...Wal-Mart: The Challenges of Dominance There are few companies that have become household names all across the Americas and many parts of the globe. One such company is Wal-Mart. Since its’ birth in 1962, there have been over 4,700 company locations opened, employing over 1.4 million people in the continental United States alone. (WALMART STORES.COM 2011) Wal-Mart was founded by Sam and Bud Walton as a department-sized store targeting small rural towns throughout the Midwest. It has immersed itself in a rapid amount of growth and success over the first few years by offering among the best levels of customer service, as well as “Every Day Low Prices.” After several decades of extreme growth, Wal-Mart began to finally shift its focus from targeting rural areas to that of urban areas all across the United States with its adaptation of the larger supersized centers that could offer a wide array of products and services. A great example to show its rapid movement would be to compare its growth to that of several of its’ competitors. It was founded the same year as corporate moguls Target and Kmart, and in 2011 it grossed revenues of more than four times that of both of these companies combined. (WALMART 2011) Retailing is the second largest industry in the U.S. and one of the most sizable in the world, and Wal-Mart is larger than the next four global giants combined. Wal-Mart’s capabilities in the Retail link-system, as well as its innovations in developing the hub...
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...HOW WAL-MART USES DISTRIBUTION CENTRES TO REDUCE TRANSPORTATION COSTS AND AT THE SAME REPLENISH INVENTORIES FREQUENTLY 1.0 Introduction Daskin, Snyder and Berger (2003) noted that achieving efficiency and effectiveness in the movement of goods from source through processing, fabrication, finished goods assembly, distribution centres, wholesalers, retailers and right down to the final consumers is highly important in today’s global world especially considering that cost of goods/products in a number of instances can be higher than the value placed on the goods/products by the final consumer. Similarly, Chopra and Meindl (2010, p.41) stated that the ability of supply chain to perform in relation to responsiveness and efficiency is determined by how the logistical and cross functional drivers of supply chain namely facilities, inventory, transport, information, pricing to mention just a few interact with one another. Furthermore, Daskin, Snyder and Berger (2003) also offered that taking decisions on locations constitute the most “critical and difficult” of all decisions required in making supply chain effective and efficient largely because other decisions on the other drivers such as inventory, information, pricing can be more easily changed in response to changes in the market, raw materials, labour to mention just a few. Chopra (2001) offered that distribution entails the process of moving and storing products right from the supplier down to the final consumer within...
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...Business Model Comparison Name Institution Wal-Mart and Tarket Wal-Mart and Tarket are the two leading retail stores in the United States with a customer base of more than 100 million shoppers. The stores run their operations in different parts of the United States and their annual posting for revenue accounts for a significant percentage of earnings for retails businesses in the US (Zikmund & Babin, 2013). Together, the stores have a capital base worth billions in dollars. Over the years, the stores have engaged in stiff competition in trying to increase their customer base. The companies share commonalities for being the only retailing businesses that record growth in times of financial crisis. However, difference exists in the approach used by the management in running the operations of the stores. At Wal-Mart for instance, the administration is open to communication and they encourage employees to use of stratagems that increase profits at the company (Böhm, 2008). Tarket on the other hand uses similar strategies but they emphasize on satisfying both customers and the employees. Moreover, Tarket is inclined towards promoting high quality products that give consumers value for their money. For the past few years, the two companies have been engaging in stiff competition in trying to outwit each other by using modern techniques in running their operations (Böhm, 2008). In a bid to entice customers, Walmart have been offering bargain on prices for their commodities...
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...Wal-Mart SWOT Analysis Kara Groff Table of Contents: Overview……………………………..………..page 3 Strengths………………………………....…….page 4 Weaknesses…………………………...….…….page 6 Opportunities...............................................…...page 8 Threats…………………………………....……page 10 Recommendations…………………………......page 12 References……………………………….…….page 13 Student: Faculty Member: Kara Groff Dr. David J. Burns 2015 Cleneay Ave. Xavier University Marketing Department Norwood, OH 45212 3800 Victory Parkway (419)-656-1234 Cincinnati, OH 45407 GroffKC@Xavier.edu (513)-745-3956 Burnsd@Xavier.edu Overview Wal-Mart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton when he and his brother James “Bud” Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas. Since then, Wal-Mart has grown to be the second largest company in the world. In the United States, the company includes Wal-Mart discount stores, Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets, and Sam’s Club warehouse membership clubs. The company also has many international operations. Wal-Mart is considered a variety store which focuses on low prices featuring apparel as well as hard goods, and has been committed to upholding their basic value of customer service. Advances in technology have contributed a great deal to the growth of Wal-Mart. Highly automated distribution...
