This week's Soldier of Fortune goes back to World War II. Before he built the biggest retailer on the planet, Sam Walton was a young Army officer who knew he wanted to work for himself when he got out.
From ROTC to the Army
Samuel Moore Walton was born on March 29, 1918, in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, and grew up in small towns in Missouri during the Great Depression. He was an ROTC cadet at the University of Missouri, where he earned an economics degree in 1940, and he went straight into a management trainee job at J.C. Penney in Des Moines, Iowa.
He was inducted into the U.S. Army on July 16, 1942. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, he served stateside in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the war, and most biographies say he reached the rank of captain. He married Helen Robson in 1943, and he was discharged in 1945. Walton later said it was while serving in the Army that he decided he wanted to go into retailing and go into business for himself.
One store, bought with Army savings
Walton didn't start big. He used a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law and about $5,000 he'd saved during his time in the Army to buy a Ben Franklin variety store franchise in Newport, Arkansas, which opened on September 1, 1945. He grew its sales from $80,000 to $225,000 in three years. Then the landlord refused to renew the lease so he could hand the store to his own son.
Walton took the loss as a lesson and started over. On May 9, 1950, he opened Walton's 5&10 on the downtown square in Bentonville, Arkansas. It was one of the first self-service variety stores in the country. That building is now the Walmart Museum, which still has the door from his Newport store on display.
Walmart and Sam's Club
He opened the first Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962, at age 44, and co-founded the company with his brother James "Bud" Walton. Sam's Club followed in 1983 in Midwest City, Oklahoma. His idea was simple: if a small-town store offered prices as good as a city store four hours away, people would shop at home. In his autobiography, Sam Walton: Made in America, he explained that cutting prices could raise sales enough to earn more on volume than on markup.
In March 1992, Walton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in Bentonville, which is when the photo above was taken. He died on April 5, 1992, at age 74. Even as one of the richest people in the country, he kept driving an old pickup truck, which is now on display at the museum.
The company he left behind hires veterans
Walton's company has kept a strong connection to the military. On Memorial Day 2013, Walmart launched its Veterans Welcome Home Commitment, which guaranteed a job offer to eligible, honorably discharged veterans. In July 2020, the company announced it had passed its goal of 250,000 veteran hires, with more than 265,000 veterans hired and more than 44,000 of them promoted.
What veterans can take from it
- Save while you serve. Walton's first store was paid for partly with money he put away in uniform. A little discipline with a paycheck can become a down payment on your future.
- Setbacks are training. He lost a profitable store over a lease and called it a lesson, not a defeat. Then he did it again, better, in a new town.
- Serve the customer like it's the mission. Keep the shelves stocked, keep prices fair, and keep showing up. That works in a small town or across the world.
You don't need to start with a big idea. Walton started with one store and a plan he figured out while he was still in the Army.
Know a veteran founder or veteran-owned business I should feature next? Let me know.
Sources: Sam Walton, Walmart · Sam Walton, Encyclopedia of Arkansas · Sam Walton, Wikipedia · Walmart Museum, Encyclopedia of Arkansas · Walmart, July 2020
