Sam Walton，the founder of Wal-Mart，was born in Kingfish，Oklahoma on March 29，1918．He was raised in Missouri where he worked in his father's store while attending school．This was his first retailing （零售业） experience and he really enjoyed it．After graduation，he began his own career as a retail merchant．

He soon opened his first Wal-Mart store in 1962in Rogers，Arkansas．Wal-Mart specialized in name brands at low prices and Sam Walton was surprised at the success．Soon a chain of Wal-Mart stores sprang up across rural America．

Walton's management style was popular with employees and he founded some of the basic concepts of management that are still in use today．

After taking the company public in 1970，Walton introduced his"profit sharing plan"．The profit sharing plan was a plan for Wal-Mart employees to improve their income dependent on the profits of the store．Sam Walton believed that"individuals don't win，teams do"．Employees at Wal-Mart stores were offered stock options （认股权） and store discounts．These benefits are commonplace today，but Walton was among the first to implement （实现） them．Walton believed that a happy employee meant happy customers and more sales．He also believed that by giving employees a part of the company and making their success dependent on the company's success，they would care about the company．

By the 1980s，Wal-Mart had sales of over one billion dollars and over three hundred stores across North America．Wal-Mart's unique decentralized （分散的） distribution system，also Walton's idea，created the edge needed to further encourage growth in the 1980s during growing complaints that the"superstore"was stopping smaller and traditional stores from developing．By 1991，Wal-Mart was the largest US retailer with 1，700stores．Walton remained active in managing the company，as president and CEO until 1988and chairman until his death．He was awarded the Medal of Freedom shortly before his death．