Introduction

In $2021,$ Wal$-$Mart was the largest firm in the world by revenues, with sales of over $$500$ billion,

more than $10,500$ stores in $27$ countries worldwide, and employing $2\mathrm{.}2$ million people. In the

United States. Wal$-$Mart was bigger than the next four retailers combined. It is the largest

grocer in America accounting for $26\mathrm{.}2\%$ of the food retail market in the United States. More

than $96\%$ of the U$.$S$.$ population lived within $20$ miles of a Wal$-$Mart store.

From the outset, Wal$-$Marts founder Sam Walton focused relentlessly on reducing prices,

cutting costs, and making a living on slim margins. His overarching philosophy was to sell items

that people need every day just a little cheaper than everyone else, and to sell it at that low

price all the time. To make this strategy work, you had to control costs better than the next guy.

By all accounts, Walton made a religion out of frugality, tightly controlling expenses. By keeping

costs as low as possible, he quickly discovered that his promise of everyday low prices attracted

many customers without the need to spend much on advertising.

However, all was not well in Bentonville, Wal$-$Marts Arkansas headquarters. While the

company continued to perform well, the strong growth of an earlier era was no longer evident.

Not only was the core U$.$S$.$ market saturated, Wal$-$Mart was also facing increasing competition

from online retailers, particularly Amazon.com. As of $2021,$ Amazon was generating $$280$ billion

in online sales, far more than Wal$-$Marts $$60$ billion.

Information Systems and Logistics

Sam Walton was a numbers man. He wanted data on everything, and Wal$-$Marts information

systems gave him that. In turn, the data gave him and his managers the raw material required

to control his ever$-$expanding empire, to manage its merchandise offering, inventory turns,

stores and employees.

Wal$-$Marts growth strategy wadescribe the bussdescribe the business