Wal-Mart was founded by
Sam Walton in
Bentonville,
Arkansas in the late 1940's as a pretty standard
five and dime-type place. It expanded first across the
Ozarks into
Missouri and
Oklahoma, then
The South, then across the
U.S.. Now there are Wal-Marts in
Mexico,
Canada, and even
Europe as a result of various
corporate acquisitions.
There are two common types of Wal-Marts in the U.S., standard WMs with the usual cheap-department store product assortment just like your local K-Mart and Target, and Supercenters with a grocery store tacked onto the side and a random selection of other businesses too. I've seen everything from banks to hair salons, fast food restaurants and music stores thrown into a Supercenter, and that's only in Virginia.