Over the last 60 years Walmart has become more than just America's biggest retailer: It's an institution. From record-breaking profits to employing millions of people, its stores have a massive impact on what we buy and where. Click or scroll through as we look at the staggering numbers behind Walmart's global success story.

Founder Sam Walton didn’t start his business career with a Walmart store. He actually first owned a Ben Franklin variety store in Newport, Arkansas. Then he established a second store in Bentonville, Arkansas, called Walton’s 5&10. This was only the third store in the country to be self service and it led to the big box brand we know today.

Including its Sam’s Club warehouses, Walmart has 10,500 stores and clubs in more than 20 different countries. In fact, the company’s 5,250 international stores outnumber the US’ 4,735 Walmart locations. Although in many countries the chain operates under a different name.

If you live in the US chances are you probably already know the location of your nearest Walmart. The company says 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a store. The big box brand is more dominant across the southeast, with the most Walmarts, around 500, in Texas followed by Florida with 340 locations.

An analysis published by Business Insider found the typical Walmart shopper is a married white woman, age 55 to 64, with an average income of $80,000. She lives in a suburb in the southeast, not surprisingly, and the profile also suggests she visits the store once a week spending around $54 per trip.

Around 1.6 million people in the US work for Walmart, making it America’s largest private employer, and it’s the biggest employer in at least a dozen states. Worldwide the retailer’s workforce numbers 2.3 million. That’s more than the population of New Mexico.

Many others have felt the sting of Walmart’s success. Between the company’s opening in 1962 and 2002, the number of single-store retailers in the US declined by 55%. This trend has even earned its own name in economics, the Walmart Effect, as businesses with just one outlet struggle to compete with mammoth retailers whose size wields endless advantages. During the supply chain challenges of Christmas 2021 Walmart was able to charter its own boats and planes to source toys and other goods caught up in shipping delays.

The Walmart Effect is one reason not everyone welcomes the stores to their towns. When the company wanted to open a location in Vermont many residents were opposed. While Walmart did get approval to build a store in 1993, the Vermont Natural Resources Council protested and blocked the project for about 20 years. Today there are still only six stores in Vermont, the fewest of any state. 

While the big box store is better suited for rural and suburban locations that’s not the only reason you won’t find one in the Big Apple. New Yorkers have long pushed back against the retailer’s efforts to open up in the city. Walmart donated as much as $4 million to New York charities hoping to pave the way to a store in Brooklyn, with no success. Shoppers also won’t find one in several of America's biggest cities including San Francisco, Detroit and Seattle.  

Walmart may not have stores in every city, but it has been working to expand its online offerings, which can be delivered in these markets, and in part to compete with Amazon. It’s not been an entirely smooth process though. Walmart bought ecommerce site Jet.com in 2016, which it has since closed. It also bought and then sold apparel website Modcloth. COVID-19 proved to be the impetus to move customers online. In 2021 Walmart made one out of every four dollars spent on click and collect purchases in America.

In general Walmart continues to grow. In the company's latest fiscal year total revenue was 2.4% higher than over the same period the year before, at a whopping $572.8 billion. That number makes the company richer than many countries, including Sweden with a GDP of $541.2 billion, Thailand at $501.6 billion and Israel with a GDP of $407.1 billion.

In 1989 Walmart became the first retailer in history to report after-tax profits of $1 billion, even though it was only operating in 26 states at the time. Last year the company reported $13.5 billion after taxes, although that's around 9.2% less than the $14.88 billion it saw in 2020.

The family behind Walmart, the Waltons, is estimated to collectively be worth $238 billion, making them the wealthiest family in the world. According to a recent report by Bloomberg, the Walton family earned $4 million every hour from their retail empire between August 2019 and 2020. And that's probably because more than 100 million people shop at Walmart's stores per week.

Read more: The richest families in the world

With such prolific profits, the company has often come under fire for not passing along more of the millions of dollars made every day to hourly employees. In 2019 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders accused the Walton family of making more money in one minute than its workers make in a year, an assertion fact checkers quickly calculated to be true. While in the same year a report from the Institute of Policy Studies showed Walmart’s CEO gets paid 1,076 times more than the average Walmart worker. The company responded by saying that the baseline salary was not representative of all the benefits of working for the company, including education and career development opportunities.

Others have accused Walmart of subsidizing its business through government programs used by low wage workers, such as Medicaid and food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). One political action committee estimated this to be worth more than $6 billion per year. On the flip side the retailer makes good money accepting the program’s payments. A separate report found that 18% of all SNAP payments goes to Walmart.

There's also concern about the impact Walmarts have on Americans' health. A 2011 study claimed that, for every additional Walmart Supercenter per 100,000 residents, the obesity rate increased by 2.3 percentage points and the average BMI is increased by 0.24 units. The researchers said their estimates imply that the store's rapid growth explains 10.5% of the rise in obesity in the US since the late 1980s.

