Original

1918 - 1992

A child of the Depression, Sam always worked hard. He would milk the cows, and by the age of eight he started selling magazine subscriptions. When he turned 12, Sam took on a paper route which he continued on well into his college days to support himself.

Walton began his retail career at J.C. Penney in Des Moines, Iowa in 1940 making just $75 per month. In 1945, Sam borrowed $5,000 from his wife and $20,000 from his wife’s family to open a Ben Franklin five and dime franchise in Newport, Arkansas.

In 1950, he relocated to Bentonville, Arkansas and opened a Walton 5&10. Over the next 12 years they built up and grew to 15 Ben Franklin Stores under the name of Walton 5&10. Sam had plenty of new ideas. He liked to deal with the suppliers directly so he could pass the savings on to the customers. He later brought a new idea to Ben Franklin management that they should open up discount stores in small towns. They rejected his idea.

So, Sam and his brother James (Bud) opened up their first Wal-Mart Discount City store in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962. Walton and his wife Helen had to put up everything they had, including their house and property to finance the first 18,000- square-foot store.

With gradual growth over the next eight years they went public in 1970 with only 18 stores and sales of $44 million.

Wal-Mart soon grew rapidly in the 1970’s due to their highly automated distribution centers and advanced computerization. By 1980, they were up to 276 stores with revenues of over $1.2 billion.

In the early 1980’s, Wal-Mart opened the large, Sam’s Wholesale Clubs, the successful cash-and-carry, membership only warehouse centers pioneered by the Price Company.

Today, Wal-Mart has over 728,000 Associates worldwide with 3,054 stores, sales of over $104 billion, is in operation in all 50 states and it’s still growing. In an average week, approximately 60,000,000 customers will shop at Wal-Mart throughout the world. In the United States, on average, every man, woman and child spends $360 annually there as well.

In his autobiography “Sam Walton, Made in America: My Story,” Sam shares with us, “If you believe in your dreams, there’s no limit to what you can do.”

In 1992, American legend, Sam Walton left us with these words, “I would like to be remembered as a good friend to most everyone whose life I’ve touched; as someone who has maybe meant something to them and helped them some way.”

Samuel Moore Walton

March 29, 1918 - April 5, 1992

WE WILL MISS A GOOD FRIEND