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...Businesses all over the United States are aggressive to stay modest and are looking for ways to rearrange their business and still deliver for customers the best likely prices. Businesses such as Wal-Mart do not have to alter their construction to fit the stresses of customers because it previously proposals its patrons brand name items at inferior prices. Wal-Mart’s basic construction has aided make it an influential retail trade, and a place customer’s love. Market Structure Wal-Mart Stores Inc. unlocked its first reduction store in 1962, Sam Walton had no impression his commercial would be the achievement that it is nowadays. The aim for Wal-Mart’s achievement is their aptitude to create a rudimentary construction for their business. Wal-Mart offers a diversity of famous brands and vends them at about 5-10% economy than other shops. This makes Wal-Mart an influential power in the selling business. Wal-Mart Stores is careful an oligopoly market construction. Colander (2010) describes oligopoly as a market disorder in which vendors are so few that the movements of any one of them will substantially touch price and have a quantifiable influence on contestants. With their sustained achievement, Wal-Mart’s market structure could also be careful a monopolistic modest construction. Wal-Mart has all the physiognomies of a controlling inexpensive structure as labeled by Colander (2010), they have many sellers, offer separated products, and they...
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...Wal-Mart and the U.S. Economy Dr. Robert Jantzen Professor of Economics Iona College Dr. Donn Pescatrice Professor of Economics Iona College Dr. Andrew Braunstein Professor of Business Economics Hagan School of Business Iona College Corresponding Author: Dr. Donn Pescatrice Iona College Department of Economics 715 North Avenue New Rochelle, NY 10801 (914)-637-2729 (dpescatrice@iona.edu) March, 2008 Wal-Mart and the U.S. Economy ABSTRACT The Wal-Mart company, the world’s largest retailer and second-largest corporation, is a dominant U.S. business. This study investigates whether there are significant long-run relationships between the business of Wal-Mart and the overall U.S. economy as measured by an array of traditional macro-level variables. Cointegration analysis reveals that Wal-Mart sales generally move counter to overall economic conditions, dampened in more prosperous economic periods and buoyed in more sluggish economic environments. Consequently, trends in Wal-Mart sales may serve as a rather non-traditional contrarian economic bellwether. Keywords Wal-Mart . macroeconomy . cointegration . bellwether JEL Classifications E32 . L81 . M21 WAL-MART AND THE U.S. ECONOMY Introduction The Wal-Mart corporation has come under media scrutiny for a myriad of reasons in recent years. It continues to be the focus...
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...Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful? Posted on October 05, 2003 http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2003-10-05/is-wal-mart-too-powerful In business, there is big, and there is Wal-Mart. With $245 billion in revenues in 2002, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT ) Inc. is the world's largest company. It is three times the size of the No. 2 retailer, France's Carrefour. Every week, 138 million shoppers visit Wal-Mart's 4,750 stores; last year, 82% of American households made at least one purchase at Wal-Mart. "There's nothing like Wal-Mart," says Ira Kalish, global director of Deloitte Research. "They are so much bigger than any retailer has ever been that it's not possible to compare." At Wal-Mart, "everyday low prices" is more than a slogan; it is the fundamental tenet of a cult masquerading as a company. Over the years, Wal-Mart has relentlessly wrung tens of billions of dollars in cost efficiencies out of the retail supply chain, passing the larger part of the savings along to shoppers as bargain prices. New England Consulting estimates that Wal-Mart saved its U.S. customers $20 billion last year alone. Factor in the price cuts other retailers must make to compete, and the total annual savings approach $100 billion. It's no wonder that economists refer to a broad "Wal-Mart effect" that has suppressed inflation and rippled productivity gains through the economy year after year. However, Wal-Mart's seemingly simple and virtuous business model is fraught with complications...
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...make business sense for both for profit and not for profit companies. Creating a diverse workforce provides tremendous opportunities for organizations and individuals to tap into the ideas, creativity and potential contributions inherent in a diverse work force. In this paper we will be analyzing WALMART and its diversity workforce. Most of the information was conduct from the manager who is working at WALMART located Clearlake. Organizational Background This paper will be evaluating the diversity initiatives of Wal-Mart. Sam, who first brought the idea of this corporation, traveled the country studying everything he could about discount retailing. He became convinced American consumers wanted a new type of store. Trusting his vision, Sam and his wife Helen put up 95 percent of the money for the first Wal-Mart store in Rogers, Ark. Discounters such as Kmart quickly expanded in the 1960s, while Sam only had enough money to build 15 Wal-Mart stores. In 1972, Wal-Mart stock was offered for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange. With this infusion of capital, company grew to 276 stores in 11 states by the end of the decade. The first Supercenter opened in 1988, featuring a complete grocery, and 36 departments of general merchandise. Sam said, "… if you think about it from the point of view of the customer, you want everything: a wide assortment of quality merchandise; the lowest possible prices; guaranteed satisfaction; friendly, knowledgeable service; convenient hours;...