Funnily enough, of all the many products sold in store and online the most popular is quite a healthy one. Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon revealed in 2020 that the company’s biggest seller is bananas, with billions selling each year. Walmart even has its own banana ripening rooms to ensure that the fruit is in tip-top condition before it hits the shelves.

While shoppers have long had access to eye doctors and pharmacies at Walmart stores, soon they can add primary care providers to that list. Walmart Health opened its first clinic in 2019 in Georgia, quickly opening a dozen more locations in other states. In addition to Walmart Health, the company has announced plans to open 4,000 "supercenters" by 2029, which will even offer clinical lab testing.

Walmart has already been a key player for the healthcare industry, using its vast presence across the country to administer tens of millions of COVID vaccines over the last year. It was one of 20 some companies that participated in a federal program to distribute the vaccinations. Retail pharmacies don’t profit directly from the vaccine, which is provided free-of-charge by the US government.

Not just vast, the stores' physical presence across the country is actually huge. Most Walmart Superstores average 187,000 sqf, while the largest tops out at 259,650 sqf. This store is in Albany, New York, and is two stories tall complete with escalators.  

Combined, the world’s Walmart parking lots alone take up an area roughly the size of Tampa, Florida. 

Walmart is reportedly a top solar customer in the US, and has confirmed more than 70 of its stores have solar panels. The company is pursuing other renewable energy options that meet an estimated 36% of its electricity needs worldwide in 2020. Walmart says its goal is to be using 100% renewable energy by 2035, along with achieving zero emissions by 2040.

The company has long taken advantage of technological innovations. In the 1980s it launched the country's largest private satellite network, connecting stores, distribution hubs and its headquarters. The $24-million ($61m today) system allowed for two-way voice and data transfers, and one-way video communication. In 1998 Walmart used its satellite system to broadcast a concert performed by country music's Garth Brooks in stores across the country.

Taking a job at a Walmart store may be a step onto the career ladder. The company says 75% of its salaried store management started as hourly employees. Or workers may move on to other opportunities, like country music's Craig Morgan did. He worked at Walmart before making it big. So did the late Glee star Corey Monteith (pictured) who was a greeter at one of the stores.

For decades Walmart was known for its greeters and the 10-Foot Rule that was implemented by Walton. Apparently he said, “I want you to promise that whenever you come within 10 feet of a customer, you will look him in the eye, greet him and ask him if you can help him." In 2019 the company drew criticism when it ended the greeter position in many of its stores. Instead new roles that required the ability to lift 25lb, among other more strenuous responsibilities, were implemented. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the change would disproportionately impact greeters with disabilities and sued Walmart. As part of the settlement Walmart changed its reassignment policy and paid $80,000 to a worker who had been let go. 

It seems as though you never know who you might meet in Walmart. In 2014, Psychology Today magazine published a study of "missed connection" posts on Craigslist, where love-struck hopefuls try to track down a stranger who caught their eye. The results found that Walmart is the most popular place to find love at first sight in at least 15 states.

It turns out you can pick up just about anything at Walmart, including a spouse. Customer Wayne Brandenburg had been shopping at his local Walmart in North Carolina for years when he laid eyes on cashier Susan in 2005. After chatting at the check-out and visiting her several times a week, the couple got engaged. The wedding location? Walmart of course. And they're not alone. Two employees married in a Walmart garden center in Pennsylvania and two customers who met in a checkout line married in their local Alabama store.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in the Walmart aisle. In 2020 a pregnant Missouri shopper, whose water broke while buying toilet paper, didn’t have enough time to get to the hospital and delivered her baby in the aisle instead. She wasn’t the first. As many as 20 different women have given birth in a Walmart over the years. And she probably won't be the last!

Walmart knows kids know best when it comes to toys. The retailer holds an annual summit near its Arkansas headquarters where children are invited to test out toys and explain which ones they'd want Santa to leave under the tree. The strategy seems to pay off with Walmart accounting for 25% of all toy sales in the US, beating out Amazon and Target.

Whether stocking up on crayons, backpacks or No. 2 pencils, surveys show that nearly seven out of 10 back-to-school shoppers buy at least some of their supplies at Walmart. Stocking up for grade school and college students is big business, worth $108 billion in 2021. And for 2022 90% of moms of K-12 children said they plan shop at Walmart for supplies. 

Can’t get enough of Walmart? Well you’re in luck, as there’s a Walmart museum you can roam around. The site is Walton’s old 5&10 shop. The museum has its original tiles and tin ceiling and is filled with toys and knick knacks from another era. There’s also a 1950s-style soda fountain café. 

Now Meet the Waltons, the family behind Walmart's staggering success.