Don't discount stores: how Walmart caught up with Amazon

别低估实体店

Money Talks from The Economist

2025-05-22

45 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

Two decades ago, Walmart was on top of the world. The business model of cheap prices and giant big-box stores, pioneered by founder Sam Walton, had delivered a market share that no other American retail chain could touch. Then e-commerce arrived in the shape of a formidable new competitor—Amazon. Yet despite being written off at the time by pundits and investors as a retail dinosaur, Walmart has quietly reinvented itself as a tech company. Now it's fast closing the gap on Amazon, and its huge presence in the physical world may even give it the edge on its online rival. Hosts: Mike Bird and Ethan Wu. Guests: Avantika Chilkoti, The Economist's global business writer; Dan Bartlett, Walmart's Executive Vice President for Corporate Affairs; Suresh Kumar, Walmart's Chief Technology Officer; and Simeon Gutman, retail analyst at Morgan Stanley. Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
更多

单集文稿 ...

  • The walmart museum is as much a part of walmart's history as the exhibits and artefacts inside…

  • The Walmart museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, is a shrine to the life and work of Sam Walton -

  • the man changed the face of retail in America.

  • Every company has an origin story, and ours starts with Sam Walton.

  • The museum is on the site of the Walton Five and Dime, which opened in 1950.

  • A welcome video tells visitors that this is where Sam first experimented with his ideas about retailing.

  • It was here he began to believe he could build a successful business

  • by bringing a broad assortment of high quality merchandise

  • at discounted everyday low prices to smaller towns and families across America.

  • And he did.

  • In 1962, 'Mr.Sam' - as he was known - opened his first shop under the 'Walmart' name, in the nearby town of Rogers.

  • From that store, in a sleepy rural corner of America's south,

  • the company went on to be a towering colossus of retail - the biggest in America.

  • Today, ninety percent of Americans live within ten miles of a Walmart-owned store.

  • And the business has expanded across the globe, from Brazil and Mexico to India and China.

  • The founder of Walmart still looms large over the firm.

  • He is famous for his work ethic and entrepreneurial zeal.

  • Though he died in 1992, at the museum it's possible to get wisdom from the man himself via a hologram.

  • How do you make sure you're always the cheapest store in America?

  • So here's the simple lesson we learned...say, I bought an item for 80 cents.