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1-Page Summary of Sam Walton: Made in America

Overview

Sam Walton was a small-town businessman who opened a local store. He had an insatiable desire to compete and always wanted to expand his business. His competitive spirit combined with the American values of entrepreneurship, risk, and hard work made him successful in business.

The book tells the story of Sam Walton, who started his own business and became a billionaire. It also gives some insights into how he managed to achieve success in his ventures.

Learning to Value a Dollar

Sam Walton was born in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl era. His father took any kind of work he could get, working as a farmer, banker, loan appraiser and real estate agent. During the Great Depression, his father repossessed hundreds of farms from families who couldn’t pay their bills. Sam accompanied him on these evictions and it was painful to watch but necessary for his family’s survival.

Walton had a hard time earning money as a kid. He did odd jobs like delivering milk from the cows to neighbors, and he also sold pigeons and rabbits that he raised. Walton soon realized it took a lot of work just to earn one dollar. He learned from his parents that it was better not to spend money but save it instead.

When he was young, his mother instilled in him the belief that if you’re going to do something, you should be the best at it. He competed fiercely and never lost a football game as a kid. At 13 years old, he became the youngest person ever to achieve Eagle Scout status. In college, he earned many accolades for being an excellent student and leader on campus. He even became captain of Scabbard and Blade (an elite military honor society). His drive to always be #1 at everything motivated him with confidence because he knew that if there was a way to win, he’d find it.

After serving in the army, Sam Walton decided to get married and open his first retail store. He had $5,000 saved up over the years and a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law. The location was fortunate because it was across the street from a competitor’s store called Sterling Store. Obsessively checking out this competition allowed him to find ways that he could improve things for customers in his own store. Always looking for an edge, he learned a lot by observing what they were doing wrong—and eventually found ways to beat them at their own game with wholesale pricing and offbeat suppliers. Customers loved deals like these so much that they snapped up merchandise as soon as Walton stocked it on shelves. This experience taught Walton how to be savvy about trading goods and made him well prepared when opening Walmart down the road later on in life.

Before opening his first store, Walton went to Bentonville, Arkansas and opened up a few stores. He tried different things such as setting up popcorn makers and ice cream carts in front of the building so customers would stop by for a snack and then shop inside. However, it was the discounted merchandise that made his stores successful enough to open more locations in Arkansas.

Swimming Upstream

Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart in 1962, when he was 44. At the time, Kmart was one of the biggest retailers with 250 stores and $800 million a year in profits. However, Walton thrived on competition from major companies like Kmart because he loved competing against them and pricing strategy was important to him. He would find a handful of items that could be sold at extremely low prices; customers would come from far away to get those deals and then stay for other purchases in the store.

Wal-Mart became famous for its low prices, and it was a policy that if customers found an item cheaper elsewhere, they could return their purchase. Customers began to trust the company because of this promise, and this is one of Wal-Mart’s core values today. Another passion Walton had was choosing items to promote in his stores. He got satisfaction from finding everyday objects – like mattress pads or dish sets – buying them at huge quantities, and then displaying them in his stores in dramatic ways such as hanging them from the ceiling to draw attention.