walmart stores

(Chief Executive Officer (CEO))

H. Lee Scott

(Chairman)

S. Robson Walton (Chairman) Industry Retail Products Discount Stores

Supercenters

Neighborhood Markets Market cap US$ 202 Billion (2008)[1] Revenue ? US$ 404.16 Billion (2009)[2] Operating income ? US$ 30.07 Billion (2009)[3] Net income ? US$ 13.59 Billion (2009)[3] Total assets ? US$ 163.514 Billion (2007)[4] Total equity ? US$ 64.608 Billion (2007)[4] Employees approx. 2,100,000 (2008)[3] Website www.walmartstores.com www.walmart.com

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (or Walmart as written in its new logo) is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. It is the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500.[5] Founded by Sam Walton in 1962, it was incorporated on October 31, 1969, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It is the largest private employer in the world and the third-largest utility or commercial employer, trailing the British National Health Service, and the Indian Railways. Wal-Mart is the largest grocery retailer in the United States, with an estimated 20% of the retail grocery and consumables business.[clarification needed] It also owns and operates the North American company, Sam's Club.

Wal-Mart operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the UK as ASDA, and in Japan as Seiyu. It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Wal-Mart's investments outside North America have had mixed results: its operations in South America and China are highly successful, while it was forced to pull out of Germany and South Korea when ventures there were unsuccessful.

Wal-Mart has been criticized by some community groups, women's rights groups, grassroots organizations, and labor unions, specifically for its extensive foreign product sourcing, low rates of employee health insurance enrollment, resistance to union representation, and alleged sexism. Contents [hide] 1 History 1.1 Incorporation and growth 1.2 Recent initiatives 2 Subsidiaries 2.1 Wal-Mart Stores Division U.S. 2.1.1 Wal-Mart Discount Stores 2.1.2 Wal-Mart Supercenter 2.1.3 Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market 2.2 Sam's Club 2.3 Marketside 2.4 Wal-Mart International 2.5 Private label brands 3 Corporate affairs 3.1 Financial 3.2 Governance 3.3 Competition 3.4 Customer base 3.5 Employee and labor relations 3.6 Diversity 4 Controversy and Criticism 5 See also 5.1 Advocacy groups 5.2 Television 5.3 Other 6 References 7 External links //

History Sam Walton's original Walton's Five and Dime store in Bentonville, Arkansas, now serving as the Wal-Mart Visitor's Center Main article: History of Wal-Mart

Sam Walton, a businessman from Arkansas, began his retail career when he started work on June 3, 1940, at a J.C. Penney store in Des Moines,