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...retailing: the case of Wal-Mart’s failure in Germany Susan Christophersonà Abstract Wal-Mart’s exit from the German market in 2006 after 10 years of attempting to achieve sustainable competitive advantage contributes an interesting case to the small but expanding literature on ‘failure’ in international investment. The work on the disinvest decision in all its forms has been critical to a re-conceptualization of the international investment process as dynamic rather than static, linear and inexorable. An important segment of the work on investment and disinvestment as dynamic processes focuses on the environment in which investment and disinvestment decisions evolve. While the environment of the host country market has begun to be examined, the market environment of the country in which the retail transnational corporation (TNC) originates also affects the international disinvestment process. To explore this ‘home country effect’, I examine the resources Wal-Mart brought into the German market and their ability to use those resources in the German context. WalMart’s resources were shaped by the market governance regime in which the firm evolved, and not insignificantly, over which it had and has influence. Within this theoretical frame, Wal-Mart’s reliance on the resources of network dominance and autonomous action that made for its success in the USA contributed to unsuccessful strategies in the German retailing market. Keywords: lean retailing, Wal-Mart, Germany, corporate...
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...Integrating Values-The Legality, Morality, and Social Responsibility of Wal-Mart’s Response to Sex Discrimination and Pay Lawsuits Nova Southeastern University MGT5015_Legal, Ethical, Social Value Business September 9, 2012 We certify that we are the author of this paper and that any assistance received in its preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in the paper. We have also cited any sources from which were used data, ideas of words, whether quoted or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by us specifically for this course. Table of Contents Abstract (Natalie Rondon) 3 Introduction ( Natalie Rondon) 4 Legal Section (Franciso Amado) 5 Ethic Section Utilitarian Ethical Analysis (Kyle Lozito) 8 Kantian Ethical Analysis (Christian Varillas) 14 Additional Ethical Analysis (Natalie Rondon). 18 Social Responsibility Section (Shirley Simmonds). 20 Conclusion (Natalie Rondon). 25 References. 26 Abstract This is a library research paper on the integrating values of Wal-Marts to sex discrimination and pay lawsuits that Wal-Mart has encountered over the years. The paper will discuss the legality of the situation and how Wal-Mart might be able to fix the issues that they are having. The paper will also discuss Utilitarian ethical analysis, Kantian ethical analysis and Socrates and the Socratic method. It will go into detail if Wal-Mart as a company has acted ethical or moral against its employees based on the ethical analysis...
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...Unit 6 Case Analysis Wal-Mart Stores: “Everyday Low Prices” in China GB520-14M Strategic Human Resource Management Introduction The following paper analyzes the Wal-Mart case study regarding the position of their stores in China. It also provides a thorough examination of the struggles faced by the organization to secure their position of their stores in China through an HRM perspective, as well as a set of recommendation. Wal-Mart’s strategies to retain and attract customers are based on a set of fundamental premises envisioned by its founder Sam Walton. These premises are: to provide excellent customer service to its clients, make every effort to attain excellence at all levels, and to always respect the individuals. To accomplish these goals Sam Walton established a rule for its organization, the 10 foot rule, in which every employee is expected to engage with every customer that they find within a 10 feet distance with the purposes of providing assistance with their purchases and provide the best possible customer service experience. The analysis of this case study attempts to point out and explain the challenges experience by Wal-Mart in China and to provide a series of possible recommendations for the organization to overcome such challenges. The goal is to provide them a series of strategies for the organization that will allow it to successfully compete in this market. Analysis of the Situation and Pending Decision Problem Wal-Mart’s founder strongly believed...
