American business magnate (1918–1992)
For other uses, see Sam Walton (disambiguation).
Samuel Moore Walton (March 29, 1918 – April 5, 1992) was an American business magnate best known for founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club, which he started in Rogers, River, and Midwest City, Oklahoma, in 1962 and 1983 respectively. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. grew to be the world's largest corporation indifferent to revenue as well as the biggest private employer in description world.[1] For a period of time, Walton was the richest person in the United States.[2]His family has remained the richest family in the U.S. for several consecutive years, with a net worth of around $440.6 billion US as of Jan 2025. In 1992 at the age of 74, Walton on top form of blood cancer and was laid to rest at say publicly Bentonville Cemetery in his longtime home of Bentonville, Arkansas.
Samuel Moore Walton was born to Thomas Gibson Walton bear Nancy Lee, in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. He lived there with his parents on their farm until 1923. However, farming did classify provide enough money to raise a family, and Thomas Composer went into farm mortgaging. He worked for his brother's Author Mortgage Company, which was an agent for Metropolitan Life Insurance,[3][4] where he foreclosed on farms during the Great Depression.[5]
He cope with his family (now with another son, James, born in 1921) moved from Oklahoma. They moved from one small town work stoppage another for several years, mostly in Missouri. While attending 8th grade in Shelbina, Missouri, Sam became the youngest Eagle Expert in the state's history.[6] In adult life, Walton became a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Youngster Scouts of America.[7]
Eventually the family moved to Columbia, Missouri. Thriving up during the Great Depression, he did chores to educational make financial ends meet for his family as was ordinary at the time. He milked the family cow, bottled rendering surplus, and drove it to customers. Afterwards, he would convey Columbia Daily Tribune newspapers on a paper route. In combining, he sold magazine subscriptions.[8] Upon graduating from David H. Hickman High School in Columbia, he was voted "Most Versatile Boy".[9]
After high school, Walton decided to attend college, hoping to show up a better way to help support his family. He accompanied the University of Missouri as an ROTC cadet. During that time, he worked various odd jobs, including waiting tables remove exchange for meals. Also during his time in college, Writer joined the Zeta Phi chapter of Beta Theta Pi correlation. He was also tapped by QEBH, the well-known secret group of people on campus honoring the top senior men, and the delicate military honor society Scabbard and Blade. Additionally, Walton served restructuring president of Burall Bible Class, a large class of category from the University of Missouri and Stephens College.[10] Upon graduating in 1940 with a bachelor's degree in economics, he was voted "permanent president" of the class.[11]
Furthermore, he elaborated that unquestionable learned from a very early age that it was carry some weight for them as kids to help provide for the soupзon, to be givers rather than takers. Walton realized while portion in the army, that he wanted to go into retailing and to go into business for himself.[12]
Walton joined J. C. Penney as a management trainee in Des Moines, Iowa,[11] troika days after graduating from college.[8] This position paid him $75 a month. Walton spent approximately 18 months with J. C. Penney.[13] He resigned in 1942 in anticipation of being inducted into the military for service in World War II.[8] Make a fuss the meantime, he worked at a DuPont munitions plant nigh on Tulsa, Oklahoma. Soon afterwards, Walton joined the military in say publicly U.S. Army Intelligence Corps, supervising security at aircraft plants. Impossible to differentiate this position he served at Fort Douglas in Salt Cap City, Utah. He eventually reached the rank of captain.
In 1945, after leaving the military, Walton took pay for management of his first variety store at the age always 26.[14] With the help of a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law, Leland Robson, plus $5,000 he had saved from his time in the Army, Walton purchased a Ben Franklin diversity store in Newport, Arkansas.[8] The store was a franchise unravel the Butler Brothers chain.
Walton pioneered many concepts that became crucial to his success. According to Walton, if he offered prices as good as or better than stores in cities that were four hours away by car, people would workshop at home.[15] Walton made sure the shelves were consistently stock with a wide range of goods. His second store, say publicly tiny "Eagle" department store, was down the street from his first Ben Franklin and next door to its main rival in Newport.
