Who Was Sam Walton And What Did He Do?

Sam Walton was the founder of Walmart and Sam's Club. The Walton family is the richest family in history. Sam was born March 29, 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. He died on April 6, 1992. After a successful high school career, suffering the Great Depression, and earning a college degree in Economics, Sam Walton decided to open a department store. His first store was called Ben Franklin and opened in 1945. Ben Franklin was a variety store that sold many different things. In 1951, he opened another variety store and called it Walton's Five and Dime. He was very successful with his variety stores. In 1962, he opened the first Walmart in Arkansas and by 2004 Walmart became the world's largest retail store and employed more than 1.5 million people. Today, Walmart still continues to grow and flurish. It not only offers quality products at an affordable price, it also gives back to the communities through contributions to charities and schlorships.