Sam Walton is the late 20th century retail king. In just a few decades, he turned a small store in the center of a provincial town into the world's largest retail chain.

First steps.

At the beginning of the century, American cities somewhere in Oklahoma were not much different from those we are used to seeing in movies. The main street, where there was a bank, city hall, police station, hospital, saloon with a theater, school, library, post office, church, fire station and, finally, the largest store in the city. Many alleys with houses of local residents and dozens of tiny shops branched off from this street. It was in one of these Oklahoma towns, Kingfisher, that Sam Walton was born in 1918. Soon after his birth, the Walton family moved to exactly the same town in Missouri. Almost its only difference from Kingfisher was that the stadium, where Sam often ran, and the Scout House, where he learned the basics of oratory, were located not in the center, but on the outskirts of the city.
In general, Sam Walton did not like to remember his childhood, overshadowed by the constant squabbles of parents who hated each other. His detailed biographies usually begin in 1940, when he graduated from the University of Missouri, where he received a bachelor's degree in business and from where he went to the J.C. trading company. Penney. Sam didn’t like it there - neither the pay nor the team - and very soon he moved to the Claremore trading company. It was more fun here, although he didn’t gain much in salary. But he met his future wife, Helena Robson, whom he married in 1943 on Valentine's Day. By a lucky coincidence, Helena's father turned out to be quite wealthy.

Soon after his marriage, Sam was drafted into the army: the United States finally decided to fulfill its duty as an ally and opened a second front. True, fate spared Sam from feeding on lice in the trenches and touching fraternization with Soviet soldiers on the Elbe: he was diagnosed with either heart failure, or cardiac arrhythmia, or both at once. And when the military registration and enlistment office additionally learned that Walton had some experience in trade, he, without hesitation, was appointed quartermaster (in our opinion, warrant officer-supply officer) of the air unit. So in the army, Sam Walton finally decided that trade was his destiny.
After his demobilization, an extended family council (with the participation of Helena’s father) took place, at which Sam posed a question to his father-in-law: either his daughter will drag out the miserable existence of the wife of a living sales agent, or a loving father will help the young people get back on their feet. Dad loved his daughter very much, so there was no doubt about his choice - Sam Walton was given a loan for $20 thousand.
With this money, Sam and Helena opened a store in Newport, Arkansas with a proud Ben Franklin sign. Only experts knew that this was not the name and surname of the US President, whose portrait adorns the $100 bill, but the trademark of the franchise company of the same name.

In five years, Sam had turned his store into the most profitable store in the Ben Franklin chain, so the owner of the trademark really decided that it was not who ran the store, but its name. One day he refused to renew Walton's contract and took up the matter himself. He realized his mistake quickly: as soon as he found out how successful the new Walton store was doing.
It was a shop in Bentonville, also in Arkansas, called Five & Ten Cents (“Five and Ten Cents”), the meaning of which can not be deciphered. Now this building houses the Wal Mart Stores Museum, where samples of goods from half a century ago are displayed. Among them is a large thermometer that one customer returned to Walton, saying it "keeps the time wrong."

Innovations in management.

Over the next ten years, Sam opened nine more stores in Arkansas and Missouri, studied the theory of merchandising and practiced several self-invented principles of store management. By 1962, when Sam opened his first supermarket, his trading credo had already been generally formed.
As Helena Walton recalls, two passions were always fighting in Sam: one - for shops like Mom & Pop (“Mom and Dad”, where mom is an accountant and salesman, and dad is a director and loader); the other - to the supermarkets located in the city center.
He visited the center very often and studied their work. " Wherever we are, - Helena recalls, - if we came across a store on our way, we would stop and Sam would look at it, or even go inside" This passion for exploring other people's stores remained with him throughout his life.
By the way, all of Walton’s stores of the described period were Mom & Pop, although in principle he could have opened a large supermarket long ago. The only problem was where to open such a store. Sam's acquaintances, also owners of small shops, dreamed that one day they would open a supermarket in the city center. However, Walton decided to open it on the outskirts.

The supermarket, which opened in 1962 on the outskirts of Rogers, Arkansas, was named Waltons Five & Dime. This is where the formation of the world-famous Wal Mart Stores network began, which today has more than three thousand supermarkets in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, China, Puerto Rico and Germany.
This chain is growing steadily: over the past five years, the company has been spending $3-4 billion a year on opening new stores. Meanwhile, the key principle remains the same. Wal Mart is opening supermarkets in residential areas, not in the city center. This is Sam Walton's first invention.
The second is that each of the Walton stores is essentially the same Mom & Pop, but very large. The buyer is attracted not so much by the wide range and low prices, but by the friendly atmosphere of the store: the opportunity to discuss the latest gossip with the seller, an old acquaintance, and make a purchase in the meantime. Today, thanks to many sociological surveys, this is well known, but back then, in the early 1960s, it was quite difficult to draw such a conclusion. Sam did. And in his supermarkets he tried to maintain the atmosphere of a tiny shop. He always told his employees: “ The larger Wal-Mart stores become, the more we must avoid megalomania while maintaining a small-store atmosphere».

