Sam Walton's Legacy

Introduction

Sam Walton grew up in a struggling middle class family, where his father switched from a loss-making farm to a more profitable job as a Metropolitan Life Insurance agent. Even then, Sam had to work his way through school & college. He went on to gain valuable business experience working at a J. C. Penney retail store, a DuPont munitions plant & then in the U.S. Army during World War II. These early life experiences taught him the importance of putting the average middle-class consumer's needs first, a rule that he made the motto of his Walmart retail chain.

Walmart flourished under his able leadership. Despite the storms that it has endured in the last few years, it made a revenue of US$485.651 billion, employs 2.2 million in 11,462 locations around the world & has at least 6 subsidiaries (figures from 2015). But a look at its stock chart indicates that everything is not all right. Some of the triggers of the current state-of-affairs could be as follows:

Hurricane Katrina (2005)

Katrina was the most expensive & one of the five most deadly hurricanes in the history of the United States. The confirmed death toll was 1,833 & the monetary loss was calculated at US$105 billion.

But the greatest tragedy was yet to come. After the hurricane moved out of New Orleans, a wave of crime swept across Louisiana. It started because people didn't have adequate food & water. They started looting stores, initially for the afore-mentioned necessities & then branched out to non-essential items. The situation rapidly escalated to car thefts, murders & rapes. This prompted the perpetrators to very enthusiastically arm themselves from the weapons sections of the local Walmart stores.

Chinese Food Scandals (2011-14)

Walmart is up to its elbows in food scandals in China since years. It was fined US$421,000 in 2011 for mislabelling regular pork as organic pork; in 2012, it was caught selling sesame oil & squid with dangerous levels of carcinogens; in 2013, it was found to be selling baked goods that had used expired eggs as an ingredient; & in 2014, its donkey meat products were found to be adulterated with fox meat.

Mobile Meth Labs (2011-15)

Since 2011, there have been at least 7 different police cases in the US where people were arrested preparing meth in a Walmart store or its parking lot, the latest reported incident being this March.

Marcel Willis (United States Air Force)

On the 26th of May, 2015, Airman Marcel Willis, age 21, entered a Walmart store in North Dakota armed with a handgun. He shot one Walmart employee dead, injured another, missed a third & then reportedly committed suicide.

The police are still unsure as to Willis' motive, but one thing is certain: Walmart stores don't seem as cosy & safe as they used to.

Conclusion

Walmart is far too big & well-run a corporation to face competition on a global scale. But, unless it does something to stop the gradual tarnishing of its good name, national-level & city-level stores are going to be making a comeback in the near future.