Walmart

Walmart is a brand of discount department stores and supercenters operated by Walmart Inc. The first Walmart Discount City store opened in July 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. The Walmart format was expanded with the opening of the first Walmart Supercenter in Washington, Missouri in March 1988. As of January 31, 2021, there are 6,272 Walmart stores operating in North America, Latin America, and China, alongside the company's 794 Sam's Club stores and 4,377 locations operating under other brands.

Store history
Walmart originated from a chain of Ben Franklin variety stores operated by in northwest Arkansas. The first Wal-Mart Discount City store opened on July 2, 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas (it has since been replaced by Walmart Supercenter #1 nearby). With the sale and closure of the company's remaining Ben Franklin Family Centers and Sav-Co Home Improvement Centers in 1978, Wal-Mart Discount City became the company's only store format until the first Sam's Club stores opened in 1983. The number of Walmart Discount Stores, as they are now known, peaked at 2,133 in 1996 and has since declined to 439. The average Walmart Discount Store in the United States has a floor area of 105000 sqft.

The Walmart format was expanded with the opening of the first example of a Walmart Supercenter in Washington, Missouri on March 1, 1988. Combining a discount department store and supermarket under one roof, the Supercenter format makes up the bulk of Walmart's worldwide footprint, and most former Walmart Discount Stores have been expanded into or replaced by Supercenters. The average Supercenter in the U.S. has a floor area of 178000 sqft.

The first store in the smaller Walmart Neighborhood Market format opened in the company's hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas on October 7, 1998. The average Neighborhood Market store has a floor area of 42000 sqft.

Walmart began to expand internationally with the opening of its first stores in Mexico in 1993, and the acquisition of 123 former Woolco stores in Canada in 1994. In addition to acquiring other brands of stores in various countries, Walmart Inc. also operates Walmart stores in China and five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Walmart stores also formerly operated in Argentina (1995–2020), Brazil (1995–2018), Indonesia (1996–1997), Germany (1997–2006), and South Korea (1998–2006). With the exception of eight Neighborhood Market stores in China, all Walmart stores outside the United States and Canada are Supercenters.

The table below shows the number of Walmart-branded stores operating at the end of each fiscal year since the chain was created in 1962. Stores in the United States and Canada are broken down by format. Location totals outside of North America are generally given as of December 31 of the preceding year.