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...Wal-Mart This paper will discuss the structure of Wal-Mart's corporate culture and how it influences their employees. In order to understand an Organization Behavior there are different elements that will create the employees perspective of the organization’s culture such as the management’s philosophy, vision, values, and goals. The driving force of these elements will create the culture of the organization. An organization’s culture will define the leadership, and dynamics of the organization. With each element listed the employees of the organization will identify this as work life that will guide their level of motivation. Depending on which level of motivation the employees are at will determine the outcome of their performance, along with their satisfaction, and development. The entire elements combine helps to build the framework in the way the organization operates. (Davis, 1993) It is important for Wal-Mart to understand their employees’ job satisfaction, fairness, personal development and growth within its organization. Wal-Mart was founded by Sam Walton in 1962. Sam Walton business strategy was to supply products for customers at low prices. Sam Walton began the first Wal-Mart store in Rogers, Ark. While Wal-Mart was at their beginning stage their competitor Kmart was growing rapidly. During that time Walton was only able to invest in 15 stores. In the 1970s Wal-Mart offered stock which helped to expand the company with 276 stores in 11 states...
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...Wal-Mart and the Ethical Dilemma Presented to: Dr. Robert D. Gulbro In completion of MGT 5013 Organizational Behavior Florida Institute of Technology By: Felix Knight Wal-Mart was started by Sam Walton in 1962; the first store was in Rogers Arkansas. By the beginning of the 1970’s, Wal-Mart had grown to 1,500 employees and 44.2 million dollars in sales. The company also went public in 1970. The company’s growth continued throughout the decade, with the employee count reaching 21,000 by 1980 with $1.2 billion dollars in sales. Wal-Mart made its first acquisition, buying 16 Mohr-Value stores. In 1983, the first Sam’s Club warehouse opened followed by the first Wal-Mart Supercenter in 1988. By the end of the decade, the company had over 1,402 Wal-Mart and 123 Sam’s Club locations and $26 billion dollars in sales – an increase of 2,600% over the decade. Today, Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer, with $405 billion in sales, over 4,300 stores, and 2.1 million employees (Duke, 2010, p. 0). One hundred shares of Wal-Mart stock purchased for $1,650 when the company went public would have grown to 204,800 shares worth over $10.1 million as of July 9, 2010 for a return of 613,431% (“Dividends & stock splits”, 2010, July 9) (“Wal-Mart (WMT) stock quote” 2010, July 9). Daft (2008) stated “Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the United States” (p. 129). Wal-Mart’s 2010 annual report provides the mission statement of the...
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...1.0 Introduction Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. began in the year of 1962 and its founder is Sam Walton. Till now, Wal-Mart is so successful because its founder, Walton emphasized on the customer satisfaction and hard work. This creates a value on Wal-Mart. It is indeed popular in American business of its low prices and it is one of the world’s largest public corporations. Hence, it has to be more careful while handling the relationships between different stakeholders. Wal-Mart is reported to be able saving the average family of $3200 annually. However, the company has received many critics on the issues of its treatment towards its employees, suppliers and economic impacts on communities. Many stand out to say that Wal-Mart is engaged in immoral issues in order to provide low prices. This case attempts to show us about the controversy of both the positive and negative impacts on the society due to Wal-Mart’s low pricing. It involves various stakeholders here in the case, such as competitors, suppliers, and employees. In addition, some ethical issues such as the discrimination, illegal immigration issues, and leadership misconduct are brought out to discuss. 2.0 Wal-Mart’s Stakeholders relationship 2.1 Competitors Stakeholders Problem: Wal-Mart used predatory pricing which causes other companies out of business. This is because they work on volume. They can give greater discount than any other competitors can afford and yet still make a profit. There is lawsuit in Germany in...
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...THE NEED FOR E.R.P AND S.C.M Abstract This report attempts to give an overview of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Supply Chain Management (SCM). As an organization grows so must its Information Systems. Growth should see an organization transcend from the use of Spreadsheets for its data collection, analysis and storage to probably Oracle and then to ERP. ERP integrates information from both the internal and external business processes without which the various processes will be islands on their own. The report looks at the efficacy of supply chain management in organizations and how ERP complements SCM. It dabbles into the retailing industry as a whole considering giants like TESCO and Wal-mart, how the proliferation of SCM solutions such as RFID and VMI have been of help to them and also gives an insight into the phenomenon of Bullwhip, how it affects the supply chain and where the solution to the scourge lies. Introduction The retailing industry has come a long way in India, from the era of barter trading to the local, unorganized retailing and to the organized retailing; it is evident that the industry is under a significant revolution. With the recent opening of India’s retailing industry to foreign direct investments, major world players like TESCO and Wal-mart are gathering momentum to step into the scene in India; the success of this corporations in U.S. and U.K. respectively can be linked to effectiveness and the efficiency with which their business have been...
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