Wal-Mart has made some considerable changes to market itself as a company with a strong commitment to being green. For years, the big box retailer has been criticized for underpaying its workers, offering limited benefits, exploiting employees in sweatshops around the world, and engaging in gender discrimination. As the company has pursued a responsible corporate social reputation though, it has realized significant savings.
Wal-Mart adopted a scorecard program to review the way each product is made, its merchandising, and its recycling availability. Vendors have been forced to make changes to their processes if they want to continue to sell to Wal-Mart. For example, the greeting card company American Greetings earns 16 percent of its sales through Wal-Mart, so when the retailer demanded more energy efficient displays, the manufacturer worked to cut back on the large displays that traveled with the cards, which in turn decreased transportation costs. Wal-Mart even began offering promotions and benefits to vendors that scored well on the sustainability scorecard.
Walmart (strategy to beating competitors)
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At some point Sam Walton made the decision to achieve higher sales volumes by keeping sales prices lower than his competitors by reducing his profit margin. By 1970, he had eleven Walton's stores Inspired by the successes of other discount department store chains, Walton opened the first store in his own discount chain in Rogers, Arkansas that year. Responsible for the purchase and maintenance of signage, Walton's assistant, Bob Bogle, came up with the name "Wal-Mart" for the new chain. By 1967, the company grew to 24 stores across the state of Arkansas, and had reached $12.6 million in sales, and by 1968, the company opened its first stores outside of Arkansas in Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma.
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