Most people think of Walmart as a “new millennium” invention, but this is only partially true. Walmart has been around in one form or another since the 1950s. The first store that even closely resembles what we know it as today opened in Arkansas in 1962. In 1968, the first stores outside of Arkansas opened. As the chain continued to build new stores, they remained confined to southern states.
All of that changed in the 1980s. Walmart went nationwide, building stores as far west as Wyoming. By the end of the 80s, there were stores in over half of the states in the country. Sam Walton, the founder, continued to keep an eye on retail trends and Walmart began to change its offerings to keep up with changing times.
Still, the Walmart of the 1980s is very different from the Walmart of the “twenty-teens.” Take a look at how Walmart changed and grew in the 1980s
That Personal Touch
Here is Sam Walton himself showing a group of associates the front page of a newspaper reporting the grand opening of the store. Sam had his hand in everything from picking locations of stores to designing training of employees and always tried to make an appearance at each opening. He believed that his support of the associates was vital to the business and that his presence fostered the family feeling he hoped to bring to his stores.
Asian Influence on Corporate Culture
Sam Walton was always looking at ways to improve corporate culture and cultivate employee pride in his company. Business leaders in the 1980s became enamored by Korean and Japanese business practices, and Sam was no different. On a visit to Korea, he saw that employees started each day with a company cheer. In this photo from 1988, he looks on as associates lead the cheer of “It’s My Walmart” at a company shareholder meeting.
1983
Early in the 80s, everything started to come together for the Walmart Empire. The following events all occurred in 1983, which proved to be a banner year as several important steps were taken in both expansions of the business and with technology within stores.
Membership Requirements
Up until the early 80s, Walmart had provided discount retailing only to the general public. However, when Costco came on the scene in the late 1970s, Sam knew that he had to adapt his business plan to compete with the newcomer. In 1983, the first Sam’s Wholesale Club opened, offering the by-then-familiar discounts to businesses as well as the public…as long as the consumers became members of the store. Walmart stores continued to flourish as regular retail stores.
Human Greeters
The addition of people welcoming customers was another of Sam’s ideas that emphasized his belief that Walmart needed to remain a family-friendly store. Being greeted at the entrance to a store added a personal touch that made people feel like they were valued customers.
One Hour Photos
Age test: if you know what these are, you know that it was absolute torture during the weeks it took for them to be developed. Waiting to see if your pictures turned out or not was a practice in (im)patience. Walmart made millions of people very happy when they opened their first one-hour photo lab within a store in Oklahoma. People could drop off their film to be developed, do the rest of their shopping, and return to pick up printed pictures all within about an hour. Long before digital cameras, that quick turnaround was a big deal!
Computerized Cash Registers
Cash registers used to require a cashier to punch in the individual numbers of a price of an item and then hit a button that would print the full amount on the receipt. It was time-consuming and also sometimes frustrating if one typed the wrong numbers of a price – there was no delete button back then. Computerized cash registers, combined with the next item, sped up the check out process and provided a more accurate inventory to store managers.
Bar Codes
The introduction of bar codes revolutionized the way retail was tracked and sold. Associates began using hand held scanners that scanned the code, providing an instant readout on the screen that indicated how much more stock of the scanned item was available in the warehouse. The readout allowed managers to keep best-selling items readily available. When connected with the computerized cash registers, the code provided an instant price, thereby largely eliminating human error on pricing.
25th Anniversary
Yes, you see that picture correctly. By the time that Walmart celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1987, they were so ingrained into American consciousness that Mattel and Coca Cola partnered with them to produce specially designed limited-edition anniversary products.
The Super Center is Born
In 1988, Sam finally recognized his dream of offering an “all-in-one” store, when the first Super Center opened in Missouri. Combining his already established retail store with a grocery store people could quite literally get anything they could need in one store. This expansion led to the Walmart that is familiar to millions today.
The debate continues to this day over whether or not Walmart caused the demise of smaller grocery stores and other “Mom and Pop” retailers. There are sound arguments on both sides of the issue. What remains undisputed, however, is that the 80s were a pivotal time in Walmart’s history.
