Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. NYSE: WMT, founded by Sam Walton in 1962, is the largest retailer and the largest company in the world based on revenue. In the fiscal year ending January 31, 2005, Wal-Mart reported net income of US$10.3 billion on US$285.2 billion of sales revenue (3.6% profit margin). If Wal-Mart were its own economy, it would rank 33rd in the world, with a GDP between Ukraine and Colombia. It is the largest private employer in the United States, Mexico and Canada. It holds an 8.9 percent retail store market share—$8.90 out of every $100 spent in U.S. retail stores is spent at Wal-Mart.

History

A Wal-Mart advertisement, showing a Wal-Mart greeter.
Another Wal-Mart advertisement1962 First Wal-Mart store opens in Rogers, Arkansas
1969 The company incorporates as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on October 31, 1969.
1972 Wal-Mart listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
1983 First Sam's Club opens in Midwest City, Oklahoma.
1987 Wal-Mart completes largest private satellite communication system in the U.S.
1988 First Supercenter opens in Washington, Missouri.
1990 Wal-Mart becomes nation's largest retailer.
1991 The first store outside of the U.S. opens, in Mexico City.
1994 Wal-Mart acquires 122 Woolco stores in Canada.
1996 Wal-Mart enters China through a joint-venture agreement.
1997 Wal-Mart replaces Woolworth on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
1997 Wal-Mart becomes largest private employer in the United States, with 680,000 employees worldwide.
1997 Wal-Mart has its first $100 billion sales year.
1999 Wal-Mart has 1,140,000 employees, making it the largest private employer in the world. It acquires the ASDA Group with 229 stores in the United Kingdom.
2003 Wal-Mart sets a single-day sales record of $1.52 billion on Black Friday.
2004 Wal-Mart buys the Amigo supermarket chain in Puerto Rico for $17 million.
2004 Wal-Mart employees in Jonquière, Quebec, Canada vote in favor of becoming the first unionized Wal-Mart in North America. Five months later, Wal-Mart announces that it would close the store due to poor sales.
2005 The Center for Community & Corporate Ethics launches http://walmartwatch.com to encourage Walmart to have more corporate responsibility.
2005 Wal-Mart launches http://www.walmartfacts.com in a public relations effort to counter critics.
2005 Wal-Mart seeks to expand to urban markets, most notably New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Business
Wal-Mart operates discount retail department stores selling a broad range of products. It typically stocks basic, rather than premium products. Wal-Mart also operates "Supercenters" which include a full line of grocery items. Wal-Mart also operates Sam's Club; these are "warehouse clubs" which, like Costco, require membership dues and sell merchandise in large and inexpensive sizes and quantities.

As of January 2005 Wal-Mart employed 1.3 million people in the United States. Wal-Mart's Home Office is located in Bentonville, Arkansas. Apart from stores and clubs, it also operated 99 Distribution Centers/Transportation Offices in the United States. Internationally Wal-Mart employs over 410,000 people (excluding Japan) for a company-wide total of 1.7 million employees. Wal-Mart is also the largest real estate company in the United States, with an entire division devoted entirely to building new stores, selling old stores, and developing shopping centers around its new and existing stores. In addition to its wholly owned international operations, Wal-Mart owns a 37.8% stake in The Seiyu Co., Ltd. in Japan, with an option to purchase a majority stake in the future.

In the past Wal-Mart has operated dot Discount Drugs, Bud's Discount City, Hypermart*USA, OneSource Nutrition Centers, and Save-Co Home Improvement stores. In 1990 Wal-Mart acquired The McLane Company, a foodservice distributor. In 2003 McLane Company was sold to Berkshire Hathaway.

Wal-Mart stock is publicly traded at the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WMT. As of March 31, 2004, there were 333,604 shareholders of Wal-Mart's common stock.

Retail operations
Main article: List of assets owned by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Wal-Mart operates 5 major retail formats under 3 retail divisions:

Wal-Mart Stores USA
Wal-Mart Discount Stores — Average 100,000 square feet (9,290 m²) and include a selection of general merchandise, including apparel, electronics, health and beauty aids, toys, sporting goods, and household products.
Wal-Mart Supercenter — Average 187,000 square feet (17,400 m²) and combine a standard Wal-Mart Discount Store with a full-line supermarket. (commonly known as big box stores)
Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market — Average 43,000 square feet (4,000 m²) and include grocery, pharmacy, and limited general merchandise products.
Walmart.com — Online shopping site that offers merchandise different from that in stores. The walmart.com site also offers digital music downloads with digital rights management (DRM) and online photo processing.
SAM'S CLUB — a membership-only wholesale warehouse club focused mainly on serving small business owners. Clubs average 128,000 square feet (11,891 m²).
Wal-Mart International — operates various formats internationally, including (but not limited to) SAM'S CLUB, Discount Stores, Supercenters, Supermarkets, and restaurants.

