Recent headlines disclose that Wal-Mart, the ubiquitous international super store chain, will close about 269 locations this coming year, affecting 16,000 workers. About 154 of those stores are in the U.S., expected to leave 10,000 workers laid off or fired. But does that mean the venerable retailer is in decline? Hardly, as we see from these 35 mind blowing facts about Wal-Mart.
1. Despite the recent small decline, Wal-Mart is still the biggest retailer in the world, with 11,000 stores in 27 countries around the world.
2. In total, Wal-Mart employs 2.1 million people – so basically, Iceland.
3. There are 1.4 million employees in the U.S. alone, an astounding 1% of the entire U.S. workforce. Wal-Mart is also the largest employer in 25 of 50 U.S. states.
4. If you joined all Wal-Mart stores in the same place, they’d take up about 32 square miles or 1.1 billion square feet – as big as 15,300 football fields and roughly the size of Manhattan..
5. Wal-Mart parking lots are roughly half the size of Tampa, Florida.
6. Wal-Mart is not only the biggest private employer in the U.S., it’s also the biggest employer – public or private – in the world, behind only the Chinese Army (2.29 million) and bigger than the U.S. Department of Defense (1.43 million).
7. Everyone in the United States will average 1.1 purchases at Wal-Mart this year, and 1/3 of our population will visit a store this week.
8. Just how profitable is the largest private retailer in the world? Wal-Mart reportedly makes $1.8 mil EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY THEY ARE OPEN!
9. Every day, there are an average of 60,000 mentions of Wal-Mart on social media.
10. Their yearly sales surpass that of Target, Costco, and Kroger…combined.
11. Sam Walton founded Wal-mart and now his heirs own 50% of the company’s stock, making them one of the richest families in the world.
12. How much is that stock worth? According to Bloomberg News, enough to fill in a large backyard swimming pool with solid gold.
13. In fact, the Walton family is worth about $152 billion, roughly as much as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Michael Bloomberg combined.
14. Four out of the ten wealthiest Americans are Walton family members, worth about $30 billion each.
15. The six richest Walton family members have a higher net worth than the bottom 40% of Americans combined.
16. Reportedly, the Waltons have given away about 2% of their wealth to charity. In comparison, Bill Gates , Warren Buffet, and dozens of the world’s richest people have pledged to give away the majority of their net worth to good causes.
17. But the 2% they give away still makes them the most charitable companies in total dollars.
18. 25% of sales for Clorox are at Wal-Mart.
19. 18% of all food stamp expenditures are at Wal-Mart stores, about $13 billion in sales yearly. Interestingly, Wal-Mart is also the employer with the largest number of workers on food stamps.
20. An interesting formula exists that calculates the health impact of every Wal-Mart store in a community. For each additional Wal-Mart per 100,000 residents, the average Bod Mass Index increases by 0.25 units and the obesity rate rises by 2.4%.
21. Being the world’s largest and most successful store definitely put a target on your back. In fact, Wal-Mart is sued roughly 5,000 times each year – or once every 2 hours.
22. Those include some huge discrimination, workers’ rights, and harassment suits. Right now, Wal-Mart is in court battling a $11 billion class action sexual discrimination suit brought against them by 1.6 million workers, the biggest of its kind ever.
23. It sure is convenient to stop in your neighborhood superstore, as 90% of all Americans live within 12 minutes of a Wal-Mart!
24. It’s also not hard to find, as the most frequently entered GPS location is Wal-Mart.
25. Wal-Mart has about 22 million employees. – so basically, Houston.
26. Can you believe that by itself, Wal-Mart is wealthier than the entire economies of some countries in the world? If that doesn’t grab you, consider that it would actually be the 28th largest economy in the world out of nearly 200 countries.
27. Wal-Marts net sales for the latest fiscal year closing Jan 2015, were $482 billion – so basically, the GDP of Norway.
28. The year before, Wal-Mart “only” brought home $485.7 billion, handily beating the no. 2 earner, Exxon Mobil, by $103 billion.
29. That also happens to be more than the net earnings of Apple, Target, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Macy’s, and Walt Disney Co. – COMBINED!
30. Wal-Mart’s CEO makes 1,034 times that of his typical worker. Is that number in range with what other Fortune 500 CEOs make? No – considering that the average Fortune 500 CEO makes “only” 300 times that of his typical worker.
31. There were 81 shootings in Wal-Marts in the U.S. last year, up from 54 in 2014.
32. Wal-Mart sold more than one billion pounds of bananas in 2014, more than any other item.
33. Through the years, their biggest consistent sellers have included teen sportswear, Halloween candy, and yarn.
34. There are 37 million shoppers every day at Wal-Mart – so basically, Canada.
35. Many criticize Wal-Mart and other super stores and warehouse clubs as the death of the Mom and Pop shop in the U.S. In fact, between 1962 when Wal-Mart was founded and 2002, the number of single-store retailers dropped by 55% in the U.S.
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Can you guess how many items the average Wal-Mart store carries?
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