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Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large discount department stores and a chain of warehouse stores. Wal-Mart was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. Wal-Mart is the largest majority private employer and the largest grocery retailer in the United States. It also owns and operates the Sam's Club retail warehouses in North America. Wal-Mart has 8500 stores in 15 countries, with 55 different names. The company operates under its own name in the United States, including the 50 states. It also operates under its own name in Puerto Rico. Wal-Mart operates in Mexico, in the United Kingdom,Japan and India.

Brief History Lesson
Sam Walton a businessman from Arkansas, began his retail career when he started work on June 3, 1940, at a J. C. Penney store in Des Moines, Iowa where he remained for 18months. In 1945, he met Butler Brothers, a regional retailer that owned a chain of variety stores called Ben Franklin and that offered him one in Newport, Arkansas.

Walton was extremely successful in running the store in Newport, far exceeding expectations. However, when the lease came up for renewal, Walton could neither come to agreement on the existing store's lease renewal nor find a new location in Newport. Instead, he opened a new Ben Franklin franchise in Bentonville, Arkansas, but called it "Walton's Five and Dime." There, he achieved higher sales volume by marking up slightly less than most competitors.


On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City store located at 719 Walnut Ave. in Rogers, Arkansas. The building is now occupied by a hardware store and an antique mall. Within five years, the company expanded to 24 stores across Arkansas and reached $12.6 million in sales. In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas, in Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma.

Wal-Mart has made some considerable changes to market itself as a company with a strong commitment to being green. As the company has pursued a responsible corporate social reputation though, it has realized significant savings.
Wal-Mart adopted a scorecard program to review the way each product is made, its merchandising, and its recycling availability. Wal-Mart even began offering promotions and benefits to vendors that scored well on the sustainability scorecard.
In such cases, Wal-Mart saved money on gas for transportation, packaging costs, and other costs, which meant it earned greater profits.

Wal-Marts security uses SSL which is Secure Sockets Layer, technology protects your online transactions and help increase trust in your Web site in the essential ways. An SSL Certificate enable encryption of sensitive information during online transactions. Each SSL Certificate is unique credential identifying the certificate owner. A Certificate Authority authenticates the identity of the certificate owner before it is issued. Wal-Mart has set up a fire wall to protects against authenticity and integrity of the information. Wal-Mart wants to see chip-and-pin payment cards adopted in the United States in the effort to better secure financial transactions.