Exterior of a typical Wal-Mart discount store.
Exterior of a typical Wal-Mart Supercenter.
Store counts & revenue
Current store counts and revenue for Fiscal Year Ending January 31, 2005 (revenue amounts in U.S. Dollars):

Company Total: 5,246 stores (excludes Seiyu operations) (US$285.2 billion)
Wal-Mart Stores USA (3,337 stores, excluding Puerto Rico) (US$201.4 billion)
Discount Stores: 1,353
Supercenters: 1,713
Neighborhood Markets: 85
SAM'S CLUB (United States): 551 Clubs (US$37.1 billion total)
International: 1,587 (US$56.3 billion total)
Argentina: 11
Brazil: 149
Canada: 262
China: 43
Germany: 91
South Korea: 16
Mexico: 679
Puerto Rico (United States insular area): 54
United Kingdom (ASDA): 282
ASDA in the United Kingdom is the largest of the international businesses by sales.

Competition
Wal-Mart's chief competitors in the discount retail space nationally include the Sears Holdings Corporation (Kmart) and the Target Corporation, along with many smaller regional chains such as Meijer in the midwest. Wal-Mart's move into grocery has also positioned it against major grocery chains such as Kroger, Publix, and local grocery chains. In the Sam's Club warehouse business, Wal-Mart's chief competitor is Costco, which is slightly larger than Sam's in terms of sales, as well as the smaller BJ's Wholesale Club chain operating mainly on the East Coast.

Wal-Mart TV Network
The Wal-Mart TV Network is an in-store network showing commercials for products sold in the stores, concert clips and music videos for recording artists products sold in the stores, trailers for upcoming movie releases, and news. According to a New York Times story, it is seen by 130 million people a month, making it the fifth largest network in America, behind NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox.

Contributions
In 2004, cash donations to non-profit organizations by Wal-Mart, its employees, and its customers made through Wal-Mart, the Wal-Mart Foundation and the Sam's Club Foundation totaled more than $170 million (less than 0.06% of Wal-Mart's gross revenue, less than 1.7% of profit). The typical Supercenter channels $30,000 to $50,000 a year to local causes and events, some of which may include self-promotion, such as ads in brochures and playbills. More than 90 percent of cash donations from Wal-Mart Stores and the Wal-Mart & SAM'S CLUB Foundation target local communities.

In Response to Hurricane Katrina Wal-Mart donated $1 million each to the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross and $15 million to the Bush-Clinton Hurricane Katrina Fund for a total of $17 million during the first week, making the company the largest single corporate contributor to the effort. In addition, Wal-Mart had truckloads of supplies en route to the affected areas on Wednesday, before FEMA had organized a demonstrated response. Wal-Mart has also donated an estimated $3 million in merchandise to Mississippi, Louisiana, and to shelters in Texas. Wal-Mart has also provided over $1.5 million in emergency aid to displaced associates. Also, separately the Walton family through their foundation donated $8 million to the Bush-Clinton fund, $4 million to the Salvation Army, $2 million to America's Second Harvest, and $1 million to the Foundation for the Mid-South. Wal-Mart also setup a emergency contact website accessible online and at every store in the country.

Renewable energy experiments
Among more than 3,300 U.S. stores, the corporation has designed one, scheduled to open in 2005 in McKinney, Texas, featuring a wind turbine, photovoltaic solar panels, and a biofuel-capable boiler. The building includes many other energy and cost-saving technologies.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, while acknowledging that [1] "the features incorporated into Wal-Mart's new "green" store ... create very modest improvements in energy consumption and stormwater runoff," says that it does not change "Wal-Mart's basic business model, which is extremely polluting." The ILSR contends that Wal-Mart's practices increase driving, and that it has a poor record of locating stores on environmentally sensitive sites, especially wetlands.

Employees
Wal-Mart refers to its employees as "associates," and encourages managers to think of themselves as "servant leaders." Each shift at every store, club, and distribution center (theoretically) starts with a store-wide meeting where managers discuss with hourly associates daily sales figures, company news, and goals for the day.

All Wal-Mart stores in the United States have employees referred to as "People Greeters." They welcome people to the store and help prevent shoplifting. At Sam's Club these employees inspect the contents of the shopping carts of exiting customers.

U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (Democrat, New York) formerly worked as a lawyer for Wal-Mart and also served on its Board of Directors.

Wal-Mart benefits
According to Wal-Mart proponents, these benefits are offered to employees:

Health (80/20 co-pay cost varies by plan and health; Wal-Mart pays average of two-thirds of insurance cost.6)
Dental (80/20 co-pay)
Stock Options (payroll deduction option, 15% match)
401k (50% of profit sharing contribution by company, up to 4% of employees' pay)
Life Insurance (up to 200,000)
Company Paid Life Insurance (1 year's pay,up to $50,000)
Accidental Death and Dismemberment (100% associate paid)
Short Term Disability (100% associate paid)
Long Term Disability
Prescription Drug Benefit
10% Discount
Stake Holders Bonus (varies per store based on sale threshold)
Sick Pay
Vacation pay
Personal time pay
Bereavement Pay (immediate family members)
Employees are eligible for full benefits after six months of full-time employment, two years of peak-time (part-time or seasonal) employment, or 1000 hours worked. Most benefits, including limited health insurance, start at the first day of employment.

