Three Days - Three Men Part 3

Walton – The Walmart Museum is located in Sam Walton’s first store on the town square in Bentonville. While extremely informative and historically accurate, the museum is produced like Disneyland and clearly the product of Walmart’s Public Relations maestros. The museum has excellent displays and tells the story of Walmart and Sam Walton. Opinions on Walmart and Sam Walton’s leadership are controversial and vary widely.

My opinion is positive, and after viewing his story through the glowing corporate PR halo remain positive.

Samuel Walton was born in 1918 at Kingfisher, Oklahoma. His father farmed there for about five years after Sam’s birth. The father then relocated his family several times after taking a job as a mortgage broker and later as a fore closer on farms during the Great Depression. In the eighth grade Sam became the youngest Eagle Scout in Missouri history. The family eventually settled at Columbia, Missouri where Sam graduated high school.

He attended the University of Missouri on a ROTC scholarship supplemented by waiting tables in a dormitory dining hall. He graduated in 1940 with a degree in Economics. Sam was very popular in college and upon graduation, his class elected him permanent president of their class.

After graduation he went to work for J C Penney stores as a management trainee in Des Moines. In contemplation of Army induction in 1942, he took a temporary job at a DuPont munitions plant near Tulsa. When he entered the Army, he was assigned to the Intelligence Corps where he supervised security units at aircraft plants and prisoner of war camps, stateside. Sam married Helen Robson in 1943. They would have four children, one girl and three boys. Sam Walton was discharged from the Army in 1945 with the rank of Captain.

Walton started his first store in Newport, Arkansas. The Ben Franklin five and dime was a franchise store. Sam was an excellent business manager and great merchandiser. The store was well stocked always having what his customers wanted at the best price. When his short-term lease came due for renewal, his obvious success encouraged his landlord to ask for an exorbitant rent increase. After some negotiation, the landlord purchased the business lock, stock, and barrel.

Pocketing a quick profit, Sam purchased the Ben Franklin franchise for Bentonville, Arkansas. This was the first of sixteen Ben Franklin stores he would own. The second Ben Franklin was opened in 1952. In 1953 he purchased his first airplane. The plane would be a critical, tool, giving him the ability to be in his stores more often.  Sam also used the plane to scout out future store locations.

During this early business expansion period Sam proved to be an excellent manager. He was adept in hiring skilled store managers and headquarters staff, allowing him to spend time in his stores motivating and listening to the concerns of two important groups: his Customers and his Employees. Walton required daily sales reports from each of his stores detailing sales volumes and the items sold. These attributes would prove to be key elements of his phenomenal success.

Walton’s first discount store was opened at Rogers, Arkansas in 1962. At the suggestion of the store manager, Bob Bogle, the store was named Walmart. By 1967 Walmart had twenty-four stores and annual sales of almost thirteen million dollars.

The catalyst enabling this country boy to become the world’s largest retailer was a class conducted for prospective customers by IBM. At these classes, International Business Machines demonstrated the capabilities of their data processing equipment for retail sales management. Sam Walton immediately recognized the value and the potential computers and technology would have on retailing and distribution management.

On his return from IBM school, he hired five programmers away from IBM to implement a data processing system and strategy. Walmart would become the leader in adopting technology. In addition to the main frame computer, Walmart was the first retailer to use point of sale systems (faster and more accurate checkout) and satellite communications linking voice, data and video. Sam Walton understood future success depended on data and logistics.

Growth Timeline - Walmart was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972 when they had fifty-one stores and sales of seventy-eight million dollars. By 1980 they reached the sales of one billion dollars, two hundred and seventy-eight stores, and twenty-one thousand employees (Walmart refers to employees as associates.) Sam Walton died in 1992. At the time of his death, Walmart had one thousand, nine hundred and twenty-eight stores, and three hundred and seventy-one thousand employees. Shortly thereafter, in 1993 Walmart had their first one-billion-dollar sales week.

This past fiscal year (2018) Sam Walton’s little store reported annual sales of five hundred billion dollars, over eleven thousand, seven hundred stores operating in twenty-eight countries (over six thousand in the United States), over one million two hundred thousand employees, and serving over two hundred and seventy million customers each week. Walmart also has a vibrant if not dominant online presence.

Walmart’s PR emphasized that Mr. Sam, as he was known, prided himself or raising the standard of living for customers while lowering their cost of living; EDLP (Everyday low prices – Always.)  

Walmart’s success brought enormous wealth to the Walton family. They have accepted social responsibility and been generous in sharing their wealth. Walmart and the Walton Family established large foundations that support public and charitable activities. Walmart also is a leader in corporate disaster relief, mobilizing their resources quickly for the cause of public safety.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art exists because of the dedication and generosity of Helen and Sam Walton’s daughter, Alice.  Alice Walton, the richest woman in the world and the richest Texan, interest in American Art was cultivated by Ruth Carter Stevenson. Mrs. Stevenson was the driving force of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art where Alice Walton served as a member of the Board of Trustees for eleven years.

As Alice’s interest in American art developed she began acquiring the work of American masters. Logically she with the assistance of the Walmart Foundation and her family foundation constructed the beautiful and fabulous facility in Bentonville where it is stocked with Alice Walton’s collection. The building is spectacular!

Crystal Bridges is set in the woods and designed to be restful. When I arrived on Saturday morning it was anything but restful. The museum was packed - overcrowded - and loud! Admission is sponsored by Walmart, though admission to special exhibits carries an admission charge. I made my way through the galleries too quickly, as I could hardly hear myself think.

There were important pieces by Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Martin Johnson Heade, John Mix Stanley, Thomas Moran, Fredric Remington, Frederic Edwin Church, William Trost Richards, William Merritt Chase, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sergeant, and more.  I was not able to study or enjoy the art. Really Too Bad!

I escaped to a special exhibit: The Beyond Georgia O’Keefe & Contemporary Art. Admission was ten dollars though I was comped because of my Veteran’s status and thanked by the ticket seller for my service. The O’Keefe exhibit foremost was quiet, so I enjoyed it.

Gathered were important O’Keefe pieces from primarily galleries in the United States. O’Keefe’s use of the effect of light and her ability to work between reality and abstraction is truly a work of art (brilliance). There were about thirty of her works on display along with selected pieces from other artists the curator believed expanded on O’Keefe’s inspiration.  

The O’Keefe exhibition signature piece was “The Beyond.” Truly unique, “The Beyond” was captivating. O’Keefe painted it after she had lost her primary vision and using only her remaining peripheral vision.

Two years was a long time to wait to get to Crystal Bridges, and I would love to return but will have to understand how to assure a far calmer day. It could be a long time.