THE DEEP INSIGHTS OF SAM WALTON'S BIOGRAPHY

 

We all have heard about Walmart, which is the most popular retailer corporation in entire world. It has more than 10,500 retail stores & clubs in 20 countries. This corporation makes around $611.3 Billion annually.

However, we do not know about the history of Walmart, that how the son of a poor farmer was able to establish such a great venture across the globe & how he became the richest person of the United States.

Let's dive into the interesting biography of Sam Walton, who was the founder of Walmart.

EARLY LIFE & EDUCATION:

Sam Walton was born on 29th March 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, United States. His father was a farmer & due to impoverish financial conditions, his family continuously migrate from one small town to another for several years. Eventually, his family settled at Columbia, Missouri where he completed his schooling from David Henry Hickman High School. Moving further, Sam pursued Bachelors Degree in Economics from Trulaske College of Business, which is situated in University of Missouri. During his student life, Sam was involved in small jobs to support his family economically. These small jobs include, selling milk, selling magazines subscriptions as well as delivering newspapers.

CAREER:

STEPPING IN:

After graduating from the university, Sam joined J.C. Penny as a Management Trainee, however he resigned from his job in 1942 for joining American Military to participate in World War II.

JOINING MILITARY:

In 1942, at the age of 24, Sam joined US Army Intelligence Corps, & soon he rose to the designation of Captain.

STARTING THE FIRST STORE & ITS FAILURE:

In 1945, Sam resigned from the military & he purchased a Ben Franklin Variety Store in New Port, Arkansas by taking a loan of $20,000 from his father-in-law, as well as by investing $5000 from his own savings. He was determined to sell good quality goods at cheaper price, as a result of which he was able to attain a great success & in the tenure of 3 years, his sales rocketed from $80,000 to $225,000. Unfortunately, in 1950, the lease of the store get expired & due to the no-renewal clause, Sam had no way except for leaving the store. 

A FRESH START:

Sam was not the person, who can easily give up, instead he was eager to start everything from the scratch. For this, he setup a store in Bentonville, Arkansas. This time, he signed 99 year lease & named his store as "WALTON'S FIVE & DIME". As, Sam was searching for new ideas to improve his sales, so he came across the idea of Self-Service, which tripled his income in less than a year. Through his extreme genius, he became owner of 16 stores by 1962.

PROCEEDING TO WALMART:

During this time, Sam got a great idea to build big stores in small towns with discounted price on goods. To execute this idea into real, he mortgaged his house, borrowed a massive amount of money & opened a store in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962, which was named as Walmart. He implemented superior strategies to boost the sales, which include opening the store till late hours as well as facilitating customers with free spacious parking lots. To ensure 1 day delivery, he located his warehouses near to the stores. Furthermore, to reduce the cost of goods, Sam started to purchase the products directly from manufactures, that led to the drop in prices.

SAM'S CLUB:

Sam started his wholesale clubs, which aimed small business owners, who wanted to buy the products in bulk.

DEATH:

Due to Sam's tireless hard-work, he was able to earn a whole lot of recognition, as well as between 1982-1988, he became the richest person of the United States. 

On 5th April 1992, due to Multiple Myeloma (TYPE OF BONE MARROW CANCER) Sam passed away in Little Rock, Arkansas.