Walmart
U.S. discount retailer based in Arkansas
Walmart Inc. is an American multinational omnichannel retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, grocery stores, pharmacies, and gas stations in the United States and 19 other countries. It is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company was founded in 1962 by brothers Sam Walton and James "Bud" Walton in nearby Rogers, Arkansas. It also owns and operates Sam's Club retail warehouses.
As of 2026, Walmart is the second-largest company by revenue globally and the largest private employer in the world, with 2.1 million employees. The company is ranked one in the Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500. In February 2026, Walmart became the first traditional retailer to be valued at over $1 trillion and is known for product innovation. It is a publicly traded family-owned business (the largest such business in the world), as the company is controlled by the Walton family. Sam Walton's heirs own over 50 percent of Walmart through both their holding company Walton Enterprises and their individual holdings.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Walmart” as u.S. discount retailer based in Arkansas. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as u.S. discount retailer based in Arkansas. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q483551. VIAF identifies the subject as 128951275. The Library of Congress control number is n90648829. 3 of 14 selected statements include explicit references; 10 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962 and 2026.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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- Subject orientation
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Walmart primary sources, Walmart archive and Walmart research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Walmart” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.