The first retail store that Sam Walton worked in was at a J. Sam's manager almost fired him and told him to never work in retail; fortunately, Sam decided to take a stick with it. In 1945, Sam got a loan from his father-in-law and bought a Ben Franklin store in Newport Arkansas, which was the first retail store that Sam ever owned. To beat his competitors, Sam would leave at nights and head to Little Rock. In Little Rock, Sam would go to a wholesale house and buy in bulk and by the next day his counters would be stocked full of new and cheaper items. After making a large profit, the owner would not renew Sam's lease and drove him out of the building. The owner did this so his own son could take over the business and 18 years later after that happened Sam went back into Newport with one of his Wal-Mart franchises and took all the business from the Ben Franklin store. In 1950, Sam opened a 5-10 cent store in Bentonville, a small rural town in Arkansas. A couple years later Sam opened his vary first chain store in Fayetteville. Fayetteville is 30 miles south of Bentonville. Sam went to the owners and CEO's of the Ben Franklin franchise asking them if he could be their guinea pig, in an attempt to open a discount store. The owner's and CEO's thought it sounded dumb and declined to give Sam a store. However, in 1962, Sam opened his first discount store in Rogers Arkansas. People today know it as Wal-Mart. Sam's first Wal-Mart made $1 million its first year of existence. By 1965 there were 16 Wal-Mart in a 300 mile radius of his first Wal-Mart. Sam Walton became the richest person in the United States in 1985. Wal-Mart became the largest retail store in the world in 1992. In 1990, Sam was diagnosed with bone cancer and on April 5, 1992 Sam died at the age of 74. .
