Walmart and Target

Wal-Mart and Target

Case #2

History

Wal-Mart

Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store back in 1962. However his initial humble beginnings started under the Ben Franklin franchise in Bentonville, Arkansas. The Walton’s Five and Dime store achieved higher sales volume by selling products with slightly smaller markups than the competitors. After five years in the business the company expanded to 24 stores across the state of Arkansas and reached a volume of $12.6 million in sales. In 1968 it opened it’s first store outside of Arkansas in Sikenston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma. The company was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on October 31, 1969, and in 1970 opened its home office in Bentonville, Arkansas, and its first distribution center. There were now 38 stores operating with 1,500 employees and sales of $44.2 million. The company began trading stock at this time as publicly held company on October 1, 1972, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange shortly thereafter. By 1975 Wal-Mart was operating in five states with 125 stores and 7,500 employees, and a total sales volume of $340.3 million.

Target

The merger of a men’s clothing store and a dry good store in the mid 1960’s formed Dayton and Hudson. Dayton and Hudson as a combine entity they purchased malls and invested in specialty areas such as consumer electronics and hard goods. By 1970 there were 24 Target stores. By 1977 the Target chain the company’s top moneymaker. The following year the company bought California-based Mervyn’s. In the late 1970s and 1980s, it sold nine malls and several other business, including the 800-store B. Dalton to Barnes & Nobles. The Target stores division purchased Ayr-Way and Fedmart stores. In the late 1980s Dayton Hudson took Target to Los Angeles and the Northwest. They opened the first Target Greatland store in 1990. By this time it had 420 target stores. Later that same year it bought the Marshall Field’s chain of 24 department stores, which were considered Chicago’s premier upscale retailer. SuperTarget stores were introduced in 1995. The Target stores division opened