

Watching the Growth of Walmart Across America - twoz
http://projects.flowingdata.com/walmart/

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ensignavenger
Nice. I live in Southwest MO, where I grew up- I remember when Wal-Mart was
known as a regional company. I remember Sam Walton flying in on his own little
airplane and landing at the airport across the street from our local Wal-Mart,
jumping the fence, and running in to the service desk to say a quick "hello".
I don't remember ever seeing his famous pickup truck, but I know people who
did. They thought some red-neck had parked their truck in front of the store!
(Until they went inside and saw Sam greeting people, then they realized it was
his truck).

Sam Walton's autobiography remains one of the great classics in business
leadership. Too bad Wal-Mart managers don't seem to read it anymore. If I were
Wal-Mart. I'd make reading it a requirement to be a manager. I think if they
did that, their customer service would improve drastically.

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joeythibault
I think this drives an important aspect of growth home: don't over stretch.
Their geographic center is probably pretty darn close to the weighted center.
They didn't just start and then create stores in every major metropolis
overnight.

I'd like to see the overlay of global expansion, to see if their US growth was
used as a model for other countries as well.

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jonmc12
Also check out Target - <http://projects.flowingdata.com/target/>

Walmart grows like a tumor out of Arkansas. Target grows like an ant colony
scavenging for pockets of food.

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nutmeg
You would think that Walmart would have an advantage in distribution since
most of its stores seem to have grown out closer together.

Also, it would be nice to avoid the inevitable Walmart bashing. :-)

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jonmc12
Yes, I was intrigued by this same question. Did a little research on Wikipedia
- it tells an interesting story:

First Distribution Center: Target - 1969 in Fridley, Minnesota. $130M in sales
on 11 units; Walmart - 1970 in Bentonville, Arkansas. $44.2M in sales on 38
units w/ 1500 employees.

Noted Acquisitions: Target - 1969 Lechmere Electronics in New England. 1982
Fedmart in Arizona, California and Texas; Walmart - 1991 The Wholesale Club
(John F Geisse's company). 1994 Woolco's Canadian discount retail units.

Profitability: Target - 1965; Walmart - 1962

Founding: Target - 1962 with 4 stores in Minnesota. Founded by the John Geisse
for Dayton family (also the founders of B. Dalton book stores). The Dayton
family had had investments in department stores since 1902; Walmart - 1962
with 1 store in Rogers, Arkansas. Founder Sam Walton had experienced previous
success with running a Ben Franklin discount retail franchise.

Technology Infrastructure Milestones: Target - 1969, Computerized distribution
system; 2004 RFID inventory tracking trials; Walmart - 1987, Satellite network
allowing inventory and sales communication between all stores.

Target was an investment from the get-go. The Dayton's were the investors, and
Geisse was the visionary who understood and founded the discount retailing
business model. The Company grew through acquisition and strategic investment
- even booting the founder (Geisse) in 1968.

Walmart was a spin-off of an existing discount retailer franchise. Sam Walton
understood his customers, and his business from a local level. He grew the
company organically from town to town at first because its all he was familiar
with. The company was built from the ground up to distribute and market
discount retail products.

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anamax
1962 was a good year for discount store startups. In addition to Walmart and
Target, K-Mart was also founded in 1962.

Like Target, Kmart was founded by someone who had founded a previous chain,
namely Kresge dime stores. (Ben Franklin, Walton's previous employer, was/is
"dime stores".)

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chwolfe
If you watch it in reverse, you can visualize Circuit City's fate.

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falsestprophet
More accurately: just close the browser.

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wensing
And now with $4.8bn revenue in 2007, Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets are taking
over grocery store market: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wal-
Mart_Neighborhood_Market>

Nice low prices, snazzier inside than a Super Wal-Mart, but compared to a
'real' grocer, the knowledgeability of the staff is appalling. Good luck if
you ever ask where they keep the couscous.

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weegee
I buy ammo at Walmart, nothing else. the store is a shithole.

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spoiledtechie
I guess once you get three stores, You will grow like wild fire.