Walton always led by example. He tried to communicate with store personnel as often as possible and demanded the same from members of the company’s board of directors: “ Our best ideas came from clerks and warehouse workers (Among them are free parking at the store and permission to take carts with goods directly to the car). If you take care of store employees, then they, in turn, will take care of customers in the same way." All his life, Walton, as an ordinary sales agent, drove a pickup truck. And once, having lost some argument to his partner David Glass, he danced the Hawaiian national dance hula on Wall Street in a Hawaiian grass skirt. After that, his stores only had more customers.

Scandals and secrets.

However, there is one very big blemish in Walton’s history, which all his ill-wishers pay attention to (and he, like any rich person, always had many of them). He ruined the owners of tens of thousands of small Mom & Pop shops: customers began to visit one big Mom & Pop - his. Moreover, Walton was accused of destroying the foundations of America, its concept of the “main street”, dooming provincial towns to extinction, erasing the unique American charm with his supermarkets.
In the early 1990s, when Wal-Mart's annual sales reached $50 billion and criticism peaked, Walton was forced to write his memoirs, where he explained how the largest retail chain in the world was created. The public finally learned a big secret: by placing his stores on the outskirts, Walton did not even think about destroying the foundations of America. He simply built them where land was cheaper and taxes were lower. In doing so, it “offered low prices and saved billions of dollars in the wallets of local residents, not to mention creating hundreds of jobs.”

Another uncovered secret is a charity that Walton had never previously advertised. Having lived all his life in provincial towns and driving around them in his pickup truck, he knew their problems well. In parallel with the construction of the new store, its employees found out the addresses of local charitable foundations. After opening, each store established scholarships for local college students and periodically held charity sales. In addition to educational institutions, money was donated to zoos, libraries, hospitals, theaters, churches, firefighters - in general, all those institutions that are traditionally located on the main street of the city. Walton did not ignore even the mayors of small towns. He created the American Hometown Leadership Award, which recognizes those heads of provincial municipalities who implement long-term projects in their fiefdoms.

Recipes for prosperity.

Naturally, in his memoirs, Walton did not ignore the traditional recipes for prosperity for this genre; in particular, he emphasized: “ Small store owners can easily coexist next to Wal Mart if they create their own niche. For example, they will specialize in paints, which are available in limited quantities at Wal Mart».
Not surprisingly, Walton's 1992 autobiography « Made in America: My Story» quickly became a bestseller and caused such a resonance that his services to the fatherland could no longer be ignored. And in March 1992, US President George W. Bush presented Sam Walton with the Medal of Freedom.
Walton died shortly thereafter. But he died, one might say, with his head held high. As for his critics, you can bet that they sometimes shop in his department stores. And this, in my opinion, is enough to drop all charges.

Wal-Mart in Russia.

Rumors that the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, is entering the Russian market have appeared since the beginning of 2003, but so far the American chain has not taken concrete steps in this direction. In 2004, information was spread that most likely the less saturated market of St. Petersburg would be the first to meet Americans. Today, according to A. T. Kearney, Russia has so far managed to maintain a leading position in the Retail Trade Development Index developed by the company. However, Americans have their own limiting factors.
The main obstacle is officially said to be the inability to find a suitable area for trading in Moscow with a sufficiently developed infrastructure. As a result, the American player risks appearing in Russia almost as the last one. However, they continue to wait for it, linking with the increasing presence of foreigners hopes for the dominance of Western standards of service and prices in Russian retail.

Today it is difficult to believe that the great era of self-service retail stores began in an unremarkable town that no one would have known about if not for one legendary person.

The first store with the name Wal*Mart was opened by Sam Walton in 1962. But the history of its creation began long before that, in 1945 in a small provincial town. This was Newport, with a population of 7,000 people. But let's take it in order...

Brief historical background about the No. 1 retailer in the world

Sam Walton was born into a family of ordinary workers in Oklahoma in 1918. The future billionaire graduated from school and college in Colombia.

From childhood, his parents instilled in the young man respect for hard work, honesty and perseverance. They lived quite modestly, and Sam remembered for the rest of his life that one should not waste money. He followed this rule all his life and instilled it in his children.

So, back to Wal-Mart. As mentioned earlier, the first store opened in 1962 in northern Arkansas.

Fact. Sam Walton always lived modestly and did not allow himself too much, because he knew that many of his competitors were burned out by their delusions of grandeur and excessive love of luxury.

By the time of the release of the bestseller “Made in America. How I Created Wal-Mart,” written personally by Sam Walton, in 1992, the company needed only one week to generate revenue of $1 billion, and in 2001, the mark was overcome in 1 day.

The chain stores operate all over the world: Germany, South Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico, USA, Argentina, Canada.

Wal-Mart tried to conquer the markets of Japan and Germany, but due to scandals about non-compliance with labor standards, the company had to quickly close down its stores there.

