Sam Walton

Walton learned retail as a J. C. Penney trainee and ran Ben Franklin variety-store franchises in Arkansas for seventeen years, with a loan from his father-in-law for the first. He opened the first Walmart in Rogers in 1962, at forty-four, after the franchise company rejected his discount idea. Small-town locations, low prices and later distribution centres and computer systems built it into the world's largest retailer.