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Wally world is the popular nickname for the retail giant Walmart. It is unclear what the origins of the name are but it is generally accepted that the name was inspired by a fictional amusement park that appeared in the comedy movie National Lampoons Vacation that came out in 1983.
The amusement park named ‘Walley World’ is thought to be the source of the nickname. Since then, Walmart stores have loosely been referred to as Wally World, only dropping the ‘e’ in ‘Walley’.
The nickname stuck and is the name by which most people know the store. The vast majority do not even know that the nickname had nothing to do with the business itself.
Walmart has operations in a number of locations across the globe and goes by different names in each. In the United Kingdom, it is known simply as ASDA.
In Japan, it is known as the Seiyu Group while in Mexico, it is known as Walmart de México y Centroamérica. In India, Walmart is known as Flipkart Wholesale. These are just a few locations across the globe.
Walmart operates about 10,500 stores across 24 countries under 48 flags as well as innumerable commercial websites. A colossal employees base of approximately three million-strong work for Walmart, which makes the retail giant a significant player in global economics.
Is Wally World a Real Place?
Walley world is not an actual place. It is the fictional amusement park in the comedy film National Lampoons Vacation. The two parks used to film the movie are Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, and Six Flags Magic Mountain also in California.
What is Walmart?
Walmart Inc, previously known as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, is an American multinational company and retail giant that operates a chain of superstores or hypermarkets across the globe, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas.
The retail chain was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and with great vision and precocious strategy, grew to become a stunning success within a very short time.
The rapid success of Walmart cemented its place in American economics by becoming a publicly traded company a mere eight years later in 1970.
Since then, the retail chain has only grown from strength to strength and is today the world’s largest company by revenue standing at an impressive USD 549 billion in 2020.
Why has Walmart been so Successful?
The meteoric rise and mammoth worth of the company can be attributed to the vision and daring of the founding father of Walmart, Sam Walton. The culture and values of Walmart as a business are in step with the character and ambition of Sam Walton.
Sam Walton started the chain on the belief that retail goods could be provided to the public at lower prices than all the existing retailers at the time without compromising on quality.
One would argue all retail employs this belief and that it is the primary tenet of the retail business but Sam willed that the low prices should always get lower and that these prices remain consistently low.
To add to that, he envisioned creating a culture of customer service that would put his business firmly on the apex of customer preference where customers would enjoy their shopping experience every single time.
This was a tall order and in an industry as ruthlessly competitive and volatile as the retail sector, this was ambitious and nearly impossible to sustain without one or all of these ambitious provisions being abandoned.
The public responded and the knee-jerk reaction would have been to level back up their prices and capitalize on the expansive customer base. Sam Walton instead continued to offer value at low prices, coupled with exemplary customer service and an enviable shopping experience. Walmart expanded north to open even more stores all over the Americas.
As with any successful large enterprise, innovation and strategy are key. Walmart Inc is one of the older companies with a global reach and reputation.
This is not an easy feat given how many large businesses of the previous century failed to make it into the new millennium and adapt to one of the most aggressive changes in the global economic and social frameworks.
Some of the Strategies that have made Walmart Successful
Decluttering the Supply Chain
In its early years especially, Sam Walton played a pivotal role in the management of Walmart, and part of his approach was to source merchandise in bulk at the lowest possible prices and deliver the goods directly to his stores without transporters and middlemen engaging in the transaction of the merchandise prior to receiving it.
This cut down his expenses and continually, customers could rely on Walmart for both great quality goods and friendly prices,
Cultivating Synergy with Vendors
A direct ramification of the former strategy is that vendors sought to be in business with Walmart since it clearly had market share.
Sam Walton and future administrations have capitalized on this forming partnerships directly with manufacturers who could meet demand and offer low prices in exchange for long-term partnerships and a guarantee to move volumes of their merchandise.
Under Walmart’s VMI (Vendor Management Initiative) vendors could even manage their own merchandise on store floors guaranteeing 100% order fulfillment. In the last two to three decades Walmart has embraced technology rigorously for the management of inventory.
Cross-docking Inventory
A central strategy of Walmart’s is cross-docking which is a logistical practice where goods do not sit in storage waiting to be picked up hence incurring storage charges.
Instead, vendors load merchandise from their trucks directly onto the trucks that transport Walmart goods to Walmart stores or deliver them directly to a Walmart store. In turn, the vendor’s trucks are loaded with their own non-moving merchandise.
This strategy cut down operational overheads by massive proportions affording the customer the low prices on goods that have always been the Walmart signature.
Although the above are not the only strategies that Walmart employed to remain at the top and grow exponentially, they certainly have made some of the most weighty impact propelling the company upward.
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