In 2008, the company planned to enter the Russian market, but to date it has not realized its plans. This is due to the difficulties of supplying imported goods and their high transport costs.

After all, the basis of success was and is total savings. The company never threw money away, just like its founder.

Today, Wal-Mart. has more than 7,000 stores around the world, and its annual revenue exceeds several tens of billions of dollars.

Wal-Mart store concept

Today the structure of the retailer includes:

• supercenters (with a retail area of ​​more than 18 thousand m2),
• discounters (5 thousand m2),
• "Convenience stores"
• wholesale trade centers operating under the Sam`s Club brand.

Interesting fact. The Krasnodar retail chain created by Galitsky, Magnit, operating across most of Russia, operates in a similar vein and has already opened more than 9,000 stores of various formats.

The founder of the company died from a fatal illness in 1992, a few months after the publication of the book “Made in America,” but to this day top managers follow the principles, the effectiveness of which is confirmed by annual achievements.

Principles:

1. The family must own more than 30% of the shares, which prevents the possibility of takeover and transfer of control to outsiders.
2. Everyone, from the cleaning lady to the board members, must understand the company's goals and enjoy working as a team. Sam Walton often visited his stores and spoke with employees personally. This gave him the opportunity to show respect to people, inspire them to succeed and understand what else could be done better than competitors.
3. Every employee is a member of the large and friendly Walmart family.
4. Direct deliveries of goods have allowed and continue to allow the sale of goods at the lowest prices. Good logistics is an undoubted advantage of the network over its competitors.
5. The company's profit lies in total savings, and not in a huge markup.
6. The layout features Sam developed have helped the network achieve mind-blowing success. The display of promotional products in a pyramid at the entrance and the sale of cheap goods in huge quantities made the Wal-Mart brand recognizable and popular.
7. The company's managers clearly understood that it was much easier to make a fortune if you helped people save. After all, by making a markup of 2 cents and selling a million pieces, you can earn much more than with a markup of $1, selling only 1000 pieces.

Information! The company's slogan is Save Money. Live better!

WalMart in Russia

To date, not a single store has been opened in the Russian Federation.

In 2008, the legal entity Walmart Eastern Europe Holdings was registered in our country. A large-scale expansion of the Russian market was being prepared, a merger with the Pyaterochka retail chain, which belongs to X5 Retail Group.

Additionally, the acquisition of the Lenta hypermarket chain was reported, but the deal never materialized. In 2011, Walmart's representative office in Russia was closed.

True, Wal-Mart managers claim that they have not abandoned plans to enter the Russian market, they are simply waiting for the most opportune moment.

Analysts argue that such caution is fully justified, since in many countries (except the USA) TM representative offices are under attack from trade unions and Walmart is incurring losses, and this does not fit into the concept of the brand at all.

To summarize, Wal-Mart is still one of the leading players in the retail business. And the very history of the creation and promotion of the company is taught at Harvard as one of the most unique and effective theories for the creators of retail chains.

Video - Walmart through the eyes of an ordinary customer

In the late 1940s, when Sam Walton franchised the Ben Franklin General Store in Newport, Arkansas, he was concerned with a simple but important problem. Like any retailer, he was always looking for good deals from suppliers. Walton knew he could do better by increasing profits through more sales. This understanding would become the cornerstone of Sam's business strategy when he founded Wal-Mart in 1962. He clearly knew.

The pursuit of low prices was a natural goal for Walton. And although he was considered the richest man in the United States in the 1980s, he never gave a $5 tip to a local barber. Reducing costs was something of an obsession for him, and Sam sought to save not only on his personal expenses, but even on his managers. When sending employees on business trips, he exclusively purchased bus tickets for them, and always booked shared hotel rooms. Even a cup of coffee in the office cost 10 cents.

The influence of wages on the price of coffee

Walton realized that one of the main requirements for reducing costs was no wages. As he wrote in his 1992 autobiography, in the retail business, wages are one of the most important expenses that must be addressed in order to maintain desired profit levels. That is why he always fought the unions and almost always successfully.

But the entrepreneur's ability to keep his staff happy helped him in 1985 amid concerns about trade deficits and job losses in America. Sam started his "Made in America" ​​campaign to buy American made products. In 1971, he introduced a plan that allowed employees to receive a certain percentage of their salaries to purchase subsidized Wal-Mart stock.

How should an employee behave with a client?

No less important for Walton was the ability of employees to be able to sell goods. The workers were trained. He taught his managers that whenever a customer approached them, they should look him in the eye, greet him, and ask if there was anything they could do to help.

He stimulated employees by talking about improving leadership skills through communication and, accordingly, career growth. Each person had the opportunity to rise from the position of an ordinary salesperson to a department, store or even regional manager.

He even introduced a symbolic oath. All employees, when hired, raised their right hand and said: “From this day on, I solemnly promise and declare that to every client who comes within three meters of me, I will smile, make eye contact and greet him.” As you know, the human factor is one of the main ones.

