Walmart History

In 1964, the second Wal-Mart store was opened in Harrison, Arkansas – neighbouring city to Rogers, Arkansas.

By 1967, just three years after the first Walmart store was opened, the company opened 24 stores, all within the state of Arkansas and also had reached $12.6 million in sales.

In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas in Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma.

The first stock split occurred in May 1971 at a price of $47 per share. It began trading stock as a publicly held company on October 1, 1970, and was soon listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The first stock split occurred in May 1971 at a price of $47 per share.

In May 1972, Walmart went public with a market price of $47.

Expanded into Tennessee in 1973

Expanded into Kentucky and Mississippi in 1974

Various industries elaborated upon that system in the ensuing decades before the first general standard was published in 1975.

By 1976 the Waltons had phased out their Ben Franklin stores so that the company could put all of its expansion efforts into the Wal-Mart stores.

In 1977, Walmart made its first acquisition of the Mohr-Value stores, which operated in Missouri and Illinois.

In 1978, acquired the Hutcheson Shoe Company, marking the first time when Walmart had branched into new sectors such as – pharmacy, auto service centre, and jewellery.

By 1979 there were 276 Wal-Mart stores in 11 states.

In 1981, Walmart acquired around 92 of Kuhn’s Big K stores which were primarily located in the southeast of America.

Expanded into Florida and Nebraska in 1982

In April 1983, Walmart opened the Sam’s Club – a membership-based discount wholesale warehouse store – in Midwest City, Oklahoma.

By 1984, Sam Walton had begun to source between 6% and 40% of his company's products from China.

In a move motivated by good business sense and public relations efforts, Wal-Mart sent an open letter to United States manufacturers in March 1985 inviting them to take part in a "Buy-American" program.

Walmart celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1987 and by then, the company started to embrace newer technologies such as computer systems into their operations to maintain & track inventory, sales, and send an instant communication to its stores.

By 1988, Walmart had become the most profitable retailer in the United States, though it still did not outsell its competition K-Mart and Sears in terms of the value of items purchased until later.

In 1991, Walmart expanded worldwide with the opening of its first store in Mexico City.

Sam Walton passed away on April 5, 1992, after he was diagnosed with cancer.

In 1993, the Walmart International Division was formed with Bobby Martin as its president and it was in the same year that Walmart achieved billion-dollar in sales within one week in December 1993.

In 1994, Walmart started using the slogan “Always Low Prices, Always.” as a part of its advertisement campaigns.

Walmart stores opened throughout the rest of the United States, with Vermont being the last state to get a store in 1995.

It took three more years for Walmart to reach its first $100 billion in sales within a year – with sales in 1996 totalling $118.1 billion.

In 1997, Walmart was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Moreover, in July 1998 the company announced that it had purchased a majority stake in four stores and six additional development sites in Korea, extending its expansion in Asia.

In 1999, Walmart acquired the Asda chain in the United Kingdom – the second-largest chain in the UK after Tesco.

In 2000, H. Lee Scott became Walmart's president and CEO as the company's sales increased to $165 billion.

In 2002, it was listed for the first time as America's largest corporation on the Fortune 500 list, with revenues of $219.8 billion and profits of $6.7 billion.

2003: Fiscal 2003 revenues of $244.52 billion make Wal-Mart the world's largest corporation.

During 2004 the company planned to open at least 220 new Supercenters, while its discount store chain would be reduced by a net of about 90 units.

In 2006, Walmart announced that it would remodel its United States stores to help it appeal to a wider variety of demographics, including more affluent shoppers.

On September 12, 2007, Walmart introduced new advertising with the slogan, "Save money.

Walmart Canada started to adopt the logo for its stores in early 2009.

On February 22, 2010, the company confirmed it was acquiring video streaming company Vudu, Inc. for an estimated $100 million.

On April 23, 2011, the company announced that it was testing its new "Walmart To Go" home delivery system where customers will be able to order specific items offered on their website.

On November 14, 2012, Walmart launched its first mail subscription service called Goodies.

In August 2013, the firm announced it was in talks to acquire a majority stake in the Kenya-based supermarket chain, Naivas.

In June 2014, some Walmart employees went on strike in major United States cities demanding higher wages.

In 2015, Walmart was the biggest US commercial producer of solar power with 142 MW capacity, and had 17 energy storage projects.

On January 15, 2016, Walmart announced it would close 269 stores in 2016, affecting 16,000 workers.

On September 29, 2017, Walmart acquired Parcel, a technology-based, same-day and last-mile delivery company in Brooklyn.

In March 2018, Walmart announced that it is producing its own brand of meal kits in all of its stores that is priced under Blue Apron designed to serve two people.

In July 2020, Walmart announced that all customers would be required to wear masks in all stores nationwide, including Sam's Club.