Evaluate the general environment of Wal-Mart using the framework in Chapter 2. What are the key opportunities and threats facing Wal-Mart? (This is the "OT" of a SWOT analysis)The opportunities for Wal-Mart are tremendous. This huge retailer began with an idea from Mr. Sam Walton in 1962 in a small town in Rogers Arkansas. The Wal-Mart Chain had evolved from a chain of stores called Ben Franklin stores that Mr. Walton and his brother operated. Mr. Walton took his vision for retail sales to management at Ben Franklin stores and they essentially did not believe his concept was a good idea. So he set off on his on to create this huge retail giant that we all know as Wal-Mart and the rest you can say is history. Wal-Mart begin taking advantage of its opportunities by looking at the local population size with 5000-25000 being the ideal size, and catering to that market by providing jobs and discount products.
English: Inside the Walmart (still branded as Wal-...
A protest in Utah against Wal-Mart
This is a selfmade image from the english wikipedi...As Wal-Mart begin to expand it set its eye on the global economy and begin to place stores in different countries around the world using the same concept, quality merchandise at discount prices. The Wal-Mart retail concept has became so powerful that suppliers are forced to do business the Wal-Mart way. Suppliers and manufactures are forced to comply with Wal-Mart demands because Wal-Mart sells such a huge quantity of their products. Wal-Mart has also ventured into the city suburbs by providing stores that are able to adapt to the suburban type of environment. All of this has created tremendous opportunity for Wal-Mart to expand and grow to 250 billion dollar empire. However all of this success has not come without risk and threats. Being such a large retailer it has a huge employee base and a few years ago some...