Competitive Advantages of Wal-Mart

Of course, Wal-Mart's success lies in more than just charisma and frugality. The management technologies used by this company have helped it stay ahead of its competitors. Already in the 1970s, Wal-Mart used computers to establish constant communication and accounting between stores and warehouses. Just at that time, the active development of computer technology began, which was facilitated by Apple Corporation and other companies.

Sales data allowed Wal-Mart to track items and reduce miscalculations and inventory errors. Throughout his career, Walton will focus on this type of innovation, making Wal-Mart a consistent leader in performance and growth.

Difficulties surrounding Walton's death

When Walton died in 1992, the company was in trouble, as Wal-Mart executives had emphasized for years that their firm depended on a set of principles and habits more than anyone else. His death changed the perception of this company.

Wal-Mart began to change after Walton's death. It was the same as at that time when the company was just developing its business. Wal-Mart's new leaders took to heart one element of the founder's business philosophy, the importance of cutting costs, but they failed to implement it, ignoring the importance of decision-making and frontline employees who, according to Sam, must have felt as if The future fate of the company depends on them.

With this move, management immediately put itself at a disadvantage. But still the company developed. Walton is a great man who has achieved a lot. Read about other successful businessmen.

Using a new strategy

Between 1997 and 2001, the company's share price increased by more than 500%. This undoubtedly helped reassure employees who were unhappy with the downturn earlier in the decade. Between 1996 and 1999, sales increased 78% and inventory grew 24%.

At this stage of its development, the decline in the popularity of weekly shopping in supermarkets forced Wal-Mart to turn its attention to small stores, which became its new strategy.

In addition, the American company decided to try its hand at the international online grocery market, where its competitor will be Amazon, whose investments in this sector are reaching significant volumes.

Shopping centers

▲ $482 billion (2016)

▲ $14.7 billion (2016)

▼ $200 billion (2016)

The global retail leader Walmart, as last year, tops the Global Powers of Retailing 2013 global ranking compiled by Deloitte; Wal-Mart accounts for 10% of the total revenue of all Top 250 participants.

Story

Events during Lee Scott's management period (2000-2009)

During this period, the network became the object of attention from the press and trade unions. In 2001, the book Counting Pennies: How to (Not) Make Ends Meet in America by Barbara Ehrenreich was published. This book described Wal-Mart from the inside and contained numerous descriptions of violations of workers' rights while working in the company.

During this period, the South Korean and German Wal-Mart projects were closed:

South Korean Wal-Mart project: There were 11 large retail stores operating in the South Korean market. Wal-Mart tried for several years to overcome the break-even threshold in the market, but the chain's administration was forced to admit defeat and sell the outlets to a competitor. According to marketing experts, this store format has not become generally popular in the Korean market. German project Wal-Mart: Entry into the German market was carried out in 1998 through the purchase of local retail chains Interspar and Wertkauf. According to experts, losses in this market amounted to $100 million annually. On July 27, 2006, an official announcement appeared about the sale of 85 stores to Wal-Mart, employing over 11 thousand people; the total turnover of the retail cluster is €2 billion per year. The buyer was the Metro Group company. The transaction amount was not disclosed by either the buyers or sellers, but Wal-Mart commented that 19 Wal-Mart hypermarkets were acquired as freeholds and the rest as leases. The new owner plans to open Real hypermarkets on the territory of the acquired stores.

In 2011, the company completed perhaps its largest deal in the last decade, acquiring 51% of the South African chain Massmart.

Owners and management

About 50% of the shares in Wal-Mart stores belong to the heirs of the company's founder, Sam Walton.

Chairman of the Board of Directors is Robson Walton. Chief Executive Officer - Lee Scott. Hillary Clinton, wife of US President Bill Clinton, was a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors from 1986-1992.

Activity

Walmart is a leader in the implementation of technologies related to the use of RFID tags in retail.

Performance indicators

The total number of personnel of the company is 2.1 million people (January 2010).

The company's turnover in 2009 was $405.0 billion (in 2008 - $401.2 billion), net profit - $14.33 billion ($13.4 billion in 2008), operating profit - $23.95 billion ($22.7 billion) in 2008) .

Wal-Mart Stores in Russia

Company representatives have repeatedly emphasized the importance of the Russian market for the company. In September 2008, Wal-Mart Stores registered a subsidiary legal entity in Russia - LLC VM Eastern Europe Holdings, LLC. This company joined the Association of Retail Trade Companies (AKORT), which is the main lobbyist for the interests of Russian retail chains.

After opening an office in Russia, Wal-Mart Stores tried to create a joint venture with X5 Retail Group based on the Karusel hypermarket chain, but the deal did not materialize. At the same time, in 2008, an American retailer participated in a tender for the acquisition of 89% of the St. Petersburg hypermarket chain Lenta, but the deal also did not take place.

