In today's society, Wal-Mart is known as one of the leading competitors of retailing. Wal-Mart was incorporated in 1962, with the goal of becoming the world's biggest and best in the retail world. Over the years, this company has developed into a brand image and market pace to be one of the biggest known industries of all time. Wal-Mart is double the size of its closest competitor with the motto 'Save Money. Live Better.' The owner, Sam Walton, said it best "If we work together, we'll lower the cost of living for everyoneâ¦we'll give the world an opportunity to see what it's like to save and have a better life" (Walmart.com, 2009).
Industry Overview & HistoryThe 1970's produced a huge growth for Wal-Mart and the distribution center and home office was created. Throughout the following years Wal-Mart continued to sell shares and open new stores in new states. By the mid 80's Wal-Mart had grown to be a billion dollar company with it own personal Wal-Mart Satellite Network (Walmart.com,
A protest in Utah against Wal-Mart
English: Supermercado de Wal-Mart in Spring Branch...
English: Statue of Sam Walton and his dog outside ...2009). In the 90's Wal-Mart leaped out into the world internationally into Mexico, Canada, China, Argentina, and Brazil. From then on the company has continued to grow and branch out into new surrounding and countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom. "The 3,000th international store, a Supercenter in Sao Paulo, Brazil, opened in November 2007, which raised Wal-Mart's ownership to 95.1 percent"(Walmart.com, 2009).
Wal-Mart continues to be faced with high levels of completion in this high-speed economy. The company faces both local and international competition every day. Many competitors include but are not limited to be Best Buy, Costco, Target, Kmart, Sears, Carrefour, and Kroger's. Wal-Mart has also started to produce its own line of products to sell, called store brand. Whenever Wal-Mart offers customers a wide number of merchandise,