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Background history of walmart essay
Walmart SWOT analysis
Background history of walmart essay
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Wal Mart Case Study
It opened in 1962 by Sam Walton, Wal-Mart has become the largest retailer in the United States, and with over 3,300 stores Wal-Mart continues to be successful. Under his successor, CEO David Glass, the small discount store chain started in Arkansas has become one of the largest corporations in the world. David Glass lays out the philosophy: “we approach this new and exciting decade of the 90’s much as we did in the 80’s focusing on only two main objectives, (1) providing the customers with what they want, when they want it, all at value, and (2) treating each other as we would hope to be treated, acknowledging our total dependency on our associate-partners to sustain our success.” This statement by Glass shows that Wal-Mart has devised a plan in order to maintain its high ranking in the retail business. The question becomes, can Wal-Mart continue to expand and succeed in an increasingly hostile retail environment? I will discuss the external stakeholders? 2) Do a SWOT analysis of Wal-Mart. What are the company’s distinctive competencies? 3) How would you describe Wal-Mart’s “Grand” strategy for the next decade? In terms of Porter’s generic strategies?
Stakeholders are the persons, groups, and institutions directly affected by an organization’s performance. Some external stakeholders for Wal-Mart include the following: 1) Customers: specific consumer or client’s groups, individual, and organization’s goods and/or use its services. Wal-Mart has grown by ...
Based on the Miles and Snow strategy typology, Dollar Tree would be categorized as a prospector and an analyzer. Dollar Tree initially started off as a prospector when it was created as an off-shoot of the retail chain K &K Toys (Parnell, 2014). Prospectors focus on intrapreneurship, which involves the creation of new business ventures within an existing organization (Parnell, 2014). When K & K Toys was divested in 1991, it was done so in order to focus their energies on developing the concept of the dollar store, which in turn gave them the first mover advantage for being first in that particular market (Parnell, 2014). Just as prospector companies places priority on new product and service development to meet the changing needs and
Wal-Mart represents the sickness of capitalism at its almost fully evolved state. As Jim Hightower said, "Why single out Wal-Mart? Because it's a hog. Despite the homespun image it cultivates in its ads, it operates with an arrogance and avarice that would make Enron blush and John D. Rockefeller envious. It's the world's biggest retail corporation and America's largest private employer; Sam Robson Walton, a member of the ruling family, is one of the richest people on earth. Wal-Mart and the Waltons got to the top the old-fashioned way: by roughing people up. Their low, low prices are the product of two ruthless commandments: Extract the last penny possible from human toil and squeeze the last dime from its thousands of suppliers, who are left with no profit margin unless they adopt the Wal-Mart model of using nonunion labor and shipping production to low-wage hellholes abroad." (The Nation, March 4th 2002 www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020304&s=hightower).
Wal-Mart’s competitive environment is quite unique. Although Wal-Mart’s primary competition comes from general merchandise retailers, warehouse clubs and supermarket retailers also present competitive pressure. The discount retail industry is substantial in size and is constantly experiencing growth and change. The top competitors compete both nationally and internationally. There is extensive competition on pricing, location, store size, layout and environment, merchandise mix, technology and innovation, and overall image. The market is definitely characterized by economies of scale. Top retailers vertically integrate many functions, such as purchasing, manufacturing, advertising, and shipping. Large scale functions such as these give the top competitors a significant cost advantage over small-scale competition.
Company Selection Paper Team B's assignment this week was to select two different publicly traded companies in the same industry. The two companies will serve as the basis for subsequent team assignments. The two companies chosen for the study are Wal-Mart and Target. This paper provides an overview of each of the selected companies. Date of Company Establishment Wal-Mart was established in 1962 by Sam Walton.
The name Walmart has become a brand name that is synonymous with the American culture since it opened its first store in Rogers Arkansas in 1962. Walmart since then, has remained competitive in the global market and has managed to sustain its competitive edge globally even in times of recession. Walmart over the years has had to compete with new emerging retailers such as Target, Kmart, Home Depot, Dollar General and Costco to name a few, in addition to online giants such as Amazon and Alibaba Express. It however has managed to sustain itself as a marketable and highly competitive brand in the global market.