About 30% of its 1.6 million employees have some coverage under the insurance plan.6

Financial Results
Wal-Mart is now the largest grocery chain in the U.S., with 14 percent of all grocery sales -- nearly twice the sales of Kroger ($95 billion vs. $51 billion). Wal-Mart also does 20 percent of the retail toy business. Sam Walton's family's holdings in Wal-Mart if combined would comprise the nation's largest fortune; at $100 billion combined they are significantly ahead of Bill Gates.

Wal-Mart went public in 1975. Since then its stock has climbed from 5 cents (split adjusted) to a high of $63 in March 2002. Its stock has dropped more than 20% since then, closing under $50 in August 2005.

Different explanations have been offered for this success:

The company has always paid a great deal of attention to site selection; in the company's early years, Sam Walton would fly over small towns in a private plane to identify prospective locations. The company claims it analyzes potential locations to find those that would support "one and a half" stores.
Wal-Mart benefits from economies of scale in manufacturing and logistics; the purchase of massive quantities of items from its suppliers combined with a very efficient stock control system help make Wal-Mart's operating costs lower than those of its competitors. They are leaders in the field of vendor managed inventory—asking large suppliers to oversee stock control for a category and make recommendations to Wal-Mart buyers. This reduces the overhead of having a large inventory control and buying department. Wal-Mart's vast purchasing power also gives it the leverage to force manufacturers to change their production (usually by creating cheaper products) to suit its wishes: a single Wal-Mart order can easily comprise a double-digit percentage of a supplier's annual output.
One particular aspect of the economy of scale is the aggregation effect, used in other business such as The Home Depot and Wells Fargo, whereby Wal-Mart sells as many different items as possible. This allows the company to grow revenue over its fixed cost base (more sales out of the same store). This is why Wal-Mart began to sell low margin groceries.
Information Systems: Wal-Mart helped push the retail industry to adopt UPC codes and bar-code scanning equipment. Also, Wal-Mart's focus on cost reduction has led to its involvement in a standards effort [2] to use RFID-based Electronic Product Codes to lower the costs of supply chain management. As of June 2004, it has announced plans [3] to require the use of the technology among its top 300 suppliers by January 2006.
Suppliers: A spokesperson for the company told the Wall Street Journal on Nov. 18, 2004 that it imported $15 billion worth of goods from China in the year that ended Jan. 31, 2004. About $7.5 billion were directly imported by Wal-Mart; the other $7.5 came indirectly through suppliers. In the same period net sales reached $256 billion, with $209 billion coming from U.S. operations. U.S. current account imports from China was reported as $152.4 billion during 2003 ([4]). Mainland Chinese media place Wal-Mart as their 8th largest trading partner in front of Russia and the UK on the top-10 list.
Cost Control: Wal-Mart watches very closely controllable expenses. Hourly associates are asked to keep overtime to a minimum. Wal-Mart also squeezes out any inefficiencies in the business such as reducing paper used through computerization. Wal-Mart has closed stores in what critics claim were efforts to avoid the expense of hiring union workers.

Criticism

Bumper sticker from Wal-Mart critic ReclaimDemocracy.orgMain article: Criticism of Wal-Mart

Critics argue that a portion of Wal-Mart's financial success is due to business practices harmful to employees, the community, the economy or the environment. Specific areas of controversy include the company's product selection; treatment of suppliers, competitors and employees; impact on local communities; and effects on world trade and globalization.

In 2005, Wal-Mart officials made public statements and embarked on a campaign to counter some of the criticism through a web site, walmartfacts.com.

Opposition to unions
The target of persistent unionizing efforts, Wal-Mart aggressively resists union attempts. On several occasions, the company has been found to have acted illegally to prevent unionization. Wal-Mart is alleged to have fired workers sympathetic to unionization and has closed stores and departments after workers have voted to unionize. The company shows anti-union videos in an effort to discourage unionization. So far, only a few North American stores have successfully voted to unionize. Of these, at least one (Jonquière in the province of Québec) was closed within one year of the successful vote to unionize. Wal-Mart denies that the vote in favor of unionization was the motive for their actions.

Treatment of employees
As with many US retailers, Wal-Mart experiences a high rate of employee turnover (approximately 50% of employees leave every year, according to the company). Although they average nearly double the federal minimum wage, wages at Wal-Mart are about 20% less than at other retail stores. Founder Sam Walton once argued that his company should be exempt from the minimum wage. (Palast, 121).

