Wal-Mart

Topic: Wal-mart Name: Course name: Institutions name: Instructors name: Wal-mart is a chain of retail shops worldwide. It is also one of the oldest retail shops in the world. Wal-mart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton in Rodgers Arkansas. Over the years, the chain stores have not only grown to be the leading retail shops in US but the world at large (Walton, 2006). This paper asserts various aspects of the retail shops including its management, success, failures and gives recommendation for improvement. Great strategy, great leadership and superb implementation of the strategies have contributed to the success of Wal-mart. During Scott’s leadership, Wal-mart retained its position as the number one retailer in the world. The strategies, that is; to have a wide selection of goods at low prices has worked to the favor of Wal-mart. There are a lot of things that are impressive about Wal-mart. First is that net profit and revenue has been increasing over the years. The total revenue changed from $12.6 million in 1967 to $285 billion in 2005. Statistics show that Wal-mart is growing in terms of number of stores being set up both locally and overseas. For example, Wal-mart had 24 stores in Arkansas by 1967. In 2005, there were a total of 3,702 stores in US only (Ariel, 2011). In 2010 alone, 2 stores were closed down in US but 54 were set up in their place. Similarly, 20 were closed down in the overseas during the same year but 517 were set up in their place. This is particularly impressive because the growth has provided employment to many people. Another impressive feature in Wal-mart is its continued strategies to fulfill the diverse customers’ needs. This has been particularly demonstrated when Wal-mart teamed up with Michelle Obama in setting up grocery stores in regions termed as ‘food deserts’. Wal-mart is also planning to set up 300 such centers in the next 5 years. However, some of the practices make Wal-mart unpopular. The strategy to maintain low cost has led to low wages for workers. In 2001, the earnings for a sales clerk was approximately $ 8.28 in one hour giving a total of $13,861 whereas the federal poverty line was estimated as $14,630 for a family of three. Poor working conditions have also been reported in Wal-mart. The company has also employed illegal immigrants thereby going against the law and depriving the Americans of employment. Wal-mart has also embraced anti-union policies. The employees are not allowed to join trade unions. This is against the workers rights. Unionization of some stores has led to their closure (Sellers, 2006). An example of the closure of these stores is the Quebec, and jonquie’re both in Canada in 2004. The generic strategy that Wal-mart has used is the low cost strategy. By this, the stores endeavored to reduce the operational costs. As a result, they have employed the tactics successfully by getting the cheapest labor force. They also bargain with their suppliers to offer them the lowest prices for the goods. They buy their good...