Samuel Moore Walton was an American business magnate best known for founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club, which he started in 1962 and 1983 respectively.
32 Facts About Sam Walton
2.
Sam Walton's family has remained the richest family in the US for several consecutive years, with a net worth of around US$240.6 billion as of January 2022.
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Samuel Moore Walton was born to Thomas Gibson Walton and Nancy Lee, in Kingfisher, Oklahoma.
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Sam Walton lived there with his parents on their farm until 1923.
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However, farming did not provide enough money to raise a family, and Thomas Sam Walton went into farm mortgaging.
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Sam Walton worked for his brother's Walton Mortgage Company, which was an agent for Metropolitan Life Insurance, where he foreclosed on farms during the Great Depression.
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Sam Walton milked the family cow, bottled the surplus, and drove it to customers.
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Sam Walton attended the University of Missouri as an ROTC cadet.
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Also during his time in college, Sam Walton joined the Zeta Phi chapter of Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
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Sam Walton was tapped by QEBH, the well-known secret society on campus honoring the top senior men, and the national military honor society Scabbard and Blade.
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Additionally, Sam Walton served as president of Burall Bible Class, a large class of students from the University of Missouri and Stephens College.
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Sam Walton realized while serving in the army, that he wanted to go into retailing and to go into business for himself.
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Sam Walton resigned in 1942 in anticipation of being inducted into the military for service in World War II.
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In 1945, after leaving the military, Sam Walton took over management of his first variety store at the age of 26.
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Sam Walton pioneered many concepts that became crucial to his success.
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Sam Walton made sure the shelves were consistently stocked with a wide range of goods.
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Sam Walton negotiated the purchase of a small discount store, and the title to the building, on the condition that he get a 99-year lease to expand into the shop next door.
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The owner of the shop next door refused six times, and Walton gave up on Bentonville when his father-in-law, without Sam's knowledge, paid the shop owner a final visit and $20,000 to secure the lease.
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Sam Walton had just enough left from the sale of the first store to close the deal, and reimburse Helen's father.
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Sam Walton encouraged his managers to invest and take an equity stake in the business, often as much as $1000 in their store, or the next outlet to open.
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Sam Walton is regarded as one of the greatest project entrepreneurs in the retail chain industry.
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Sam Walton frequently made unannounced visits to Walmarts around the country to learn what local innovations were working that then could be shared with other Walmarts.
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Sam Walton launched a determined effort to market American-made products.
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Sam Walton came to acknowledge that his one-stop-shopping center format was based on Meijer's original innovative concept.
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Contrary to the prevailing practice of American discount store chains, Sam Walton located stores in smaller towns, not larger cities.
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Sam Walton married Helen Robson on Valentine's Day, February 14,1943.
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Sam Walton died on Sunday, April 5,1992, of multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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Sam Walton left his ownership in Walmart to his wife and their children: Rob Walton succeeded his father as the Chairman of Walmart, and John Walton was a director until his death in a 2005 plane crash.
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The others are not directly involved in the company, however his son Jim Sam Walton is chairman of Arvest Bank.
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The Sam Walton family held five spots in the top ten richest people in the United States until 2005.
31.
In 1998, Sam Walton was included in Times list of 100 most influential people of the 20th Century.
32.
Sam Walton was inducted into the Junior Achievement US Business Hall of Fame in 1992.