Word: wal
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...mammoth increase in advertising had scarcely budged sales. Profits were way down. The Christmas selling season was the worst in 15 years. One piece of news especially seemed to mock the setting's regal grandeur. Sears, officially, is no longer America's largest retailer. The new king: Wal-Mart, a onetime backwoods bargain barn that, according to late figures, has pulled past Sears in North American sales. K mart, advancing steadily but less spectacularly, edged up just behind Sears, leaving the former leader an uncertain...
While worried Sears directors were seeking solutions in Chicago, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, 72, was working in his spartan little office at headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. (pop. 11,000). Starting at 7 every morning, well-scrubbed, energetic employees scurry through the drab two-story building whose Formica desks and battleship-gray walls belie the company's immense profitability. Before long, a crowd of would-be suppliers begins forming at the front door: vendors carrying trunks and cases of products, hoping to interest Wal-Mart buyers in their toothpaste, panty hose, toasters and hundreds of other products. Wal-Mart buyers...
...Wal-Mart advanced on one market after another, building regional clusters of stores no farther than a day's drive from huge warehouse hubs. While other large retailers were allowing service to deteriorate, Wal-Mart stores were stationing a friendly greeter at the front door to welcome customers. The headquarters' down-home feel is real enough, but don't look for rolltop desks and clipboards. Walton -- Mr. Sam to his 350,000 employees -- invested in a state-of-the-art corporate satellite system that has enabled the company to perfect round-the-clock inventory control so that the products customers...
...Wal-Mart's relentless efforts have yielded remarkably rapid growth. Just 10 years ago, company sales of $2.4 billion were less than 12% of Sears'. But in the past three years, while Sears' North American retail sales (including those from 131 Canadian and Mexican stores) have grown only 14%, from $28 billion to $32 billion, Wal-Mart's have doubled, from $16 billion to $32.6 billion. Sears' overhead expenses still consume 29% of sales, and K mart's 23%, but Wal-Mart's burn up only 16% of sales. Wal-Mart workers are more productive than Sears': they generate...
...October's nonpartisan primary but won an estimated 60% of the white vote. Joseph Hampton sees nothing alarming in this. From his post-emigre perspective, he feels Louisianians have taken down their COLOREDS ONLY signs and muffled their racial prejudice under thick, soothing layers of courtesy. When he visits Wal- Mart, the discount chain store, there are professional "greeters" at the door. The auto dealer in nearby Monroe made a toll call to find out if he was satisfied with a repair. Strangers always wave at him as they drive by. "One man, a white man, he had a whole...