Sam Walton Disertation
- 1. SAM WALTON THE REVOLUTION OF RETAIL 1 Sam Walton The Revolution of Retail Kody King Chattanooga College
- 2. SAM WALTON THE REVOLUTION OF RETAIL 2 Sam Walton The Revolution of Retail Mr. Sam Walton was at one time, the richest man in the world. He had reporters photographers, the common man and con-artist flocking at him and his money like birds scheming ideas about him, questions like who he was, where he came from and what he did with all of his wealth. Did he live the life of a movie star or a celebrity? No, but what they didnt dream up there was a few things the people new about him, like how he drove an old red pickup truck, with a couple of cages in the bed of it for his bird dogs. Sam Walton commented, What am I supposed to do haul my dogs around in, a Rolls-Royce? There was other information that was common knowledge about Walton, that he wore a Wal-Mart baseball cap and the fact that instead of going to an expert cosmetologist he got his hair cut at his favorite barbershop in his small hometown. Sam Moore Walton, the future retail businessman was born in the small town of Kingfisher, Oklahoma in 1918 in the midst of the first great world war, and was only at the young age of eleven when the infamous crash of the New York Stock Exchange took place; and as history is not forgotten or altered, The Great Depression was brought into The United States thereafter and with that famine, fear, and poverty was brought in abundance in the great nation. Though how bad it was living as a middle or lower class citizen the Waltons always had a job, even if it was not a high paying one in the struggling economy. Thomas Walton was his father, but not in the retail business. Unlike his son Thomas Walton helped his brother operate a successful mortgage company to provide for his family, but throughout his life Mr. Sam Walton was always looking for a way to make an extra dollar, and always the entrepreneur the retail market knows today.
- 3. SAM WALTON THE REVOLUTION OF RETAIL 3 The Great Depression brought many things to The USA, mostly grim but for Sam, it granted him the experience of seeing America struggle to survive and where he seen Discount Stores fail to meet the customer with a warm and welcoming atmosphere in the dark times, Sam Walton, even this early in life saw a vision to shape the retail market. Luckily, Sam was very close to his father in law and the man saw something unconventional in his son in laws retail vision, and Sam as hungry as a young entrepreneur could want to be, and he wouldnt take no for an answer, he wanted to be the boss. Though not yet being the fully realized retailer he is today but heading soon in that direction he wanted to get his feet wet in the retail market, so he joined a relatively small retailer, J.C Penney Company. To show the extent of his father in laws admiration of Walton he let Sam borrow $20,000 dollars on top of the money Sam had already saved from previous business ventures as a retail worker and having no interest in becoming the owner of J.C Penneys that still exists to this day. With the money that he borrowed plus his own amount he bought a Ben Franklin Retail Store. The difference between his store and others with the Ben Franklin name he didnt buy his goods from Ben Franklin, the company; instead he bought most goods directly from the manufacturer and the distributers that make the product Sam wants to sell and Wal-Mart still operates to this day with that philosophy. Although Sam turned over more profit than any Ben Franklin stores in the area the retailer refused to renew his business lease and was forced to seek other opportunities. Sam was a simple man but also a genius, after the success of his previous business ventures he decided to go back to his hometown in Bentonville, Arkansas. He named it Waltons Five and Dime, and it still operates to this day as a museum to honor the man. Waltons first vision was to build his second store and the first actual store presented under the name, Wal-Mart introduced by his main assistant Bob Bogle, to also be placed in
- 4. SAM WALTON THE REVOLUTION OF RETAIL 4 Bentonville, Arkansas but decided to build the store west of Bentonville in another small rural town called Harrison, Arkansas, and that was the start of something great. The man with a vision and a dream became a retail empire, five and dime at a time.