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A Wal-Mart store in Little Rock, Ark. (AP photo)
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INDEPTH: WAL-MART
Timeline of world's largest retailer
CBC News Online | Updated June 30, 2005
Wal-Mart Inc., which also operates Sam's Club warehouse-style membership stores, is the largest retailer in the world by revenue. In 2004, the company earned $256.3 billion US in sales. It is also the largest retail employer in the world, with more than 1.5 million workers, most of them in the U.S. But Wal-Mart also has operations in Canada, Argentina, Brazil, China, Germany, South Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom.
The company first moved into Canada in 1994, buying 122 Woolco stores. Now, Wal-Mart has 256 stores across Canada, and six Sam's Club stores, with a total of about 70,000 full- and part-time employees. The company does not provide Canadian sales figures. Wal-Mart Canada is headquartered in Mississauga, Ont. As of February 2005, two stores were unionized, both in Quebec. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union has filed another dozen applications for union certification in Quebec, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.
A Wal-Mart ad, telling its employees they're the "cornerstone" of the company, shown in front of a Wal-Mart store in Laval, Que. (CP PHOTO/Paul Chiasson).
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Timeline:
June 29, 2005:
Vancouver city council rejects Wal-Mart's bid to build its first store in the city.
March 9, 2005:
Workers at Windsor Wal-Mart store vote against union certification.
Feb. 14, 2005:
Wal-Mart plans to appeal union certification in Saint Hyacinthe, Que.
Feb. 9, 2005:
Wal-Mart announces decision to close Jonquière, Que. store in May 2005.
January 2005:
Workers at the Ste-Hyacinthe. store certified as a bargaining unit, after a majority sign membership cards for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
August 2004:
United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 503 is certified to represent employees at Jonquière.
2000:
Union at Windsor Wal-Mart withdraws after unsuccessful attempt to reach collective agreement, and a legal settlement with the company.
1999:
Wal-Mart acquires 229 stores in the United Kingdom. Also becomes largest employer in the world, with 1.1 million workers.
1998:
Wal-Mart enters South Korea and Germany.
1997:
Wal-Mart becomes biggest employer in the U.S., with 680,000 employees worldwide. Also has its first $100 billion US sales year.
1997:
Employees at a Wal-Mart in Windsor become first in North America to earn union certification with a division of the United Steelworkers of America (later a division of the Canadian Autoworkers Union). After lengthy legal and labour relations battles, the union local collapses, in 2000.
1996:
Wal-Mart expands to China.
1995:
Death of co-founder "Bud" Walton. Company expands to Argentina and Brazil.
1994:
Wal-Mart moves into Canada with the purchase of 122 Woolco stores.
April 5, 1992:
Death of co-founder Sam Walton. Company expands to Puerto Rico.
1991:
First international stores open in Mexico City.
1987:
Completion of the Wal-Mart Satellite Network, the largest private satellite communication system in the U.S.
1983:
First Sam's Club opens in Oklahoma.
1979:
Wal-Mart sales top $1 billion US for the first time. The company has 276 stores, and 21,000 employees.
1977:
Wal-Mart buys 16 Mohr-Value stores in the U.S., the company’s first acquisition.
1972:
Wal-Mart listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
1970:
Wal-Mart becomes a publicly traded company.
1962:
First Wal-Mart opens in Rogers, Ark. Founders: Sam Walton and brother Bud Walton.
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