Word: wal
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...suburban Dallas emporium belongs to a booming category of retail store called the hypermarket. "I've never seen so much under one roof," says Martha Mason, a homemaker visiting Hypermart USA. "I could spend days in here." Sam Walton certainly hopes so. The founder and chairman of booming Wal-Mart discount stores opened his first Hypermart USA last December as a joint venture with the Cullum retail chain. Last week he opened a second in Topeka. "It's a test," says Walton, whose 1,114 Wal-Marts are generally a third the size of the Hypermarts. But as he tells...
...trouble began at a Sept. 17 Manhattan conference on the retail industry with Smith Barney as host. Dozens of top Wall Street analysts and institutional investors were assembled to hear reports from the leading companies. Many of the experts suspected that the news was not good. But the Wal-Mart Stores discount chain announced that sales were up sharply in September. The chairman of Toys "R" Us declared that though this was a slow period, he was excited about the Christmas season. True to Gap tradition, Chairman Fisher refused to reveal any projections for third-quarter earnings. In the past...
...that just highlights the paradox of Wal-Mart. For all its lingering Bible Belt ways, the company is in most other respects forward thinking. When it comes to technology, Wal-Mart leads the industry. The company is now installing a satellite communications system that will enable a constant stream of sales and inventory data to flow between each store and headquarters. Such information is quickly relayed to ten giant warehouses, which keep the stores well stocked at all times. Every Wal-Mart is within a day's drive of one of these storage depots...
...largest question looming over Wal-Mart is what will happen to the company when Mr. Sam is no longer in charge. The founder, who has a mild form of leukemia, which is now in remission, has gradually turned over day-to-day control to Glass, 51, and Shewmaker, 49, one of whom is likely to become the next chief executive. The titular position of chairman may go to the founder's eldest son, S. Robson Walton, 42, who is at present one of the company's vice chairmen. But Mr. Sam shows no signs of giving up his trademark store...
...Wal- Mart' s Sam Walton turns bargains into billions. -- The troubled temples ^ of thrift. -- Tension over smoking...