Retail and Business quotes from Sam Walton
By: Tim Gebauer
Tags: Retail, Management, Leadership, Thrift, Sam Walton

Timeless Sam Walton Quotes

photo by author, drawing by Wal-Mart

Some business advice is timeless. Sam Walton’s thoughts on business and the retail business are just that.

These quotes are excerpted from a 1997 Wal-Mart employee pocket calendar that I recently found in a stored box of stuff.

Enjoy

“If we truly dedicate ourselves to instilling that thrill of merchandising — the thrill of buying and selling something at a profit — into every associate-partner, nothing can ever stop us.” Sam M. Walton

“Commit to your business. Believe in it more than anybody else.” Sam M. Walton

“Appreciate everything your associates do for the business.” Sam M. Walton

“ Swim Upstream. Go the other way. Ignore conventional wisdom.” Sam M. Walton

“Day by day, think of new and more interesting ways to motivate and challenge your partners.” Sam M. Walton

“Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.” Marcus Aurelius

“To lower prices, we’ve got to keep finding ways to lower our costs.” Sam M. Walton

You have to be merchandise driven. Otherwise, you become like everybody else.” Sam M. Walton

“You affect markups and markdowns by the way that you merchandise. That’s why we prize our merchants at Wal-Mart.” David Glass

“We are a merchandise driven company.” Sam M. Walton

“…US workers can produce merchandise in these United States as good in value, or better, than anything we can buy offshore.” Sam M. Walton

“Doing things differently causes different results.” Tom Coughlin

“What we need in our stores is ingenuity, morality, and honesty.” Sam M. Walton

“Making people want to come back…that’s where the profits come from…people coming back over and over again.” Sam M. Walton

“Failure comes from within.” Bill Fields

“We get the best results from ordinary people doing an extraordinary job.” Sam M. Walton

“Who’s your best friend?…those that bring out the best in you. Lou Holtz quoting Henry Ford

“Develop reliability to do what you say you will do…and do it when you say you do. Don Soderquist

“To push responsibility down in your organization, and to force good ideas to bubble up within it, you must listen to what your associates are trying to tell you.” Sam M. Walton

“We just don’t run well and feel good unless we are moving forward and upward.” Sam M. Walton

“No one is quite as good or quite as bad as they’re supposed to be.” Will Rogers

Never get so set in your ways you can’t change. Sam M. Walton

Control your expenses better than your competition. That is where you can always find a competitive edge. Sam M. Walton

When customers come to Wal-Mart they come to buy merchandise… not operations. David Glass

“Teach it, preach it, and prove it”, Sam M. Walton

“Merchandise needs to be on the floor, where the customers are.” Don Soderquist.

“Never give in! Never, never, never. Never- in anything great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.” Winston Churchill

“A good plan violently executed today is better than a great plan… tomorrow.” George S. Patton

“Exceed your customers’ expectations. If you do, they’ll come back over and over. Give them what they want — and a little more.” Sam M. Walton

“Let’s just work together to buy and sell merchandise better than anyone else.” David Glass

“The secret to success in life is to be ready for his time when it comes.” Benjamin Disraeli

“We need to give direction…not directions.” Larry Williams

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” George S. Patton

“The most effective way to ensure the value of the future is to confront the present courageously and constructively.” Rollo May

“Good customer service is the ultimate form of good merchandising.” David Glass

“The biggest single difference between us and our competitors is that our people focus on being merchants.” David Glass

“Communicate everything you can to your partners. The more they know the more they will understand, the more they’ll care.” Sam M. Walton

“Wal-Mart’s business is 75% of people! Those wonderful associates out there in the stores and distribution centers. They’re all mission bound to take care of our customers.” Sam M. Walton

“Having the lowest prices every day is only meaningful if we have the merchandise our customers want!”

“Make it happen! Don’t wait for instructions! We need people who can see what can be done and do it.” David Glass

It also included a favorite story of the time that was repeated often in meetings:

“Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa a lion wakes up It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be running.”

Traditional retail, thrift retail, they have a lot in common. Good merchandising, teaching and empowering employees, manage expenses are a formula for success no matter the flavor.

Thanks for reading,

Tim Gebauer