Walmart Stores the U.S - Case Study Example

Walmart Walmart High Quality Stores According to Berg and Robert Walmart, has high-quality stores and associates which enable its success in the market. The operation of Walmart are organized into three division including Sam’s Club, Walmart Stores U.S and Walmart International. The company operates in nine retail formats which include food and drugs, supercenters, general merchandise stores, cash and carry stores, bodegas small markets, soft discount stores, membership warehouse clubs and restaurants (Fishman, 2006). The first and largest companys division is the Walmart stores U.S with $ 258 billion operating cash in 2014. In 2010, the division had a total of 63.8 percent total sales. The Walmart stores U.S. division consists of three formats of retail that a common in America and they include supercenters, discount stores and Walmart markets. The retail stores did not concentrate on selling grocery but most recently it opened the supercenters that sell grocery items (Walmart, 2014). The Walmart store U.S also consists of an online retailer which provides sales to customers over the internet. Customers place order of the products online and have them shipped to their local area. The pilot program was announced by the company in 2006 to sell generic drugs. The program was started at the store in Tampa, Florida and latter in January 2007 it expanded to all stores in America. The company sells out the generic product at a relatively low price, because they claim that in carrying out mass distribution they acquire profit. The company gets most of the generic product from India and manufacture it in America. This shows that Walmart has established business relationship in different countries (Fishman, 2006). Latter in 2007, the company produced a version for downloading movies and sold more than 3,000 films and television episodes from different major television and studio networks. This service experienced low sales because of high level of prominent competitor. In December 2007, the company terminated this service because it was not profitable (Fishman, 2006). In 2011, the company operated another pilot program in the grocery stores in Phoenix, Arizona. The Walmart stores U.S have been expanding and changing in the business plan from time to time. The success of the company is brought about by good management. This store is management by professional and skilled management team under the supervision of the CEO Greg Foran (Walmart, 2014). The second store is the Walmart discount stores which include department stores varying from 51,000 to 224,000 square feet size. This store carries out a selection of groceries and general merchandise. Most of the stores under this category have a pharmacy, tire, garden centre, photo processing lab, optical centre, bank branch, lube express, cell phone store, food outlet and others have a gasoline station. The first store under this category was opened in 1990 in Bentonville, and it operated as a closeout store. After that many stores were opened in shopping centres as the Walmart advanced and operated in a built supercenter. As in January 2014, Walmart had opened 510 Walmart discount stores in America. The discount stores have been expanding each year due to sound and good management by skilled managers (Walmart, 2014). The Walmart supercenter is another type of stores that are hypermarkets with a size ranging from 90 to 261 thousand square feet. The supercenters carry out different business including full-service supermarket, baked goods, meat and poultry, dairy products, garden centre, pet shop, pharmacy, frozen food and delicatessen among others. Walmart was opening McDolnald restaurant but in 2007, it announced to stop opening such restaurants. After the announcement, the stores that opened up have the Subway Restaurant instead of McDolnald. Some stores sell gasoline that is distributed by Murphy Oil Corporation. In January 2014, Walmart had 3,272 supercenter stores in America (Fishman, 2006). According to Berg and Robert (2012) other high-quality stores include Walmart neighbouring market, supermercado de waimart, Walmart express, Sam’s club and Walmart international. The Walmart international operation by January 2014 had 800 thousand workers and 6,337 stores in 26 countries other than America (Fishman, 2006). In Brazil, Argentina, Canada and UK there are wholly owned operation company operations. Walmart has remained the largest private employer in America since it comprises of 2.2 million employees worldwide. The company has many stores in different parts of the world, and this has made it to acquire more income and expand. The stores are operated by professionals, and that is why Walmart has been able to open more stores and operate in different countries (Walmart, 2014). Associates Walmart is described as a family business because it is controlled by the Walton family. Walton family owns over 50 % of the Walmarts total shares through there holding company known as Walton Enterprises. The company has other partners who operate the business in different stores. Currently in the developing countries Walmart, works in partnership with a local investors (Walmart, 2014). The dividends are shared annually to all associated. For effectiveness, the company has launched differed services to manage the stakeholders. The associate’s services include stock purchases, financial email alerts and dividend direct deposit and investment. Currently, associates can purchase the Walmart shares through Computershare services, through authorized brokerage firm or stock transfer agent. The associates can also receive the dividends direct to their bank accounts through visiting the Computershare service. Upon subscription, the associates receive the financials statement through emails. Walmart manages the associates through online services for effectiveness (Fishman, 2006). Why Choose Walmart Walmart is an international company and has many branches across the world. The company has operated since 1945, and this shows that the company is stable since it has operated for all those years without collapsing (Walmart, 2014). Walmart is the best choice since it is well known and established. Different People are aware of Walmart operation. The company also has the biggest number of employees and is in the fortune global 500. Researching on this company will help the customer to identify different stores to acquire products. It will also enlighten customers on the progress of the company. New investor will also be able to invest without fear since Walmart is an international successful company which can not collapse (Jones and Hill, 2012). References Berg N. and Robert B. (2012). Walmart: Key Insights and Practise Lesson from the World’s Largest Retail. New York: Kogan Page. Fishman C. (2006). Walmart Effect. Boston: Penguin Books. Jones G. and Hill C. (2012). Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach. New York: Cengage Learning. Kurtz D. and Boone L. (2011). Contemporary Business. New York: John Willey & Sons. Walmart (2014). My Local Stores. Retrieved January 2014, from http://www.walmart.com/store/ Walmart (2014). Shareholder Services. Retrieved January 2014, from http://stock.walmart.com/shareholder-services/ Read More