Target vs Walmart | Retail Rumble | 1

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2023

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s 1962 and a new retail trend’s catching fire – big-box discount stores that reinvent shopping with out-of-town locations, huge product ranges, and low, low prices.

And at opposite ends of the country, two hopefuls are jumping on the bandwagon. In Arkansas, five-and-dime owner Sam Walton’s opening his first Wal-Mart. In Minnesota, the upscale Dayton’s department store is readying a discount chain called Target.

But to survive in this new frontier of razor-thin margins, faster rivals and price-sensitive shoppers, they’ll both have to rip up the rulebook.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can binge off for episodes of Business Wars Target vs. Walmart
0:04.8	ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today.
0:18.6	August 1969, Bentonville, Arkansas. In a cramped office above the town barbershop,
0:25.1	Walmart founder Sam Walton is on the phone to the Republic Bank of Dallas.
0:30.0	And getting desperate. I need that credit line and I need it today.
0:34.4	I have suppliers who need pay and they won't wait another day.
0:38.4	But the bank official isn't budging. Mr. Walton, you already owe us two million dollars.
0:44.4	We're not about to add another million and a half to that total.
0:48.3	Walton's panic rises. You don't understand. Without that credit, it's over. Walmart will be sunk.
0:56.4	The bank official hesitates, then replies.
1:04.3	Walton's heart skips a beat. Walmart can't end this way. He won't let it.
1:11.1	Well, in that case, I'm coming over right now.
1:17.5	We're in Dallas, aren't you in Argentina?
1:19.7	Walton hangs up and grabs his keys.
1:24.4	He hurries down the narrow staircase out the door and across the town square to his beat-up Chevy.
1:31.2	He starts the engine and speeds away toward Bentonville Airport.
1:35.8	20 minutes later, Walton's small twin-engine aircraft soars into the skies.
1:42.1	In the cockpit, Walton checks his map and points his plane towards Dallas.
1:46.9	He feels his anxiety rise along with the altitude.
1:50.7	He knows it's a long shot, but he's out of options.
1:54.4	If he doesn't get credit, then everything he's built will collapse.
2:06.4	From Wontory, I'm David Brown and this is Business Wars.
	...

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