Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Focuses on the evolution of Wal-Mart's remarkably successful discount operations and describes the company's more recent attempts to diversify into other businesses. The company has entered the warehouse club industry with its Sam's Clubs and the grocery business with its Supercenters, a combination supermarket and discount store. Wal-Mart experienced a drop in the value of its stock price in early 1993, which it still has not made up. Wal-Mart has advantages over its competitors in areas such as distribution, information technology, and merchandising, to name a few.