Samuel Walton—The King of American Retailing
山姆·沃爾頓——美國零售大王
Samuel Walton， founder of Wal-Mart which is the world's largest retailer， was born in Kingfish， Oklahoma on March 29， 1918. He was raised in Missouri where he worked in his father's store while attending school. And this was his first retailing experience and he really enjoyed it. After graduating from the University of Missouri in 1940， he began his own career as a retail merchant when he opened the first of several franchises of the Ben Franklin five-and-dime franchises in Arkansas.
This would lead to bigger and better things and he soon opened his first Wal-Mart store in 1962 in Rogers， Arkansas. Wal-Mart specialized in products at low prices. Soon a chain of Wal-Mart stores sprang up across rural America.
Walton's management style was very popular with employees and he founded some of the basic concepts of management that are still in use today. Among them， the three basic rules is a good example： (1) The customer is the boss. (2) Get it done by sundown. (3) Greet any customer who is within ten feet. That was Walton himself who put forward the “ten feet rule”， and it became one of the secrets to customer service of Wal-Mart until today. During his many store visits， he encouraged associates to take a pledge with him， “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.”
This pledge is called “10-foot attitude”， and it was something Walton had practiced since childhood. He was always ambitious and competitive， and by the time he reached college at the University of Missouri in Columbia， Walton had decided he wanted to be president of the university student body. In his words， “I learned early on that one of the secrets to campus leadership was the simplest thing of all： Speak to people coming down the sidewalk before they speak to you...I would always look ahead and speak to the person coming toward me. If I knew them， I would call them by name， but even if I didn't I would still speak to them. Before long， I probably knew more students than anybody in the university， and they recognized me and considered me as their friend.” Not only was Walton elected to president of the university student body， but he also carried that philosophy into the world of retail.
“The Sundown Rule” was Walton's twist on the adage “Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today？” That rule remains an important part of Wal-Mart culture and is one reason the Walt-Mart is so well known for its customer service. “The Sundown Rule” means the employees strive to answer requests by the close of business on the day they receive them. Whether it's a request from a store across the country or a call from down the hall， every request gets same-day service. A sense of urgency， a respect for others' time， and the desire to exceed the customers' expectations are all factors that make the Sundown Rule such a vital part of the Wal-Mart culture.