Value proposition
Walmart is ubiquitous. Some 90% of Americans now live within ten miles of one of its stores. Nearly four out of five of them shopped at Walmart last year. That means its customers outnumber the voters in America’s presidential election in 2012 by almost two to one. Each week 140m Americans march through its doors in search of “everyday low prices” on a vast array of goods. For the products that Americans use as freely as air—food, toothpaste, soap, paper towels—Walmart is king, ringing up sales worth about twice what its closest rivals take.