Walmart

Walmart Inc. is an American multinational retailer that sells goods through physical stores and online channels. It runs hypermarkets (often called supercenters), discount department stores, grocery stores, pharmacies, and gas stations across the United States and 19 other countries. The company’s headquarters are in Bentonville, Arkansas. Sam Walton and his brother James "Bud" Walton founded the business in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. Walmart also owns and operates Sam’s Club, a chain of membership warehouse clubs.

As of 2026, Walmart ranks as the second-largest company globally by revenue and is the world’s largest private employer, with 2.1 million workers. It holds the top spot on both the Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 lists. In February 2026, Walmart became the first traditional retailer to reach a valuation of over $1 trillion, and it is recognized for its product innovation. Though publicly traded, the company remains a family-controlled business—the largest such enterprise on the planet—since the Walton family, through their holding company Walton Enterprises and individual stakes, owns more than half of Walmart’s shares.

Walmart first listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972, then moved to the Nasdaq in December 2025. It is a core component of major stock indices, including the Dow Jones Global Titans 50 and the S&P 500. By 1988, it had become the most profitable retailer in the United States, and by October 1989, it was the largest by revenue. Initially limited to the South and lower Midwest, the company expanded coast to coast by the early 1990s. As of early 2026, Walmart holds a global portfolio of 8,841 total patent filings, with about 2,686 of those granted.

**History**

**1945–1969: Early history**

In 1945, Sam Walton, a former J. C. Penney employee, bought a Ben Franklin store from the Butler Brothers. His strategy was to sell products at low prices to drive high sales volume with thin profit margins, framing this as a fight for consumers. He faced early difficulties because the lease and purchase price were steep, but he found cheaper suppliers than his rivals and could therefore undercut them on price. Sales jumped 45% in his first year, reaching $105,000 in revenue, then rose to $140,000 the next year and $175,000 the year after. By the fifth year, the store was pulling in $250,000. When the lease expired and he couldn’t renew, Walton opened a new store at 105 N. Main Street in Bentonville, calling it "Walton's Five and Dime." That building now houses the Walmart Museum.

On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City at 719 W. Walnut Street in Rogers, Arkansas. The store’s design was inspired by Ann & Hope, which Walton had visited in 1961—the same store that influenced Kmart founder Harry B. Cunningham. Walton took the name "Wal-Mart" from FedMart, a discount chain started by Sol Price in 1954, saying he liked the sound of it. That original building now holds a hardware store and an antiques mall; the company’s "Store #1" later moved to a Supercenter several blocks west at 2110 W. Walnut Street. Within five years, Walmart had 18 stores in Arkansas and $9 million in sales. In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas, in Sikeston, Missouri, and Claremore, Oklahoma.

**1969–1990: Incorporation and growth as a regional power**

The company incorporated under Delaware law as Wal-Mart, Inc. on October 31, 1969, and changed its name to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in 1970. That same year, it opened a home office and first distribution center in Bentonville. At the time, it had 38 stores, 1,500 employees, and $44.2 million in sales. Walmart began trading publicly on October 1, 1970, and soon listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Its first stock split occurred in May 1971 at $47 per share. By then, it operated in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma. It entered Tennessee in 1973, then Kentucky and Mississippi in 1974. When it moved into Texas in 1975, it had 125 stores, 7,500 employees, and $340.3 million in sales.

During the 1980s, Walmart briefly tested a precursor to the Supercenter called the Hyper-Mart, with four locations that combined discount stores, supermarkets, pharmacies, video arcades, and other features. Growth continued rapidly: by the company’s 25th anniversary in 1987, there were 1,198 stores, $15.9 billion in sales, and 200,000 associates. A key reason for Walmart’s success between 1980 and 2000 was its strategy of expanding contiguously, building new distribution centers in a hub-and-spoke pattern within driving distance of existing Supercenters.

In 1987, Walmart completed a $24 million satellite network—the largest private satellite system at the time—linking all stores with two-way voice and data transmissions and one-way video to the Bentonville office. This allowed corporate to track inventory and sales and communicate instantly with stores. By 1984, Sam Walton had begun sourcing between 6% and 40% of his company’s products from overseas.