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Wal Mart Stores, Inc.

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Sam Walton was born in 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. Sam opened the first Walmart in 1962 at the age of 44 in Rogers, Arkansas. The company was officially incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in 1969 and sold its first stock in 1970 for $16.50 per share. By 1972 Walmart had 51 stores and recorded sales of $78 million dollars. The company continued to broaden and in 1980 they opened the first Sam’s Club and the first Walmart Supercenter. They united supermarkets with merchandise, making everything more accessible and more affordable. By 1990 Walmart was the nation’s number one retailer offering the lowest prices. In the mid 90’s Walmart had expanded to Canada and China. Walmart started the new millennium dedicated to offering customers a smoother shopping experience, even if they are online, in a store or on a mobile device. In the 2000’s Walmart employed more than 1.1 million employees in about 4,000 stores worldwide (Walmart Store Inc., 2015). Presently, Walmart Companies have 2.2 million employees and service more than 200 million customers each week at more than 11,000 stores in 27 countries (Walmart, 2015). Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the U.S. with more than one million employees. Sam Walton passed away in 1992 but, his legacy lives on and his stores remain the leader in the retail industry. At the heart of Wal-Mart 's growth is the unique culture that "Mr. Sam" built. His business philosophy was based on the simple idea of making the customer number one.

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