A1: Dollar General's main business strategy is to focus on being the leading distributors of consumable basics, with 30% of the merchandise at $1.00 or less. Dollar General believes in maintaining an assortment of consumable merchandise and making shopping for everyday items hassle free and simplistic.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is in the discount, variety stores industry. It was founded in 1945, Bentonville in Arkansas which is also the headquarters of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart operates locally as well as worldwide. It operated 1209 discount stores, 1980 super centers, and 567 Sam’s Club by January 31, 2006. It has also extended its operations to many international countries. It runs its retail stores in two forms: Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart Stores. The Sam’s Club sells assorted product lines such as hardwares, electronics, jewelry, and to mention a few. The Wal-Mart stores also offer similar products in addition to the following: health and beauty products, apparel for women, men and children, household appliances etc (www.yahoo.finance.com). The Vision Statement, Mission Statement, Values and Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance: Directors, Executive Management, Committees and Stakeholder will be the key elements that will discussed in this report as it relates to Wal-Mart. In addition to that, the major trends in the general/macro environment and industry will be analyzed.
Summarize and discuss the core issue in the case. Do not repeat the entire case details but only pertinent information at the heart of the case.
Over the past years, Wal-Mart has been continuously accused of poor customer service. In 2013, USA Today rated Wal-Mart as the most hated retailer based on their low customer satisfaction score collected by American Customer Satisfaction Index. However, as years have passed, Wal-Mart continues to trend as the biggest retailer with bad customer service (The Huffington Post, 2015).
When Sam Walton died in 1992, some industry insiders doubted that the Wal – Mart chain that he had founded some 30 years earlier would retain its prominence as a discount retailer. Lost for good they feared, would be the “magic spark” that Walton used to light fires under the chain’s 1.3 million associates. And, as Wal – Mart stock failed to enjoy the same bull – market growth as many other companies in the mid – 1990s, the pundits appeared to be correct. Today, however, with stores in all 50 U.S. states and nine other countries, Wal – mart has rebounded, leading the pack of discount stores with record earnings. In fact, with $218 billion in annual sales and 100 million customers per week, Wal – Mart is the world’s largest retailer and was named “Retailer of the Century” by Discount Store News.
From the consumer side, Amazon provides services like Amazon Prime, which delivers free two-day shipping on retail purchases, on-demand video streaming and a free access to the Kindle library, everything for an annual
Wal-Mart and Target are two similar global corporations. If one asks each of these store’s customers why they shop there, somewhere in their answer one will find them saying that they can find everything. The difference between these two corporations is their mission, marketing, and quality. Each of these stores are looking to offer a different experience despite selling similar goods. So, when profits are not changing in the United States, they’ve opted for an expansion into other countries. They have opened stores and provided services outside of the United States.
Wal-Mart is coming off a disappointing third quarter when its largest revenue generator, sales from U.S. stores, dropped 0.3%. The company also has forecasted flat earnings during the critically important holiday season. While lowering its full-year forecast, Wal-Mart still expects to see modest sales growth in FY2015 through the opening of smaller, more targeted stores, and its longtime strategy of lowering prices. However, there is some doubt whether these measures will be enough to stave off Wal-Mart 's competitors. Costco NASDAQ: COST is coming off a big year with more than $100 billion in revenue, 5% growth in U.S. store sales, and 7% growth in international sales. As Costco continues to challenge Wal-Mart domestically and internationally,
Walmart serves about 14 million customers each day. When Sam Walton founded Walmart in 1962 I’m sure he didn’t expect it to become as big of a retail store as it is now. 42 years after being founded, Walmart now has 4,253 stores across the world, and brings in $405 billion dollars a year. This kind of success doesn’t just happen overnight.
Many groups have a stake in what Wal-Mart does. Stakeholders can be broken down into two diverse groups: market stakeholders (shareholders, employees, consumers, and suppliers and non-market stakeholders (labor unions and environmental stakeholders).