In 2010, Wal-Mart Stores negotiated the purchase of the Kopeyka chain from companies owned by Nikolai Tsvetkov, head of FC Uralsib. However, after the acquisition of Kopeyka by the Russian retailer X5 Retail Group for 51.5 billion rubles in early December 2010, Wal-Mart decided to close its Russian representative office. According to Doug McMillon, president of the international division of Wal-Mart Stores, the company remains interested in the Russian grocery market, but does not see partners for cooperation in the near future.

In September 2011, it was announced that Russian manager Lev Khasis, former head of X5 Retail Group, was appointed senior vice president of Wal-Mart Stores. The main directions of his work should be the integration of acquired networks, global synergy and innovation.

Criticism

A number of critics [Who?] The chain claims that Walmart is helping to push small merchants, including small mom-and-pop stores, out of the market. Also, a number of individuals and organizations provide evidence in favor of the fact that Walmart puts pressure on suppliers, “squeezing” lower purchasing prices out of them, the chain’s stores negatively affect the environment, and the rights of staff are often violated.
Wal-Mart has become known for its harsh opposition to the activities of labor organizations in its stores.

By 2005, Wal-Mart's imports from China reached 1% of that country's GDP.

Walmart in popular culture

• In the popular animated series “South Park” in the 9th episode of the 8th season, it was shown in a humorous form how Walmart (in the series the network was called Wall-Mart) contributes to the displacement of small stores. After the “great” opening of a hypermarket in the city (on the site of the cleanest lake in the state), the whole life of the town moved to Wall-Mart, and small businesses closed.
• For the same reason, Walmart is mentioned in the zero episode of the anime “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”.
• In the movie "Alien 4: Resurrection" it is mentioned that Walmart bought out the Weyland-Yutani company.
• In the film Where the Heart Is, Novalee, a 17-year-old pregnant girl, abandoned by her boyfriend, hides in a Walmart store and secretly lives there until her baby is born.
• In Episode 8 of Season 3 of House of Cards, a US presidential contender criticizes the US federal government's subsidies to Walmart and the company's management policies regarding the treatment of workers.

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Notes

2. kozlovski.(Russian) (LJ). kozlovski.livejournal.com/. Retrieved May 14, 2009. .
3. Alexandra Simonenko// “Kommersant”: Newspaper. - Kommersant Publishing House, 2006. - T. Retail trade, vol. dated July 31, 2006, No. 138/P(3469).
5. = Vedomosti newspaper // Anne Zimmerman.
8. Kristina Busko, Evgeniy Khvostik.. Kommersant No. 1 (4056) (January 11, 2009). Retrieved August 12, 2010. .
9. Alexandra Kreknina. // Vedomosti, 12/14/2010, No. 236 (2754) (Retrieved December 14, 2010)
10. Daria Shienok.. Kommersant-Online (December 13, 2010). .
11. Evgenia Pertseva.. // rbcdaily.ru. Retrieved September 9, 2011. .
12. (inaccessible link - story) . wakeupwalmart.com. Retrieved May 5, 2006. .
13. (inaccessible link - story) . Wal-Mart Watch. Retrieved May 5, 2006. .

Links

Literature

• Sam Walton, John Huey. Made in America. How I Created Wal-Mart. - M.: "Alpina Publisher", 2012. - P. 222. - ISBN 978-5-9614-1900-9.

