Walmart Goes Global

Introduction

One of the known industries all over the world is Walmart. Ranked by revenue Walmart is the world's largest public corporation and therefore considered as a retail giant. With good management practices and unique marketing strategies, Walmart was able to operate successfully not only in the United States but also in international markets (Hayden et al, 2002). Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. was first established and founded by Sam Walton at Rogers, Arkansas in 1962 and still remains a family-owned business - the company is controlled by the Walton family who own a 48 % stake in Walmart.

The business growth of the retail store was momentous that within a span of seventeen years in operation, Wal-Mart had already topped annual sales at one billion US dollars. By the end of January in 2002, Wal-Mart has been recognized as the largest retailer in the world a sales record of 218 billion US dollars. With this huge and continuous development, it is no wonder the retail store was able to operate at the global level.

The global operation of Wal-Mart was marked by the establishment of its first international store in 1991 at Mexico City (Govindarajan & Gupta, 2001).

Today Walmart has US$ 446.950 billion in sales (with a 24.7% gross profit margin), more than 8,500 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names employing more than 2.2 million "associates". It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan and the United Kingdom, majority owned subsidiaries in Chile, Mexico, 12 countries in Africa, and five countries in Central America, and joint ventures in India and the People's Republic of China and other controlled subsidiaries in People's Republic of China. The company operates under the Walmart name in the United States, including the 50 states and Puerto Rico. It operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the United Kingdom as Asda, in Japan as Seiyu, and in India as Best Price.

The retail stores of Walmart are operated in different formats worldwide. In general, the business is divided into three main segments: the Walmart U.S. segment, the Walmart International segment, and the Sam's Club segment.

During the fiscal year ended January 31, 2012, its Walmart U.S. segment accounted for approximately 60% of its net sales. Its Walmart International segment consists of retail operations in 26 countries. During fiscal 2012, this segment generated approximately 28% of its net sales. Its Sam's Club segment consists of membership warehouse clubs operated in 47 states in the United States and Puerto Rico, as well as the segment's online retail operations, samsclub.com. During 2012, Sam's Club accounted for approximately 12% of its net sales (www.reuters.com, 2012).

Walmart U.S. Segment

Walmart Stores U.S. is the company's largest division, accounting for $258 billion, or 63.8% of total sales for financial year 2010 (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2012).

As a mass merchandiser of consumer products, the Walmart U.S. segment operates retail stores in all 50 states and Puerto Rico in different formats like supercenters, discount stores and Neighborhood Markets as well as other small store formats. Walmart U.S. does business in six merchandise units, including grocery, entertainment, health and wellness, apparel and home. The Walmart U.S. segment also offers financial services and related products,