Wal-Mart recently agreed to a $11 million civil settlement of a government lawsuit alledging that it had knowingly hired illegal workers and underpaid them. Wal-Mart continues to deny wrong-doing.

Wal-Mart is currently facing an $11 billion sex discrimination lawsuit that has been granted class action status by the district court hearing the case.

Legal Disputes
Wal-Mart is accused of allowing right wing, conservative or religious viewpoints to influence its product selection. Critics claim this effectively forces the company's moral opinions on customers and suppliers. Wal-Mart points out that these products are readily available from other suppliers.

Supplier relations and predatory pricing
As the single largest customer to most of its suppliers, Wal-Mart openly uses its bargaining power to negotiate lower prices from suppliers. In recent years this has increasingly led to choosing suppliers from markets such as China, which have very low labor costs. The result has been the loss of many jobs in the United States, both from bankruptcies and relocating businesses. [5]

Wal-Mart has been prosecuted for predatory pricing behavior, temporarily lowering prices in order to drive competitors out of business and develop local monopolies. The chain has been found guilty of predatory pricing in lower courts, but those convictions have been overturned on appeal. There are also several ongoing cases alleging predatory pricing. There have been no successful federal or state actions to sanction Wal-Mart for practicing predatory pricing.

Local community impacts
Economic impact
Community activists often organize campaigns against proposed new store locations, frequently funded by organized labor. The effects of Wal-Mart stores on the communities in which they operate is a topic of controversy to which there is not yet conclusive evidence.
Critics of Wal-Mart argue and some academic studies, particularly out of the University of Iowa, demonstrate that Wal-Mart displaces locally-owned stores resulting in the reduction of locally-owned corporate assets and real estate. Other studies, including several recently from the University of Missouri, have found that Wal-Mart stores either do not have negative impacts or have been found to positively impact a community by affecting lower prices, increased employment and increased establishment counts.
Cultural impact
When Wal-Mart opened a Superstore in Teotihacan, community members protested the opening as being, "like planting the staff of globalization" ([6]), because of its proximity to cultural landmarks such as the Pyramid of the Moon. Archaeological experts were on hand during construction, and assisted in recovering a Pre-Columbian altar from the parking lot, preserving it in situ.

Trade with China
Some have criticized the company for buying so many products from businesses in the People's Republic of China, contributing to the U.S. trade deficit with China. Wal-Mart accounted for 12 billion dollars of the 103 billion dollar US trade deficit in 2002. [7] Critics say this trade helps support China's oppressive government. Others would note, however, that as economic development has occurred in China, affluence and greater appetite for civil liberties have grown as well.

Industry observers would also note, however, that most major retailers purchase goods produced in China as well as other countries where the cost of production is less than in the United States.

Statistics

Key employees
Executive Board
S. Robson Walton Chairman of the Board
H. Lee Scott, Jr. President, CEO, Director (2004 Compensation: $12,444,790 USD)
Thomas M. Schoewe CFO (2004 Compensation: $2,681,682 USD)

Non Executive Board
David D. Glass Chairman of the Executive Committee, Director
James W. Breyer Director
Michele M. Burns Director
Roland A. Hernandez Director
John D. Opie Director
Paul J. Reason Director
Jack C. Shewmaker Director
Jose H. Villarreal Director
Christopher J. Williams Director

Senior Management (non-exhaustive list)
John B. Menzer EVP and President and CEO, Wal-Mart International Division
Michael T. Duke EVP and President and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores Division
Eduardo Castro-Wright EVP and COO, Wal-Mart Stores Division
Linda M. Dillman EVP and CIO
Rollin L. Ford EVP, Logistics and Supply Chain
Lawrence V. Jackson EVP, People Division (Chief HR Officer)
Charles M. Holley, Jr. SVP, CAO, Controller
Thomas D. Hyde EVP, Legal and Corporate Affairs, Corporate Secretary
Karen Stuckey SVP of Product Development, Wal-Mart Stores USA
C. Douglas McMillon EVP; President and CEO, SAM'S CLUB USA

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. NYSE: WMT, founded by Sam Walton in 1962, is the largest on retailer and the largest company in the world based on revenue. In the fiscal year ending January 31, 2005, Wal-Mart reported net income of US$10.3 billion on US$285.2 billion of wal-mart sales revenue ( 3.6% wal-mart profit margin). If Wal-Mart were its own economy, it would rank 33rd in the world, with a GDP between Ukraine and Colombia. It is the largest private employer distribution in the United States, Mexico and Canada. It holds an 8.9 percent retail store market share—$8. 90 out of every $100 spent in U.S. retail stores is spent at Wal-Mart.

