Company
ActiveWalmart
Bentonville · Since 1962
Still the largest private employer in the United States.
Sam Walton opened the first Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. The idea was a discount store in a town other chains thought too small. The advantage, as the chain grew, was logistics: distribution centers, a private truck fleet, and a relentless attention to the cost of a single item.
By the 2010s Walmart was the largest private employer in the United States. The jobs were hourly, on the floor, and numerous enough to set the wage conversation in entire counties. The company that the mobile apps were supposedly replacing was, in employment, larger than the apps.
The store as a system
A supercenter employs cashiers, stockers, department managers, and the drivers who keep the back room supplied. The skill the company values is compliance with a process written in Bentonville. Scheduling software decides who works the Tuesday shift. That is a real change in what a retail job is: less a relationship with the owner, more a slot in a plan. Walton's heirs still control the company through their stake. The clerk does not meet them.
Still the largest
Walmart is still independent and still the country's largest private employer, even after building its own online business in response to Amazon. The page lists it among present employers because the stores are open tonight. Its place in the 2010 chapter is as the physical retail a phone was supposed to make obsolete, and did not.
The work it organized
- Cashier
- Stocker
- Distribution driver
- Store manager
On the timeline
Related
- AmazonActive