David Glass was the CEO of the Wal-Mart from 1988 – 2000. Back in 1962, he heard that a guy named Sam Walton was about to hold the grand opening for his second store in Harrison, Arkansas. Glass, who was running a successful drug-store chain in Missouri, decided to attend Sam Walton’s grand opening. What he saw did not impress him. You see, Walton had dumped a couple of truckloads of watermelons in the front parking lot. He also had a bunch of donkeys in the parking lot for the kids to ride. Well, the temperature on the asphalt got up to about 115 degrees that afternoon. The watermelons started exploding from the heat. And of course, the donkeys did what donkeys do…
Looking back on that day, David Glass recalled, “The parking lot was a mess. And inside the new store was also a mess. I thought Sam Walton was a nice fellow, but I wrote him off. It was the worst store operation I had ever seen.”
Well, 25 years
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