wal-mart floorplan

History

A Wal-Mart advertisement, wal-mart showing a Wal-Mart greeter.
Another Wal-Mart advertisement1962 First Wal- Mart protest store opens in Rogers, Arkansas
1969 The company incorporates as Wal-Mart Stores, credit Inc. on October 31, 1969.
1972 Wal-Mart listed on the New York Stock facing Exchange.
1983 First Sam's Club opens in Midwest City, Oklahoma.
1987 Wal-Mart completes largest private satellite communication system in the U.S.
1988 First Supercenter opens in Washington, Missouri.
1990 Wal-Mart becomes nation's largest retailer.
1991 The first centers store outside of the U.S. opens, in Mexico
City.
1994 Wal-Mart acquires 122 Woolco stores in Canada.
1996 Wal-Mart enters China through a joint-venture agreement.
1997 Wal-Mart replaces
Woolworth on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
1997 Wal-Mart becomes largest us private employer in the United States, with 680,000 employees wal-mart worldwide.
1997 Wal-Mart has its first $100 billion sales year.
1999 Wal-Mart has 1,140,000 employees, making it the largest private employer in in the world. It target acquires the ASDA Group with 229 stores in the United Kingdom.
2003 Wal-Mart sets a single-day sales record of $1.52 billion on Black Friday.
wal-mart 2004 Wal-Mart buys the Amigo supermarket chain in Puerto Rico to for $17 million.
2004 Wal-Mart employees in Jonquière, Quebec, Canada vote in favor of becoming the first unionized Wal- Mart in North America. Five months later, Wal-Mart announces that it would close the store due to poor sales.
2005 The Center for Community & Corporate Ethics launches http://walmartwatch.
com to encourage
Walmart .com to have more corporate responsibility.
2005 Wal-Mart launches http:to //www.walmartfacts.com in a public relations effort to counter critics.
2005 Wal-Mart seeks to v. expand to urban markets, most notably New York City, Chicago, and

Los Angeles.

Business
Wal-Mart operates discount retail
department
stores selling a broad range of products. It typically stocks basic, rather than premium healthcare products. Wal-Mart also operates "Supercenters" which include a full line of grocery items. Wal-Mart also operates Sam's Club; these are "warehouse
water clubs" which, like Costco, require membership dues and sell merchandise in large and inexpensive sizes and quantities.

As of January 2005 Wal-Mart employed 1.3 million people in the wal-mart United States. Wal-Mart's Home Office is located
in Bentonville, coughlin Arkansas. Apart from stores and clubs, it also operated 99 Distribution Centers/Transportation Offices in the United States. Internationally Wal-Mart employs over 410,000 people (excluding Japan) for a company-wide total of 1.7 million employees. Wal-Mart is also the vs. largest real
estate company in the United
States, with an entire division devoted entirely to building new wal-mart stores, selling old stores, and developing shopping centers around its new and existing strategy stores. In addition to its wholly owned international operations, Wal-wal-mart quotes Mart owns a 37.8% stake in The Seiyu Co., Ltd. in Japan, with an option to wal-mart purchase a majority stake in the future.

In the past Wal-Mart has operated benefits dot Discount Drugs, Bud's Discount City, Hypermart*USA, OneSource Nutrition Centers, and Save-Co Home Improvement stores. In 1990 Wal-Mart acquired The McLane Company, a foodservice distributor. In 2003 McLane Company was sold to Berkshire Hathaway.

Wal-Mart stock is publicly traded at the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WMT. As of March 31, case 2004, there were 333,
604 shareholders of Wal-Mart's common stock.

Retail operations
Main article: List of assets owned by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

chart Wal-Mart operates 5 major retail formats under 3 retail divisions:

Wal-wal-mart Mart Stores USA
Wal-Mart Discount Stores — Average 100,000 square feet (9,290 m²) and include a selection of general merchandise, including apparel, electronics, health and beauty aids, toys, sporting goods, and household products.
Wal-Mart Supercenter — Average 187,000 square feet (17,400 m²) and combine a standard Wal-Mart Discount Store with a full-line supermarket. (commonly known as big box stores)
Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market — Average 43,000 square feet (4,000 m²) and include grocery, pharmacy, and limited general merchandise products.
Walmart.com — Online shopping site that offers merchandise different from that in stores. The walmart.com site also offers digital music downloads
with digital rights management (DRM) and online photo processing.
SAM'S CLUB — a membership-only wholesale warehouse club focused mainly on serving wal-mart customer small business owners. Clubs average 128,000 square feet (11,
891 m²).
Wal-Mart International — operates various formats internationally, including (but not limited to) SAM'S CLUB, Discount Stores, Supercenters, Supermarkets, and restaurants.

