Uncle Sam's army: Walmart in the American imagination
Walmart began as a small mom and pop store in Arkansas in the 1950s and has evolved into one of the largest retailers in the world today. The chain’s major hallmark: selling goods at prices lower than local mom-and-pop stores. (Sources: WEF Reports, Statista, Business Insider, Bloomberg)
Curated By: Madhu Kapparath
On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Walmart Discount City store in Rogers, Arkansas. He chose rural locations out of necessity, since it was cheaper to build there, but soon made it a part of his strategy. He flew his small plane over the South and Midwest, scouting for new sites for Walmarts. ‘From up in the air,’ Walton wrote in his autobiography, ‘we could check out traffic flows, see which way cities and towns were growing, and evaluate the location of competition—if there was any.’ Within its first five years, the company expanded to 24 stores across Arkansas and reached US$12.6 million in sales. The company went public by 1970
