their pricing and display strategies. Sam Walton cut out the middle man by dealing directly with the manufacturers for goods instead of going by the price structures that existed at the time by the Butler brothers, the Butler Brothers was the parent company of Ben Franklin. .
Walton lost the lease on his store in 1941 which was located in Newport Arkansas. Walton's hope was to purchase a department store located in St. Louis, at that time he had a wife named Helen and she objected to the idea.