Excerpt describing Wal-Mart Stores

Prince Andrei stood on horseback on the battery, looking at the smoke of the gun from which the cannonball flew out. His eyes darted across the vast space. He only saw that the previously motionless masses of the French were swaying, and that there really was a battery to the left. The smoke has not yet cleared from it. Two French cavalry, probably adjutants, galloped along the mountain. A clearly visible small column of the enemy was moving downhill, probably to strengthen the chain. The smoke of the first shot had not yet cleared when another smoke and a shot appeared. The battle has begun. Prince Andrei turned his horse and galloped back to Grunt to look for Prince Bagration. Behind him, he heard the cannonade becoming more frequent and louder. Apparently, our people were starting to respond. Below, in the place where the envoys were passing, rifle shots were heard.
Lemarrois (Le Marierois), with Bonaparte's menacing letter, had just galloped up to Murat, and the ashamed Murat, wanting to make amends for his mistake, immediately moved his troops to the center and bypassing both flanks, hoping to crush the insignificant one standing in front of him before the evening and before the arrival of the emperor. him, squad.
"Began! Here it is!" thought Prince Andrei, feeling how the blood began to flow more often to his heart. “But where? How will my Toulon be expressed? he thought.
Driving between the same companies that ate porridge and drank vodka a quarter of an hour ago, he saw everywhere the same quick movements of soldiers forming up and dismantling guns, and on all their faces he recognized the feeling of revival that was in his heart. "Began! Here it is! Scary and fun! " the face of every soldier and officer spoke.
Before he even reached the fortification under construction, he saw in the evening light of a cloudy autumn day horsemen moving towards him. The vanguard, in a burka and a cap with smashkas, rode on a white horse. It was Prince Bagration. Prince Andrei stopped, waiting for him. Prince Bagration stopped his horse and, recognizing Prince Andrei, nodded his head to him. He continued to look ahead while Prince Andrei told him what he saw.
Expression: “It has begun!” here it is!" it was even on the strong brown face of Prince Bagration with half-closed, dull, as if sleep-deprived eyes. Prince Andrey peered with restless curiosity into this motionless face, and he wanted to know whether he was thinking and feeling, and what he was thinking, what this man was feeling at that moment? “Is there anything at all there, behind that motionless face?” Prince Andrei asked himself, looking at him. Prince Bagration bowed his head as a sign of agreement to the words of Prince Andrey, and said: “Okay,” with such an expression, as if everything that happened and what was reported to him was exactly what he had already foreseen. Prince Andrei, out of breath from the speed of the ride, spoke quickly. Prince Bagration pronounced the words with his Eastern accent especially slowly, as if instilling that there was no need to rush. He, however, started to trot his horse towards Tushin's battery. Prince Andrei and his retinue went after him. Behind Prince Bagration were following: a retinue officer, the prince's personal adjutant, Zherkov, an orderly, an officer on duty on an anglicized beautiful horse and a civil servant, an auditor, who, out of curiosity, asked to go to battle. The auditor, a plump man with a full face, looked around with a naive smile of joy, shaking on his horse, presenting a strange appearance in his camelot overcoat on a Furshtat saddle among the hussars, Cossacks and adjutants.
“He wants to watch the battle,” Zherkov said to Bolkonsky, pointing to the auditor, “but his stomach hurts.”
“Well, that’s enough for you,” said the auditor with a beaming, naive and at the same time sly smile, as if he was flattered that he was the subject of Zherkov’s jokes, and as if he was deliberately trying to seem stupider than he really was.
“Tres drole, mon monsieur prince, [Very funny, my lord prince," said the officer on duty. (He remembered that in French they specifically say the title prince, and could not get it right.)
At this time, they were all already approaching Tushin’s battery, and a cannonball hit in front of them.
- Why did it fall? – the auditor asked, smiling naively.
“French flatbreads,” said Zherkov.
- This is what they hit you with, then? – asked the auditor. - What passion!
And he seemed to be blooming with pleasure. He had barely finished speaking when an unexpectedly terrible whistle was heard again, which suddenly stopped with a blow to something liquid, and sh sh sh slap - the Cossack, riding somewhat to the right and behind the auditor, collapsed with his horse to the ground. Zherkov and the duty officer bent down in their saddles and turned their horses away. The auditor stopped in front of the Cossack, examining him with attentive curiosity. The Cossack was dead, the horse was still struggling.
Prince Bagration, squinting, looked around and, seeing the cause of the confusion, turned away indifferently, as if saying: is it worth engaging in nonsense! He stopped his horse with the manner of a good rider, leaned over a little and straightened the sword that had caught on his cloak. The sword was old, not like the ones they used now. Prince Andrei remembered the story of how Suvorov in Italy presented his sword to Bagration, and at that moment this memory was especially pleasant to him. They drove up to the very battery where Bolkonsky stood when he was looking at the battlefield.
- Whose company? – Prince Bagration asked the fireworksman standing by the boxes.
He asked: whose company? but in essence he asked: aren’t you shy here? And the fireworksman understood this.
“Captain Tushin, your Excellency,” the red-haired fireworksman, with a freckled face covered in freckles, shouted, stretching out in a cheerful voice.
“So, so,” Bagration said, thinking something, and drove past the limbers to the outermost gun.
While he was approaching, a shot rang out from this gun, deafening him and his retinue, and in the smoke that suddenly surrounded the gun, the artillerymen were visible, picking up the gun and, hastily straining, rolling it to its original place. The broad-shouldered, huge soldier 1st with a banner, legs spread wide, jumped towards the wheel. The 2nd, with a shaking hand, put the charge into the barrel. A small, stooped man, Officer Tushin, tripped over his trunk and ran forward, not noticing the general and looking out from under his small hand.
“Add two more lines, it will be just like that,” he shouted in a thin voice, to which he tried to give a youthful appearance that did not suit his figure. - Second! - he squeaked. - Smash it, Medvedev!
Bagration called out to the officer, and Tushin, with a timid and awkward movement, not at all in the way the military salutes, but in the way the priests bless, placing three fingers on the visor, approached the general. Although Tushin’s guns were intended to bombard the ravine, he fired with fire guns at the village of Shengraben, visible ahead, in front of which large masses of the French were advancing.
No one ordered Tushin where or with what to shoot, and he, after consulting with his sergeant major Zakharchenko, for whom he had great respect, decided that it would be good to set the village on fire. "Fine!" Bagration said to the officer’s report and began to look around the entire battlefield opening before him, as if thinking something. On the right side the French came closest. Below the height at which the Kiev regiment stood, in the ravine of the river, the soul-grabbing rolling chatter of guns was heard, and much to the right, behind the dragoons, a retinue officer pointed out to the prince the French column encircling our flank. To the left, the horizon was limited to a nearby forest. Prince Bagration ordered two battalions from the center to go to the right for reinforcements. The retinue officer dared to notice to the prince that after these battalions left, the guns would be left without cover. Prince Bagration turned to the retinue officer and looked at him silently with dull eyes. It seemed to Prince Andrei that the retinue officer’s remark was fair and that there was really nothing to say. But at that time an adjutant from the regimental commander, who was in the ravine, rode up with the news that huge masses of French were coming down, that the regiment was upset and was retreating to the Kyiv grenadiers. Prince Bagration bowed his head as a sign of agreement and approval. He walked to the right and sent an adjutant to the dragoons with orders to attack the French. But the adjutant sent there arrived half an hour later with the news that the dragoon regimental commander had already retreated beyond the ravine, for strong fire was directed against him, and he was losing people in vain and therefore hurried the riflemen into the forest.
- Fine! – said Bagration.
While he was driving away from the battery, shots were also heard in the forest to the left, and since it was too far to the left flank to arrive on time himself, Prince Bagration sent Zherkov there to tell the senior general, the same one who represented the regiment to Kutuzov in Braunau to retreat as quickly as possible beyond the ravine, because the right flank will probably not be able to hold the enemy for long. About Tushin and the battalion covering him were forgotten. Prince Andrei carefully listened to the conversations of Prince Bagration with the commanders and to the orders given to them and was surprised to notice that no orders were given, and that Prince Bagration only tried to pretend that everything that was done by necessity, chance and the will of private commanders, that all this was done, although not on his orders, but in accordance with his intentions. Thanks to the tact shown by Prince Bagration, Prince Andrei noticed that, despite this randomness of events and their independence from the will of their superior, his presence did an enormous amount. The commanders, who approached Prince Bagration with upset faces, became calm, the soldiers and officers cheerfully greeted him and became more animated in his presence and, apparently, flaunted their courage in front of him.