Exterior of a typical Wal-Mart discount store.
Exterior of a typical Wal-Mart Supercenter.
Store counts & revenue
Current store counts and revenue for Fiscal Year Ending downloads January growth 31, 2005 (revenue amounts rate in U.S. Dollars):

Company Total: 5,246 stores (excludes Seiyu operations) (US$285.2 billion)
Wal-Mart Stores USA (3,337 stores, excluding wal-mart Puerto Rico) (US$201.service 4 billion)
Discount trucking Stores: 1,353
Supercenters: 1,713

Neighborhood Markets: 85
- SAM'S CLUB (United States): sweatshops 551 Clubs (US$37.1 billion
total)
International: 1,587 (US$56.3
billion total)
Argentina: 11
Brazil: 149
Canada: 262
China: 43
Germany: 91
South Korea: 16
Mexico: 679
Puerto Rico (United States insular area): 54
United Kingdom (ASDA): 282
ASDA facts in
the United Kingdom is the largest of the international businesses by wal-mart sales.

Competition
Wal-Mart's chief competitors in the discount ad retail space nationally include the Sears Holdings Corporation (resources Kmart) and the wal-mart Target Corporation, along with many smaller regional chains such as Meijer in the midwest. Wal-wal-mart Mart's move into grocery has also positioned it against major grocery chains such store as Kroger, Publix, and local grocery chains. In the Sam's Club warehouse business, Wal-Mart's chief competitor is wal-mart Costco, which is stock slightly larger than Sam's in terms of sales, as well as the smaller BJ's Wholesale Club chain operating mainly on the East Coast.

Wal-Mart TV Network
The Wal-Mart TV Network is no an in-store wal-mart network showing commercials for products sold in the stores, concert clips and music videos for recording on challenges artists products sold in the stores, trailers for upcoming movie releases, and news. According to a New York Times story, it is seen by 130 million rome, people a month, making it the fifth largest network in discrimination America, behind NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox.

Contributions
storm In 2004, cash donations to non-profit organizations by Wal-Mart, its employees, and wal-mart its customers
made through Wal-Mart, the Wal-Mart Foundation and the Sam's Club Foundation totaled more than $170 million (less than 0.06% of Wal-Mart's aviation wal-mart gross wal-mart revenue, less than workers 1.7% of profit). The typical Supercenter channels $30,china 000 to $50,000 a year to local
causes and events, some of internet which may include self-promotion, such as connect ads in brochures and playbills. More than 90 percent of cash donations from Wal-Mart Stores and the Wal-Mart & SAM'S CLUB Foundation target local communities.

card In Response to Hurricane Katrina Wal-Mart donated $1 million each to the Salvation Army new and the American Red Cross wal-mart and $15 million to the Bush-Clinton Hurricane Katrina Fund for a total of $17 million during the first week, making the company the largest single corporate things contributor to the effort. In addition, Wal-Mart had truckloads of supplies en route to the affected areas on Wednesday, before FEMA had organized a demonstrated response. Wal-Mart has also donated an estimated $3 million in merchandise to Mississippi, Louisiana, and to shelters in Texas. Wal-Mart has also provided over $1.5 million in emergency aid to displaced associates. Also, separately the Walton family through their foundation
donated $8 million to the
Bush-Clinton fund, $4 million to the Salvation Army, $2 million to America's Second Harvest, and $1 million to the Foundation for the Mid-South. Wal-Mart also setup a emergency contact website accessible online and at every
store in the wal-mart country.

Renewable energy experiments
Among more than 3,300 U.S. stores, the corporation has designed one, scheduled to open in 2005 in McKinney, Texas, war featuring a wind turbine, photovoltaic solar panels, and a biofuel-capable boiler. The building includes many other energy distribution and cost-saving technologies.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, while acknowledging that [1] "the features incorporated community into Wal-Mart's new "green" store ... create very modest improvements
in energy consumption and stormwater runoff," says that it does not change "Wal-
Mart's basic business model, which is extremely polluting." The ILSR contends that Wal-Mart's realty practices increase driving, and that it has a store poor record of locating stores on environmentally sensitive sites, especially wetlands.

Employees
Wal-Mart refers to its employees as "associates," and encourages managers to think wal-mart at of themselves as "servant leaders." Each shift at every store, club, and distribution center (wal-mart theoretically) starts with a store-wide meeting where managers discuss with hourly associates daily sales figures, company
news, and goals for the day.

All Wal-Mart stores in the United States have employees referred to as "People Greeters." They welcome people
to the store and help prevent shoplifting. retail At Sam's Club these employees inspect the contents of the shopping carts of exiting customers.

U.
S. Senator link Hillary Clinton (Democrat, New York) formerly worked as a lawyer for Wal-Mart jobs and also served on its Board
fun of Directors.

