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WAL-MART

WAL-MART was founded by Samuel Moore Walton in Rogers, Arkansas, in July 1962. He built a chain of huge discount stores mostly situated in small rural towns. Wal-Mart's success was based on everyday low prices, item merchandizing, volume movement of goods, and customer-orientated, non-unionized employees known as "associates." By Walton's death in 1992, Wal-Mart had displaced thousands of small town "Main Street" stores and become America's biggest retailer. During the 1990s Wal-Mart successfully expanded into Canada, Latin America, Europe, and the Far East. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Wal-Mart was the largest employer in the United States and the world's biggest retailer.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ortega, Bob. In Sam We Trust: The Untold Story of Sam Walton, and How Wal-Mart is Devouring America. New York: Times Business, 1998.

Vance, Sandra S., and Roy V. Scott. Wal-Mart: A History of Sam Walton's Retail Phenomenon. New York: Twayne, 1994.

Richard A. Hawkins

See also Retailing Industry.