Prince Bagration, having reached the highest point of our right flank, began to descend downwards, where rolling fire was heard and nothing was visible from the gunpowder smoke. The closer they descended to the ravine, the less they could see, but the more sensitive the proximity of the real battlefield became. They began to meet wounded people. One with a bloody head, without a hat, was dragged by two soldiers by the arms. He wheezed and spat. The bullet apparently hit the mouth or throat. Another, whom they met, walked cheerfully alone, without a gun, groaning loudly and waving his hand in fresh pain, from which blood flowed, like from a glass, onto his overcoat. His face seemed more frightened than suffering. He was wounded a minute ago. Having crossed the road, they began to descend steeply and on the descent they saw several people lying down; They were met by a crowd of soldiers, including some who were not wounded. The soldiers walked up the hill, breathing heavily, and, despite the appearance of the general, they talked loudly and waved their hands. Ahead, in the smoke, rows of gray greatcoats were already visible, and the officer, seeing Bagration, ran screaming after the soldiers walking in a crowd, demanding that they return. Bagration drove up to the rows, along which shots were quickly clicking here and there, drowning out the conversation and shouts of command. The entire air was filled with gunpowder smoke. The soldiers' faces were all smoked with gunpowder and animated. Some hammered them with ramrods, others sprinkled them on the shelves, took charges out of their bags, and still others shot. But who they shot at was not visible due to the gunpowder smoke, which was not carried away by the wind. Quite often pleasant sounds of buzzing and whistling were heard. "What it is? - thought Prince Andrei, driving up to this crowd of soldiers. – It can’t be an attack because they don’t move; there can be no carre: they don’t cost that way.”

Wal-Mart is an American retail company that operates the world's largest retail chain operating under the Walmart brand. Headquarters are in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company ranks 1st in the Fortune Global 500 (2010).

About 50% of the shares in Wal-Mart stores belong to the heirs of the company's founder, Sam Walton. Chairman of the Board of Directors is Robson Walton. Chief Executive Officer - Lee Scott. Hillary Clinton, wife of President Bill Clinton, served on the Wal-Mart board of directors from 1986-1992.

Walmart is the world's largest retail chain, which includes (as of 2012) more than 10,130 stores in 27 countries. These include both hypermarkets and supermarkets selling food and industrial goods. The chain's strategy includes such components as maximum assortment and minimum prices, tending to wholesale ones. Walmart's main competitors in the US retail market are Home Depot, Kroger, Sears Holdings Corporation, Costco and Target. Walmart is a leader in the implementation of technologies related to the use of RFID tags in retail.

The total number of personnel of the company is 2.1 million people (January 2010). The company's turnover in 2009 was $405.0 billion (in 2008 - $401.2 billion), net profit - $14.33 billion ($13.4 billion in 2008), operating profit - $23.95 billion ($22.7 billion) in 2008).

Story

2018

Savings of $200 million after switching to LED lighting

On October 16, 2018 it became known about reduction of annual expenses of Walmart by $200 million in connection with transition to LED lighting (LED). The world's largest retailer saved another $20 million by using a new floor polish.

According to him, such a project is not only aimed at caring for the environment, but also allows the retail chain to significantly reduce costs.

