Sam Walton - From laundry worker to America's richest "retail king"

Sam Walton, born in 1918, is known as the "king of retail" and is the man who laid the foundation for the wealth and prosperity of the Walton family.

He is also recorded in history as one of the richest people in the world in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. The experience and business secrets that this billionaire accumulated in life and in business are revealed in the memoir "Made in America" which has been translated into many languages around the world.

The Empire of America's Retail King

Sam Walton was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, USA. In 1962, Sam Walton was just a hired worker for a laundromat in the town of Bentonville, Arkansas. Every day, this 28-year-old young man and 3 other employees bring clean ironed items to each customer. At that time, two retail giants Kmart and Sears owned most of the retail stores in Arkansas and surrounding states. After many deliveries, directly meeting all kinds of customers, Sam Walton discovered that Kmart and Sears did not appear in small and remote towns like his hometown Benton.

Seeing that, Sam Walton immediately poured all the money of 150 USD to hire 8 workers and set up the first retail store, named Wal-Mart (Walmart) right in his hometown of Bentonville in 1962. No one. It can be expected that this is the forerunner of the world's largest retail system in the future. At the beginning of the business, due to low capital and lack of experience, Sam's shop mainly wholesales and retails under the motto of making a profit, providing the most necessary necessities. This place attracts a large number of guests thanks to its enthusiastic professional service, good quality and affordable prices. Just three years later, Walmart has become one of the most popular retail stores in the town of Benton.

In 1968, Walmart opened stores in Claremore and Sikekton, expanding beyond Askansas for the first time. Success came like kites and winds, in just 2 years, the number of stores under Sam Walton's management has increased to 38 units, bringing in revenue of 44.2 million USD.

In 1970, Walmart went public on the NYSE, selling 300,000 shares at a price of $16.50. According to calculations, the investor who owned 100 Walmart shares at the time at a price of $ 1,650 is now the owner of a fortune worth $ 4.3 million. In 1987, on its 25th anniversary, Walmart had 1,198 stores with total sales of $15.9 billion and 200,000 employees. Three years later, Walmart Stores overtook competitors to become the largest retailer in the United States with sales of $32.6 billion, surpassing competitor Kmart Corp. Today, this retail group has more than 11,400 stores and generates a revenue of $530 billion (equivalent to Switzerland's GDP in 2020) and a huge workforce of 2.2 million people (beyond the number of regular soldiers). of China). During the golden startup era of "retail king" Sam Walton, what people said about Walmart at that time was the miraculous growth, big ambitions that created the era of dominance.

After successfully making Walmart the number one retailer in the US in 1991 with sales of $26 billion, Sam Walton died just a year later. His successor was Robson Walton - the eldest son of the Walton family, with the responsibility of not letting this empire fall. But the reality is that Robson Walton does more than that. In 20 years as president of Walmart, he has increased sales of this chain 5 times, reaching $ 400 billion, profit reaching the highest level in history of $ 22 billion. From the succession to the time of leaving the chairmanship (1992-2015), the second generation of the Walton family has maintained the same achievement as the time of founder Sam Walton, which is to retain the throne of the largest retail chain in the United States and put this family in the position of the richest on the planet.

In 2016, Walmart was transferred to the third generation of the Walton family, and is run by Steuart Walton (Jim Walton's son). Contrary to the familiar path of his family forebears, his understanding of the e-business field has helped Steuart Walton reshape the entire Walmart empire through opening more overseas branches, operating online, sell online, invest in emerging technology industries.

Scattered statistics in 2020 show that the earning rate of Walton family heirs increases by about half a million dollars per minute and 2 billion dollars per month. The total wealth of 7 people in this family according to the Forbes list is 220.2 billion USD, far exceeding the name at the top of the billionaire list is Jeff Bezos.

The life behind the huge fortune

The Walton family hides behind the largest retail empire in the world. Sam Walton is famous for teaching his children with a humble and hard-working attitude, like the way he faced failure: "I got up from failure, picked up after failure, rebuilt on failure and told myself must do better than what has failed."

The second generation of the Walton family is known for its philanthropy. All four of Sam Walton's children have poured billions of dollars into charities and are always on the list of America's most active philanthropists.

Across the United States, the Waltons' possessions are present in the most lavish places. Robson Walton owns a mansion in Paradise Valley, Arizona, near the foothills of Camelback Mountain, and owns a collection of classic cars worth billions of dollars. Alice Walton is Sam Walton's youngest child, although not involved in the family business, also attracts attention with the Crystal Bridges museum - which houses her own $500 million art collection. This female billionaire also especially loves horses and owns large horse farms in the state of Texas, USA, worth tens of millions of dollars. In 2014, she bought a luxury two-story apartment in downtown New York City for $25 million.

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