THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM OF SAM WALTON AND WAL-MART CORPORATION

Sam Walton, born in Arkansas, began his retail career when he started work on June 3, 1940, at a JCPenney store in Des Moines, Iowa where he remained for 18 months. In 1945, he met Butler Brothers, a regional retailer that owned a chain of variety stores called Ben Franklin. Butler Brothers offered him one in Newport Arkansas. But he refused. On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City store in Bentleyville. Within five years, the company expanded to 24 stores across Arkansas and reached $12.6 million in sales. In 1968 it opened its first stores outside Arkansas.  That was the beginning of the greatest growth ever seen by a company in the retail business. During the 1980s, Wal-Mart continued to grow rapidly, and by its 25th anniversary in 1987 there were 1,198 stores with sales of $15.9 billion and 200,000 associates.

The company also opened overseas stores, entering South America in 1995 with stores in Argentina and Brazil. It entered Europe in 1999, buying ASDA in the United Kingdom for $10 billion.  In 2005, Wal-Mart had $312.4 billion in sales, more than 6,200 facilities around the world—including 3,800 stores in the United States and 2,800 elsewhere, and employing more than 1.6 million "associates" worldwide. The stores are just penetrating the Chinese market and other Asian countries. Look for them to far surpass the level they are on now as the new century goes on.

In one study, Kenneth Stone, a Professor of Economics at Iowa State University,  compared the community changes to what previous small town shops faced in the past — including the development of the railroads, the advent of the Sears Roebuck catalog, as well as the arrival of shopping malls — and concluded that shop owners who adapt to the ever-changing retail market can thrive after Wal-Mart comes to their community. Another study in collaboration with Mississippi State University indicated that there are both positive and negative impacts on existing stores in the area where a new supercenter locates. This is truly the great American dream where anyone can build an empire in this country...in fact the largest company in the history of the world. Anyone can make their dream come true. It just takes tremendous effort and commitment by all who choose to be involved.