As CNBC notes, in the US alone, Walmart spends tens of billions of dollars on goods and services that the company does not sell in its stores, but uses itself. We are talking, for example, about travel services and all kinds of spare parts. One of these things is floor polishing mastic.

Walmart's slogan is “Everyday Low Prices.” To follow this motto, the company needs to sell cheap goods, and for this it needs to save money itself. The fewer expenses Walmart has, the more shoppers save on purchases, CNBC reports.

In addition, Walmart is forced to save money due to the acquisition of companies. Thus, in 2018, it acquired a 77 percent stake in the Indian retailer Flipkart for $16 billion. In connection with this transaction, Walmart worsened its earnings forecast for the 2019 financial year, including expenses of $0.25 per share related to financing the purchase leader of the Indian e-commerce market.

Online cinema

The American retail chain Walmart confirmed in July 2018 rumors about its intention to launch a video-on-demand (VOD) service as early as 2018. According to Advanced Television, the streaming service is planned to launch in the last quarter of 2018 through the Vudu platform, which operates on an advertising model. Walmart acquired this platform in 2010 for $100 million.

The service will provide access to a library of licensed TV shows, films and original programs at a lower price than key competitors Netflix and Amazon offer. Also, apparently, the possibility of launching the service on a free model supported by advertising is being considered.

Launch of virtual 3D shopping

At the end of June 2018, Walmart launched a 3D virtual shopping service on the Internet. In a special section on the retailer’s website, customers can “walk into” a designed apartment filled with items available for instant purchase. While exploring a home, buyers click on items they're interested in to get more information about them.

By the time the service was announced, there were about 70 products available there, both from third-party manufacturers and from Walmart itself. Mostly furniture and most important household goods are available. In the virtual apartment you can find a Microsoft Xbox One game console and a Samsung refrigerator, but it is not yet possible to select and order them.

In July 2018, Walmart will allow product groups to be added to cart so users can select multiple home decor items to purchase and imagine how they would look together.

Opening of the first high-tech mini-store

In early April 2018, Walmart launched what the company claims is its first high-tech mini-supermarket. In it, purchases can be paid through the messenger, and most products are also available for purchase via the Internet.

As the Reuters news agency reports, citing a statement from Walmart, this outlet, which is open in the southern part of the city of Shenzhen, offers more than 8 thousand products, including fresh fruits, fried mussels and much more. Visitors can pay for purchases using the WeChat messenger using their smartphones.

At the end of March 2018, Walmart and the Chinese holding Tencent entered into an agreement under which the American retailer began using the WeChat Pay service to pay for purchases in all its stores in the west of China. The supermarket in Shenzhen was the first in this project.

In addition to the ability to pay for products through a mobile application, the new point of sale is also interesting because about 90% of the entire assortment is available in the Walmart online store on JD.com, part of which is owned by the American giant in the field of online retailing.

All people coming to the Walmart smart supermarket, as well as JD.com users, can order delivery of purchased products. However, the store will only deliver goods to places located within a 2 km radius. It is claimed that delivery will be carried out in a maximum of 29 minutes.

Walmart is actively introducing new technologies into its retail network. Thus, at the beginning of 2018, about 100 of the retailer’s grocery stores received the Scan & Go service, which allows customers to scan product barcodes in a mobile application and pay for purchases via phone. Thanks to the innovation, there is no need to stand in queues and use the services of cashiers. By the end of 2018, Scan & Go should be available in 200 Walmart supermarkets.

2017: Retailer Wal-Mart accelerated warehouse accounting with the help of robots

American retail chain

2013: Wal-Mart figured out what to do with big data

In May 2013, it became known that one of the largest retailers in the world, Wal-Mart, had found an interesting use for the so-called “big data”: Wal-Mart’s accounting systems accumulate data on transactions when purchasing goods and the list of items purchased by a specific person. Based on the analysis of this data, Wal-Mart intends to create individual shopping lists and send them using a mobile application.

Gibu Thomas Gibu Thomas, Wal-Mart's head of mobile technology, said this is just one of the initiatives aimed at increasing in-store sales through e-commerce. “The future of retail, paradoxically, is in its past, in creating personal interactive communication with each customer individually through smartphones,” he said. Citing an unnamed study of the US market, he also added that in-store shopping, fueled by mobile technology, could double the size of the e-commerce market in 2016.

Wal-Mart's Head of Mobile: "The best shopping list is the one you don't have to make"

Mobile devices already account for about a third of Walmart.com's traffic, according to Thomas. Moreover, those users who use the Wal-Mart app for smartphones visit the chain's offline stores more often than other shoppers and spend 40% more, he added. At the same time, the majority of network clients have smartphones at their disposal.

The Wal-Mart app already has a shopping list feature, but it requires user input. It also tells you where to find a specific product on the shelf and also provides digital discount coupons. Wal-Mart is also testing a system called “Scan and Go,” which works by having shoppers scan each item with their smartphone as they add it to their shopping cart, and then use their smartphone at checkout to check out. shopping.