WALMART

Wal-Mart

Introduction

Walmart was established in the year 1962, and it was first discount store opened in the area of Roger, Ark. The company officially started of its business with the name of Wal Mart Stores, Inc. on 31st October, 1969. The trading of its shares started soon in OTC markets in the year 1970 but it was listed at the Stock Exchanges after the passage of two years. By using investor capital funds the company was able to grow drastically and developed around 276 stores. They were present in 11 different states at end of year. It was able to open its Sam's club membership warehouse in the year 1983.

Its first super center was opened in the year 1988. It had complete range of groceries and merchandise for general use. It soon crossed the borders and became international in the year 1991when it first opened its Sam's club in Mexico. It has been operating with different name in certain countries. In Mexico it operates under the label of Walmex while in UK it is doing its business under the name of ASDA. ASDA is considered as one of the leading retail brands in UK. Additionally it has expanded its business in countries like Argentine, Canada, Puerto Rico and Brazil. It operations across the border in other countries have shown mixed result in terms of profitability and success. In countries like South America and China, it is doing great business but failed in Germany and South Korea (Das, 2009)

As far as customer satisfaction is concerned it is Wal Mart's mission to provide its customers with lowest price product so that they can enjoy better quality of life. Wal Mart has been ranked highest in terms of prices, quality, value and friendly and involved staff. But I have given it low rank as its story layout and product categories have become somewhat outdate. They must introduce new and trendy products to match to customer's expectations that have now options like Target which caters to the high end customers but has some of the latest fashionable labels under its roof. It definitely needs to introduce more fashionable clothing line to attract and retain the customers.

Wal Mart has been involved in community service by making donations for the affected people due to earthquake and other natural hazards. In terms of cleanliness, they need to improve more. They have a clean sweep policy according to which the cleaners are continuously cleaning the floor which at times makes it slippery. Additionally, it has been witnessed at times that underage employees are handling machines that they are not suppose to and might be harmful for them.

Wal Mart is currently a member of EPC Global and uses electronic product codes on its product to keep track of the inventory and product in the store providing useful data related to requirement of different products. It has strictly ordered its suppliers to use EPC codes and symbols on the products.

In scheduling system again the rating is a little low due to ...