Wal-Mart

WAL-MART

1. Success of Wal-Mart:

Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world with over 2 million employees. It runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores and also operates the Sam’s Club retail warehouses in North America. Since it was founded, Wal-Mart has opened 85,000 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names.

Wal-Mart was founded by a businessman names Sam Walton. He worked at a J.C. Penney store and Ben Franklin at the start of his retail career. In his early years itself, he was very successful in running stores, far exceeding expectations. After that he opened his own store and called it “Walton’s Five and Dime” where he achieved higher sales volume by marking up slightly less that most competitors.

Today 90% of the US population is within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart store. In 1962 when Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart no one predicted the success it would be. Walton's talent for discount retailing not only made Wal-Mart the world's largest retailer, but also its number one retailer in sales. Wal-Mart stores are often so successful that they outgrow their locations and need to relocate to better serve their 176 million weekly customers. The goal of Wal-Mart is to keep prices low. On average the customer saves 15% by shopping at Wal-Mart.

The success of Wal-Mart can be credited to its innovative thinking, leadership through service, and above all, its commitment to saving peoples’ money.

Wal-Mart is successful and is a multi-billion dollar company due to the following reasons:-

Massive buying power

Wal-Mart is providing its customers with everyday low prices hence giving them value for their money. Wal-Mart is able to provide low prices as it has massive buying power. Furthermore, there are tough negotiations with buyers helping it drive down costs.

Operational excellence

The philosophy behind operational excellence is high expectations. High expectations lead to high productivity, high productivity means...