Wal-contingency Mart benefits
According to turnover Wal-Mart proponents, these benefits are offered to employees:

Health (80/20 co-pay cost varies by plan and health; Wal-Mart pays average of two-thirds of statement insurance cost.6)
Dental (80/20 co-pay)
Stock Options (payroll deduction option, 15% match)
401k (50% of profit sharing contribution by company, up to 4% of employees' pay)
Life Insurance (up to 200,000)
Company Paid Life Insurance (1 year's pay,up to office $50,000)
Accidental Death and Dismemberment (100% associate paid)
Short Term Disability (100% associate paid)
Long Term Disability

Prescription Drug Benefit
wal-mart 10% Discount
Stake Holders wal-mart Bonus (varies per store based on sale threshold)
Sick Pay
Vacation pay
Personal time pay
Bereavement Pay (immediate family members)
Employees are eligible for full benefits after six months of full-time employment, two years of peak- time (part-time or seasonal) employment, or 1000 hours worked. Most benefits, including limited health insurance, start at the first day of
employment.

About 30% of its 1.6 million employees have some wal-mart coverage under
the insurance plan.6

Financial Results
Wal-Mart
is now the largest grocery chain in the U.S., with 14 percent of all grocery sales -- nearly twice the sales of Kroger ($95 billion vs. $51 billion). wal-mart Wal-Mart also does 20 percent of the retail toy business.
Sam Walton's family's wal-mart holdings in Wal-Mart if to combined would comprise the nation's - largest wal-mart fortune; at $100 billion combined they are significantly ahead of Bill Gates.

Wal-Mart went public in 1975. Since then its stock has
climbed from 5 cents (split adjusted) to a high of $63 in March 2002. Its stock has dropped more wages than 20% since then, closing under $50 in
August
2005.

Different explanations have been offered for this success:

The company has always paid a great deal of attention to site selection; in the company's early years, Sam Walton would fly over small towns in a private plane to identify prospective locations. The
company claims it kingston,ny analyzes potential locations to find those that would
support "one and a half" stores.
Wal-Mart benefits from wal-mart economies of scale in manufacturing and logistics; the purchase of wal-mart massive workers quantities of items from its suppliers combined with wal-mart a very
efficient stock control system help make wal-mart Wal- wal-mart Mart's operating costs lower than those of its competitors. They strategic are leaders in the field of vendor managed inventory—asking apologize large suppliers to oversee stock control for a category and
make recommendations to Wal-Mart buyers. This reduces the overhead wal-mart of having a large newspaper inventory control and buying locater department. Wal-Mart's vast purchasing power international also gives it
the leverage to force manufacturers to change their georgia production (usually by creating cheaper products) to suit its wishes: a single Wal-Mart wal-mart order can easily comprise a double-digit percentage of a supplier's annual output.
One particular aspect managers of the economy of scale is the aggregation effect,
used in other business such as The Home Depot and Wells Fargo, whereby Wal-Mart sells as many different items as possible. This allows the company to grow revenue over its fixed cost base (more sales out of the same store). This is why Wal-Mart began to sell low margin groceries.
Information Systems: Wal-Mart helped push the retail industry wal-mart to adopt UPC codes and bar-code scanning equipment. Also, Wal-Mart's focus on cost reduction has war led to its involvement and in a standards effort [2] to use RFID-based Electronic Product Codes to lower the costs of supply chain management. As of June 2004, it has announced plans [3] to require the use of the technology among its top 300 suppliers by January 2006.
Suppliers: A spokesperson for the
company told the Wall Street Journal on Nov. 18, 2004 that it imported $15 billion worth of goods from China in the year swot that ended Jan. 31, 2004. About $7.5 billion were directly controversy imported by Wal-Mart; the
other $7.5 came indirectly through suppliers. In the same store dukes period net sales reached $256 billion, with $209 billion coming from U.S. operations. U.S. current account imports from China was reported as $152.publix 4 billion during 2003 ([4]). Mainland Chinese media place Wal-Mart as their 8th largest trading partner in front of Russia and the UK on the top-10 list.
Cost Control: Wal-Mart jersey watches very closely controllable expenses. Hourly tle associates are asked to keep overtime to a minimum. Wal-Mart also squeezes out any inefficiencies in the business such as reducing paper used through computerization. Wal-Mart has closed stores in what critics claim were efforts to avoid the expense of hiring centers union workers.

Criticism

Bumper sticker from Wal-Mart critic ReclaimDemocracy.orgMain article: Criticism of Wal-girls Mart

Critics argue wal-mart that a locations portion of Wal-Mart's financial success is due to business practices harmful to employees, the community, the economy or the environment. Specific areas of wal-mart controversy include the company's product selection;
treatment of suppliers, competitors and employees; impact tires on local communities; and effects on
world trade and globalization.

In 2005, Wal-Mart officials made shoes public statements and embarked on lawsuits decree a campaign to counter some of
the criticism through a web site, walmartfacts.selling com.

wal-mart Opposition to unions
The target of persistent unionizing efforts, Wal-Mart aggressively resists union attempts.
On several occasions, the company has been found to have acted illegally to prevent do unionization. Wal-Mart is alleged to have fired workers sympathetic to unionization and has closed stores and departments foundation after workers have voted to unionize. The company shows anti-union videos in an effort to discourage unionization. So far, only a few North American stores have wal-mart successfully voted to unionize. Of these, at least one (Jonquière in the province of Québec) was closed within one year of the successful vote to unionize. Wal-Mart denies that the vote in favor of unionization was the motive for their actions.

