Walmart owns the global retail brand Walmart and was founded by Sam Walton.
Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. The company focused on low prices and efficient distribution, initially emphasizing smaller towns that larger retailers often overlooked. Its growth model combined high sales volume with tightly managed logistics.
The company became Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in 1969 and later changed its corporate name to Walmart Inc. It expanded internationally and developed major businesses in groceries, membership retail, e-commerce, logistics, and financial services.
Walmart is often compared with Amazon because both are major retailers, but their origins differ: Walmart began with physical discount stores, while Amazon began as an online bookseller. Walmart’s market capitalization is based on its publicly traded shares, not the dollar value of goods sold through its stores.