Short answers, pulled from the story.
Walmart was founded by brothers Sam Walton and James "Bud" Walton. The first Wal-Mart Discount City store opened on the 2nd of July, 1962, at 719 W. Walnut Street in Rogers, Arkansas. Sam Walton had previously operated a Ben Franklin store branch starting in 1945, where he developed the low-price, high-volume retail philosophy that would define Walmart.
Walmart is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company opened its first home office and distribution center there in 1970. In 2025, Walmart opened a new 350-acre campus in Bentonville housing 15,000 employees in 2.4 million square feet of office space.
As of 2026, Walmart employs 2.1 million people, making it the largest private employer in the world. The company refers to its employees as "associates."
Walmart operates in 20 countries, including the United States and 19 others. Its international division held 5,591 units outside the U.S. as of the data available in the source, with Mexico being the largest international division at 2,804 stores.
Walmart became the most profitable retailer in the U.S. by 1988 and surpassed all rivals to become the largest by revenue in October 1989. By 2002 it was listed as America's largest corporation on the Fortune 500, with revenues of $219.8 billion and profits of $6.7 billion.
Sam Walton named the chain "Wal-Mart" after FedMart, a discount department store chain founded by Sol Price in 1954. Walton said he liked Sol Price's name and wanted something similar for his own chain. The name was later simplified to "Walmart" when the company removed the hyphen from its logo on the 30th of June, 2008.