Walmart is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, the company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and incorporated on October 31, 1969. It also owns and operates Sam’s Club retail warehouses.
As of January 31, 2020, Walmart has 11,484 stores and clubs in 27 countries, operating under 55 different names. The company has more than 2.2 million employees, 1.5 million of whom work in the United States.
Walmart is the world’s largest company by revenue- over US$500 billion annually- as well as the largest private employer in the world with 2.2 million employees. It is a publicly traded family-owned business, as the company is controlled by the Walton family. Sam Walton’s heirs own over 50 percent of Walmart through both their holding company Walton Enterprises and their individual holdings.
While it’s headquartered in the United States, Walmart’s reach now extends around the globe. The company has operations in 27 countries outside of the U.S., and it plans to continue expanding its international presence. In fact, Walmart now gets 24 percent of its revenue from outside the United States.
China is one of Walmart’s biggest markets outside of the United States. The retailer first entered China in 1996 and now operates over 400 stores in the country. In 2016, Walmart generated $10.7 billion in revenue from its operations in China.
While Walmart is headquartered in America, it gets a significant amount of its revenue from China – over 24%.
