Facts about Wal-Mart
Other Wal-Mart brands include Great Value and Equate in the US and Canada, and Smart Price in Britain.
Many companies have become increasingly dependent on Wal-Mart as their primary customer.
In 2006, Max Factor brand cosmetics began selling exclusively in Wal-Mart.
In 2004, more than 70 percent of the goods sold in Wal-Mart were manufactured in China.
The partnership will involve two joint ventures; Bharti will manage the front end involving opening of retail outlets, while Wal-Mart will take care of the "back end", such as cold chains and logistics.
In 1990, Wal-Mart opened its first Bud's Discount City location in Bentonville.
The exterior had a hunter green background behind the Wal-Mart letters, similar to Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets, instead of the blue previously used at its supercenters.
Wal-Mart began offering private label brands in 1991 with the launch of Sam's Choice, a brand of drinks produced by Cott Beverages exclusively for Wal-Mart.
On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City store located in Rogers, Arkansas.
According to Wal-Mart's 2006 Annual Report, the International division accounted for about 20.1 percent of sales.
A Wal-Mart financial report in 2006 also indicated that Wal-Mart customers are sensitive to higher utility costs and gas prices.
Wal-Mart uses its influence in Washington to oppose import tariffs and quotas and promote free-trade pacts with Third World countries that supply both raw materials and manufactured goods.
Wal-Mart has also recently created its own electric company in Texas, Texas Retail Energy, to supply its stores with cheap power purchased at wholesale prices.
Wal-Mart was one of the first companies to initiate a computer network that allowed suppliers to access their own inventory and sales figures.
After it began selling magazines in the mid-1990s, Wal-Mart accounted for 15 percent of all single-copy magazine sales in the U.S. Wal-Mart also sells a large quantity of best-selling books.
Economists warn that a business failure at Wal-Mart would have a far-reaching impact on U.S. manufacturers.
Each week, about 100 million customers, nearly one-third of the U.S. population, visit Wal-Mart's U.S.
The company was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on October 31, 1969.
Wal-Mart spent $18 billion on Chinese products alone, and if it had been an individual economy, the company would have ranked as China's eighth largest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia, and Canada.
The case started in 2000, when a 54-year-old Wal-Mart worker in California named Betty Dukes filed a sex discrimination claim against her employer.
The average U.S. Wal-Mart customer's income is below the national average, and analysts recently estimated that more than one-fifth of them do not have a bank account, twice the national rate.
Wal-Mart also spent nearly a year working with outside consultants to quantify the company's total environmental impact and identify improvements that could be made.
Wal-Mart's operations primarily comprise three retailing subsidiaries: Wal-Mart Stores Division U.S., Sam's Club, and Wal-Mart International.
Wal-Mart is currently facing a gender discrimination lawsuit, Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., which alleges that female employees were discriminated against in matters regarding pay and promotions.
Some city councils have denied permits to developers who planned to include a Wal-Mart store in their projects.
Wal-Mart Supercenters are hypermarkets with size varying from 98,000 square feet (9,104.5 mІ) to 261,000 square feet (24,247.7 mІ), with an average of about 197,000 square feet (18,301.9 mІ).
Wal-Mart continues to do well in the UK, and its ASDA subsidiary is the second largest chain after Tesco.
When measured against the customers of other similar retailers in the U.S., frequent Wal-Mart shoppers were rated the most politically conservative.
Competitors of Wal-Mart's Sam's Club division are Costco, and the smaller BJ's Wholesale Club chain operating mainly in the eastern US.
Economists speak of a “Wal-Mart effect” that suppresses inflation and influences productivity in many markets.
On April 3, 2007, Wal-Mart reported that female employees now made up 61 percent of its workforce and 40 percent of its management.
Wal-Mart Discount Stores are discount department stores with size varying from 51,000 square feet (4,738.1 mІ) to 224,000 square feet (20,810.3 mІ), with an average store covering about 102,000 square feet (9,476.1 mІ)..
On November 8, 2006, Wal-Mart Canada's first three Supercentres (spelled as in Canadian English) opened in Hamilton, London, and Aurora, Ontario.
Several smaller retailers, primarily dollar stores, such as Family Dollar and Dollar General, have been able to find a small niche market and compete successfully against Wal-Mart for home consumer sales.
Wal-Mart's operations are so extensive that it has become a political and economic power in its own right.
All Wal-Mart stores in the US and Canada also have designated "greeters," who welcome shoppers at the store entrance.
By 2008, Wal-Mart was operating 7,390 stores and Sam's Club locations in 14 markets, employing more than 2 million people, and serving more than 176 million customers a year.
In 2004, a Wal-Mart Superstore opened in Mexico, 1.9 miles away from the historic Teotihuacбn archaeological site and Pyramid of the Moon.
