The idea behind what would become Walmart was a store that would offer a large variety and volume of products offered at low prices, everyday. Sam and J.L. Walton, the founders of Walmart, believed that American small towns would benefit from a large retail shopping center because of the everyday low prices and the large quantity of products; they also believed that a large discount retail store would benefit from small towns and make a significant profit. People would be willing to purchase everyday products at everyday low prices. The first store under the Walmart name (Walmart Discount City) opened in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas.
During the 1970s, Walmart enhanced its production and distribution methods by building its own warehouse to store its products. The idea was Walmart could purchase its products in bulk and store them in its warehouse. This way Walmart could ensure that its store's shelves would remain stocked. Walmart went public in 1970 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange by 1972. By 1977, Walmart ranked first on return on equity, return on capital, sales growth and earnings growth among America's discount and variety stores.
Throughout the 1980s, Walmart continued to acquire new businesses and expand as a company. Walmart developed a new type of store that offered items in bulk and required a membership fee under the Walmart name called Sam's Club. Walmart also tried to adopt the idea of a "Hypermart" (a store that combined retail, restaurants, banks, and even a video rental store). The idea of the "hypermart" was taken from a French entrepreneur, but the idea fell through when the costs to heat and cool the extremely large facilities, traffic congestion, and lack of parking space created more drawbacks than advantages.
In order to rectify the mistakes of the "Hypermart", Walmart developed the "supercenter" concept in 1988. Walmart constructed smaller facilities that offered just grocery and retail items instead of the extra perks like the video store and restaurants.
Company Criticisms
While Walmart had been extremely successful since its humble beginnings in Rogers, Arkansas in the 1950s, Walmart did face several setbacks on the way to becoming the fastest company to reach $1 billion.
One of Walmart's criticisms was that it avoided dealing with sales representatives and often was able to get vendors to cut their prices even more than the vendors had originally planned. In 1987, there was retaliation from a variety of manufacturer representatives claiming that by eliminating them from the buying process, Walmart took over the manufacturers' control on how to sell their products.
In order to correct some of its negative image caused by the retaliation from manufactures, Walmart created a "Buy America" program. The program's goal was to work with the manufacturers to help create American-made products that would compete with foreign imports. Walmart was successful at cutting its imports by approximately five percent between 1985 and 1989.
Tags: Walmart expansion strategies, Walmart Brazil, Carrefour
[...] Actually, Walmart couldn't afford this penetration strategy. Even though, customers were really glad of the low prices, the retailer suffered from a stock out by 40% whereas stock out in a usual American Walmart were only by 5%. Walmart decided to change its strategy. It concentrated on a new competitive advantage, the quality of its customer service. Indeed, European companies do not have the same consumer approach that American companies do. In Europe, if a consumer believes a service is not well provided by an employee, he or she has the choice to change retailers. [...]
[...] < http:>. [iii] "Walmartstores.com: History Timeline." Walmartstores.com. Web May 2011. < http:>. "Walmart Stores, Inc. Company History." Find Funding with Banks, Investors, and Other Funding Sources FundingUniverse. Web April 2011. < http: company-history.html>. "Walmartstores.com: History Timeline." Walmartstores.com. Web May 2011. < http:>. "Walmartstores.com: History Timeline." Walmartstores.com. Web May 2011. < http:>. [vii] Hesterly, William. "Wal-Mart Stores in 2008." Strategic Managment and Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases. 3rd ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall PC 1-15-C 1-28. Print. [viii]"Walmart Annual Report 2010." Walmartstores.com. Web May 2011. . [...]
[...] Entering Germany Walmart entered Germany in 1997 with an aggressive global expansion strategy. It acquired the well-known 21-store Wertkauf chain for approximately 750 Million Euro. One year later it bought the 74 Interspar hypermarkets for 560 Million Euro. With this acquisition, Walmart became the fourth largest operator of hypermarkets in Germany. Nevertheless, with total revenue of around 2.9 billion Euros in 2002 and a faltering market share of just 1.1 per cent, the US giant only ranked 13th of the Top 15 Retailers in the country (see Table Germany's Top 15) Instead of expanding its network by 50 stores by early 2001, as initially planned, Walmart closed two big outlets.[xii] Rank Company Food Sales(in % of Revenues in Total Sales) Germany billion) 15 Table Top five retailers in Korea by market share Source: Euromonitor International (2007) (Sales are in South Korea only, in millions; in U.S. [...]
[...] Stock Exchange by 1972.[ii] By 1977, Walmart ranked first on return on equity, return on capital, sales growth and earnings growth among America's discount and variety stores. Throughout the 1980s, Walmart continued to acquire new businesses and expand as a company. Walmart developed a new type of store that offered items in bulk and required a membership fee under the Walmart name called Sam's Club. Walmart also tried to adopt the idea of a “Hypermart” store that combined retail, restaurants, banks, and even a video rental store). [...]
[...] This analysis will look at Germany, South Korea and Brazil, three of the most notable countries that Walmart has ventured into and has experienced difficulties and even failures. Walmart Germany When Walt-Mart decided to enter the German market, it was certain Germany would be a promising market. With a population of 82million it was Europe's largest market; it had excellent infrastructure and Germans enjoyed a healthy pro capital income. Germany accounted for around 15 percent of Europe's $ 2 trillion-a-year market. [...]
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