Sam Walton

The Man Behind Wal-Mart.
*Walton was born to a fairly poor farming family in 1918.
*He lived through the great depression. Walton served as the milk man/paper boy for his community to clutter together enough spare change to hold back the cold, dark claws of hunger that would daily reach for his frail, starving life. Hilarity ensued.
*He was the starting quarterback at Hickman High School when they won the state title.
*For his time, he became the youngest eagle scout in Missouri history.
*He attended Mizzou for a degree in economics. He was an ROTC officer, President of a secret society of senior men, and a member of both Alpha Kappa Psi (business fraternity) and Beta Theta Pi.
*Serving in the US Army Intelligence Corps after college, Sam was able to reach the rank of captain.
*He left the army and joined the retail business. His first store was opened in 1945 and was a part of the Butler Brothers franchise.
*He was like the Henry Ford of ruthless, lucrative business practices. Walton pioneered many new ways of running a store. These included: constantly stocking the shelves with cheap goods, buying wholesale goods from the lowest priced supplier, negotiating on said goods, and keeping his store open later than his competitors – particularly during the Christmas season.
*Walton’s landlord kicked him out of the store when the lease ran out. He lacked the foresight to see that Walton would someday grow powerful enough to literally buy him and his family. Walton then went and started his own little mini-franchise.
*Managers in this franchise could invest in the store they ran, encouraging them to maximize profit. *In 1962, Sam used the momentum from this franchise to open the first real Wal-Mart in Arkansas. Walton carried over policies from his previous stores to make Wal-Mart into the force that it is today.
*Walton later began Sam’s Club.
*Sam was the richest man in America from 1985-88. He only dropped from the top spot because Forbes started viewing his assets as being split between him and his four children. Strangely enough, Bill Gates had his first year on top of the list in 1992, the year that Walton died.
*If you didn’t catch that, he died in 1992. But his legacy lives on.