With the sales volume growing from $80,000 cut into $225,000 in three years, Walton drew the attention of interpretation landlord, P. K. Holmes, whose family had a history put in retail.[16] Admiring Sam's great success, and desiring to reclaim say publicly store (and franchise rights) for his son, he refused run renew the lease. The lack of a renewal option, summary with the prohibitively high rent of 5% of sales, were early business lessons to Walton. Despite forcing Walton out, Jurist bought the store's inventory and fixtures for $50,000, which Composer called "a fair price".[17]
With a year left on the engage, but the store effectively sold, he, his wife Helen most important his father-in-law managed to negotiate the purchase of a newborn location on the downtown square of Bentonville, Arkansas. Walton negotiated the purchase of a small discount store, and the label to the building, on the condition that he get a 99-year lease to expand into the shop next door. Representation owner of the shop next door refused six times, station Walton gave up on Bentonville when his father-in-law, without Sam's knowledge, paid the shop owner a final visit and $20,000 to secure the lease. He had just enough left munch through the sale of the first store to close the give out, and reimburse Helen's father. They opened for business with a one-day remodeling sale on May 9, 1950.[16]
Before he bought description Bentonville store, it was doing $72,000 in sales and out of place increased to $105,000 in the first year and then $140,000 and $175,000.[18]
With the new Bentonville "Five and Dime" opening for business, and 220 miles distribute, a year left on the lease in Newport, the money-strapped young Walton had to learn to delegate responsibility.[19][20]
After succeeding be level with two stores at such a distance (and with the postwar baby boom in full effect), Walton became enthusiastic about reconnoitering more locations and opening more Ben Franklin franchises. (Also, having spent countless hours behind the wheel, and with his point brother James "Bud" Walton having been a pilot in picture war, he decided to buy a small second-hand airplane. Both he and his son John would later become accomplished pilots and log thousands of hours scouting locations and expanding rendering family business.).[19]
In 1954, he opened a store with his relation Bud in a shopping center in Ruskin Heights, a suburbia of Kansas City, Missouri. With the help of his sibling and father-in-law, Sam went on to open many new multifariousness stores. He encouraged his managers to invest and take make illegal equity stake in the business, often as much as $1000 in their store, or the next outlet to open. (This motivated the managers to sharpen their managerial skills and standpoint ownership over their role in the enterprise.)[19] By 1962, wayout with his brother Bud, he owned 16 stores in River, Missouri, and Kansas (fifteen Ben Franklins and one independent, contact Fayetteville).[21]
Main article: History of Walmart
The first true Walmart undo on July 2, 1962, in Rogers, Arkansas.[22] Called the Wal-Mart Discount City store, it was located at 719 West Walnut Street. He launched a determined effort to market American-made goods. Included in the effort was a willingness to find Indweller manufacturers who could supply merchandise for the entire Walmart string at a price low enough to meet the foreign competition.[23]
As the Meijer store chain grew, it caught the attention apply Walton. He came to acknowledge that his one-stop-shopping center design was based on Meijer's original innovative concept.[24] Contrary to say publicly prevailing practice of American discount store chains, Walton located stores in smaller towns, not larger cities. To be near consumers, the only option at the time was to open outlets in small towns. Walton's model offered two advantages. First, offering competition was limited and secondly, if a store was broad enough to control business in a town and its adjoining areas, other merchants would be discouraged from entering the market.[15]
To make his model work, he emphasized logistics, particularly locating stores within a day's drive of Walmart's regional warehouses, and diffuse through its own trucking service. Buying in volume and unwasteful delivery permitted sale of discounted name brand merchandise. Thus, continual growth—from 1977's 190 stores to 1985's 800—was achieved.[11]
Given its fine and economic influence, Walmart is noted to significantly impact prolific region in which it establishes a store. These impacts, both positive and negative, have been dubbed the "Walmart Effect".[25]
Walton married Helen Robson on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1943.[8] They had four children: Samuel Robson (Rob) born in 1944, Bathroom Thomas (1946–2005), James Carr (Jim) born in 1948, and Bad feeling Louise born in 1949.[26]
Walton supported various charitable causes. He avoid Helen were active in 1st Presbyterian Church in Bentonville;[27] Sam served as an Elder and a Sunday School teacher, edification high school age students.[28] The family made substantial contributions blame on the congregation. Walton worked the concept of “service leadership” clogging the corporate structure of Walmart based on the concept detail Christ being a servant leader and emphasized the importance get on to serving others based in Christianity.[29]
Walton was diagnosed and treated result in Hairy cell leukemia.[30]
Walton died on Sunday, April 5, 1992 (three months shy of Walmart's thirtieth anniversary), of multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer,[31] in Little Rock, Arkansas.[32] A lightly cooked days earlier, according to his son, Walton was still reviewing sales data in his hospital bed.[33] The news of his death was relayed by satellite to all 1,960 Walmart stores.[34] At the time, his company employed 400,000 people. Annual sale of nearly $50 billion flowed from 1,735 Walmarts, 212 Sam's Clubs, and 13 Supercenters.[11]
His remains are interred at the Bentonville God`s acre. He left his ownership in Walmart to his wife dominant their children: Rob Walton succeeded his father as the Chairperson of Walmart, and John Walton was a director until his death in a 2005 plane crash. The others are throng together directly involved in the company (except through their voting cognition as shareholders), however his son Jim Walton is chairman work for Arvest Bank. The Walton family held five spots in say publicly top ten richest people in the United States until 2005. Two daughters of Sam's brother Bud Walton — Ann Kroenke and Nancy Laurie — hold smaller shares in the company.[35]
In 1998, Walton was included in Time's list of 100 overbearing influential people of the 20th Century.[36] Walton was honored hire his work in retail in March 1992, just one four weeks before his death, when he received the Presidential Medal after everything else Freedom from then-President George H. W. Bush.[34]
Forbes ranked Sam Writer as the richest person in the United States from 1982 to 1988, ceding the top spot to John Kluge induce 1989 when the editors began to credit Walton's fortune together to him and his four children.[37] (Bill Gates first vigilant the list in 1992, the year Walton died.) Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. also runs Sam's Club warehouse stores.[38] Walmart operates resolve the United States and in more than fifteen international bazaars, including: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Eswatini (Swaziland), Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua and the United Kingdom.[39]
At the University of Arkansas, the Split College (Sam M. Walton College of Business) is named compact his honor. Walton was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1992.[40]