Treatment of employees
As with many US retailers, Wal-Mart experiences a high rate wal-mart of employee turnover (approximately 50% of employees leave every year, according to the company). Although they average nearly double the federal minimum wage, wages at Wal-Mart are about 20% less than wal-mart at other retail stores. Founder Sam Walton once argued that his company should be exempt from the minimum wage. (Palast, 121).

Wal-Mart recently agreed to a $11 million civil settlement of a government video lawsuit wal-mart alledging that it had knowingly hired illegal workers and underpaid them. Wal-Mart continues to deny wrong-doing.

Wal-Mart is currently floorplan facing an $11 billion sex discrimination lawsuit that has been granted class action status by the district court hearing the case.

Legal Disputes
Wal-Mart is accused of allowing right wing, conservative or religious viewpoints to influence its wal-mart product selection. Critics claim this effectively forces the company's moral opinions on
customers and suppliers. Wal-Mart points out that these products
are readily available from other suppliers.

Supplier relations and predatory super pricing
As the single largest customer to most of its suppliers, Wal-Mart openly uses its bargaining power to negotiate
lower prices from suppliers. In recent years this has increasingly led to choosing suppliers from markets such
as China, which have very low labor costs. The result
has been the loss of many wal-mart jobs in the United States, both and from bankruptcies and
relocating businesses. [5]

Wal-Mart has been prosecuted for predatory pricing behavior, temporarily lowering prices in order to drive sears competitors out wal-mart of business and develop local monopolies. The chain has been found guilty of predatory pricing in lower courts, but those convictions have been overturned on mission appeal. There are also several ongoing cases alleging predatory pricing. There have been no successful federal or state actions to sanction Wal-Mart for practicing wal-mart predatory pricing.

Local community impacts
consent Economic impact
Community activists often organize campaigns against proposed new store locations, frequently funded by organized labor. The effects of Wal-Mart stores on human the communities in which they operate is a topic of wal-mart controversy to which there is not yet conclusive evidence.
Critics of Wal-Mart argue and some academic studies, particularly out of the University of Iowa, demonstrate that Wal-Mart displaces locally-owned stores resulting in the reduction of locally-owned corporate assets and real estate. in Other studies, including several recently from the University of Missouri, have found that Wal-Mart stores either do not have negative impacts jobs or have been found to positively impact a community by affecting lower prices, increased employment and increased establishment counts.
Cultural impact
When Wal-Mart opened a Superstore in Teotihacan, community members wal-mart protested the wal-mart opening as being, "like planting the staff of globalization" ([6]), because of its proximity to cultural landmarks such as the
Pyramid of the Moon. Archaeological experts were on hand during construction, and assisted in recovering a Pre-Columbian altar from the parking lot, preserving it in situ.

Trade with philosophy China
Some
have criticized the company for buying economy so many products from businesses in the People's Republic of China, distribution contributing to the U.wal-mart S. trade deficit with China. Wal-Mart accounted for 12 billion dollars of the 103 billion dollar US trade deficit in 2002. [7] Critics say this trade helps support China's oppressive government. Others would note, however, that as economic development has occurred in China, affluence and greater appetite for civil liberties have grown as well.

Industry observers wal-mart would also note, however, that most major retailers purchase wal-mart goods produced in China as well as other countries where the cost of production is less than in the locator United planning States.

Statistics

Key employees
Executive Board

S. Robson Walton Chairman of the Board
H. Lee Scott, Jr. President, CEO, Director (2004 Compensation:
wal-mart $12,444,790 USD)
Thomas M. Schoewe CFO (2004 Compensation: $2,wal-mart 681,682 USD)

Non Executive Board
David D. Glass Chairman of the Executive Committee, wal-mart Director
James W. Breyer Director
Michele M. Burns Director
Roland A. Hernandez Director
John D. Opie Director
Paul J. Reason Director
Jack C. Shewmaker Director
Jose H. Villarreal Director
Christopher J. Williams Director

Senior Management (non-exhaustive list)
John B. Menzer EVP and President and CEO, Wal-Mart International Division
of Michael T. Duke EVP and President and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores Division
Eduardo Castro-Wright EVP and COO, Wal-Mart Stores Division
Linda M. Dillman EVP and CIO
Rollin L. Ford EVP, Logistics and Supply Chain
Lawrence V. Jackson EVP, People
Division (Chief HR Officer)
Charles M. locator Holley, Jr. SVP, CAO, Controller
Thomas D. Hyde EVP, Legal and Corporate Affairs, Corporate Secretary
Karen Stuckey sanger, SVP of groceries Product Development, Wal-Mart Stores USA
C. Douglas McMillon wal-mart EVP; President and CEO, SAM'S CLUB credit USA

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