Sam Walton for kids: a true picture book
Sam Walton and the Big Low-Price Idea. How a good idea becomes something everyone can afford 10 pages, fact-checked, at three reading levels, read aloud.
The lesson: Make things cheaper for people, and they will come back.
Read the first pages free
Click! Sam Walton opens the door. A little store! Now it is Sam's store.
Sam Walton bought a small store in Newport, Arkansas. It was full of shelves and full of things to sell. Click went the key. Sam's work had begun!
In 1945, Sam Walton bought a small variety store in Newport, Arkansas. A variety store sells many different kinds of things in one place, so shoppers might find buttons, toys and pots all on the same trip. It was not a big store, and running any store takes a lot of work. For Sam, it was a beginning.
Page 1 of 10
Stack, stack, stack! Sam fills the shelves. Busy, busy Sam!
A store does not run by itself. Sam stacked boxes. Sam filled shelves. Stack, stack, stack! Keeping a little store going was hard work, every single day.
Running the Newport store meant there was always something to do. Boxes had to be opened, shelves had to be filled, and customers had to be helped. A merchant, which means a person who buys and sells goods, has to keep everything moving at once. It was busy, tiring work, and Sam was learning how a store really runs from the inside.
Page 2 of 10
Sam Walton: a timeline of true facts
- 1945 Sam Walton bought a small variety store in Newport, Arkansas. source
- 1950 He opened a five-and-dime store on the town square in Bentonville, Arkansas. source
- 1962 He opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas. source
- 1960s His big idea was to sell things at lower prices than other stores, even if he made less on each one, so more people would shop there. source
- 1960s He learned to fly a small airplane and used it to look for good places to build new stores. source
- 1992 He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. source
3 reading levels
- Read to me (ages 3–5)
- Read together (ages 6–8)
- I'll read (ages 9–12)
The same true story, written three ways. Little kids hear short, bouncy lines; big kids get the details and the numbers.
Quiz time
What did Sam fly to look for places to build stores?
Show the answer
A small airplane.
Try this at home
- Set up a pretend store at home with toys and paper price tags. Try selling things at lower prices and see if your customers buy more!
- Visit a store with a grown-up and compare the prices of two of the same item. Which one costs less?
- Draw a map of your neighborhood like you are flying above it in a small plane. Mark the best spot for a new store!