Labor unions, Christian organizations, and environmental groups have criticized Wal-Mart for its policies or business practices.
At the end of 2007, ASDA had 340 stores, some of which are branded ASDA Wal-Mart Supercentres, as well as ASDA Supermarkets, ASDA Living, George High Street and ASDA Essentials stores.
Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets are grocery stores that average about 42,000 square feet (3,901.9 mІ).
There have been several studies on the economic impact of Wal-Mart on small towns and local businesses, jobs, and taxpayers.
Full-time Wal-Mart employees in the United States earn an average of $10.11 per hour, potentially supplemented by quarterly bonuses of up to $1000 through the retailer's "My$hare" program.
Wal-Mart is the largest grocery retailer in the United States, with an estimated 20 percent of the retail grocery and consumables business.
The exterior had a hunter green background behind the Wal-Mart letters, similar to Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets, instead of the blue previously used at its supercenters.
In 2005, Wal-Mart had $312.4 billion in sales, more than 6,200 facilities around the world—including 3,800 stores in the United States and 2,800 elsewhere, and more than 1.6 million employees worldwide.
About 40 percent of products sold in Wal-Mart are private label store brands, or products offered by Wal-Mart and produced through contracts with manufacturers.
Wal-Mart customers give low prices as the most important reason for shopping there, reflecting the "Low prices, always" advertising slogan that Wal-Mart used from 1962 until 2006.
In 2000, H. Lee Scott became President and CEO, and Wal-Mart's sales increased to $165 billion.
Wal-Mart's business model is based on selling a wide variety of general merchandise at "always low prices."
According to a consultant hired by the plaintiffs in 2001, Wal-Mart's EEOC filings showed that female employees made up 65 percent of Wal-Mart's hourly-paid workforce, but only 33 percent of its management.
Several labor unions blame Wal-Mart workers' unwillingness to join their organizations on the company's anti-union stance.
During the 1980s, Wal-Mart continued to grow rapidly, and by its 25th anniversary in 1987 there were 1,198 stores with sales of $15.9 billion and 200,000 employees.
Sales in 2006 for Wal-Mart's UK subsidiary, ASDA (which retains the name it had before acquisition by Wal-Mart), accounted for 42.7 percent of sales of Wal-Mart's international division.
In 2004, Wal-Mart bought the 116 stores in the Bompreзo supermarket chain in northeastern Brazil.
Critics also cite Wal-Mart's high annual turnover rate of ~70 percent as an indication that workers are dissatisfied.
Wal-Mart is governed by a fifteen-member Board of Directors, which is elected annually by shareholders.
Regional clusters of stores were situated within one day's truck drive of a giant Wal-Mart warehouse that made large-volume purchases and used its own trucking service to distribute the goods.
Wal-Mart Stores Division U.S. is Wal-Mart's largest business subsidiary, accounting for 67.2 percent of net sales for financial year 2006.
Wal-Mart cites “family values” and “customer preferences” as a reason for not stocking CDs or DVDs with parental warning stickers, and for occasionally withdrawing items from its shelves.
Many locations were opened to fulfill leases in shopping centers as Wal-Mart stores left and moved into newly-built Supercenters.
When Wal-Mart plans new store locations, activists sometimes oppose the new store and attempt to block its construction.
Opponents to new Wal-Marts cite concerns such as traffic congestion, environmental problems, public safety, absentee landlordism, bad public relations, low wages and benefits, and predatory pricing.
Some also sell gasoline; distributors include Murphy Oil Corporation (whose Wal-Mart stations are branded as "Murphy USA"), Sunoco, Inc. ("Optima"), or Tesoro Corporation ("Mirastar").
In 1998, Wal-Mart introduced the "Neighborhood Market" concept with three stores in Arkansas.
On September 12, 2007, Wal-Mart introduced new advertising with the slogan, "Save Money Live Better," replacing the "Always Low Prices, Always" slogan, which it had used for the previous 19 years.
By 2005, about 60 percent of Wal-Mart's merchandise was imported, compared to 6 percent in 1995.
Wal-Mart's move into the grocery business in the late 1990s also placed it in competition with major supermarket chains in both the United States and Canada.
Economists speak of a “Wal-Mart effect” that suppresses inflation and influences productivity in many markets.
Wal-Mart places pricing pressure on its suppliers, and encourages them increase their production of popular products.
In 2004, Wal-Mart responded by testing its own dollar store concept, a subsection of some stores called "Pennies-n-Cents.
CEO Lee Scott said that Wal-Mart's goal was to be a "good steward for the environment" and ultimately use only renewable energy sources and produce zero waste.
All of the Bud's Discount City stores closed or converted into Wal-Mart Discount Stores by 1997.