MORE ABOUT SAM WALTON

• Forbes ranked Sam Walton as the richest man in the United States from 1985 to 1988, ceding the top spot to John Kluge in 1989 when the editors began to credit Walton's fortune jointly to him and his four children. Bill Gates first headed the list in 1992, the year Walton died.

• The Walton family held 5 spots in the top 10 richest people in the United States until 2005.

• If alive today, Sam Walton would be the world's wealthiest person, twice as rich as Bill Gates.

• Sam Walton introduced the concept of check-out counters at one location in the store. Registers throughout the store were moved to one location near the exits. Customers could be rung up for all their purchases and pay for them at one time, instead of paying for several things at several locations.

• Sam Walton quote "There is only one boss : the customer, and he (or she) can fire everyone in the company from the chairman and down, simply by spending their money somewhere else".

• Sam Walton quote "I'd hate to see any descendants of mine fall into the category of what I call "idle rich" . . . I hope they'll feel compelled to do something productive and useful and challenging . . . working on cures for cancer, or figuring out ways to bring culture and education to the underpriviledged, or becoming missionaries for free enterprise in the Third World. Or maybe - and this is strictly my idea - there's another Walton merchant lurking in the wings somewhere down the line".

• Quote about Sam Walton; by David Glass. "One thing you'll notice if you spend time very much time with Sam about Wal-Marts success. He's always saying things like 'This was the key to the whole thing', or 'That was the real secret'. He knows as well as anyone that there wasn't any magic formula. A lot of different things made it work, and in one day's time he may cite all of them as the 'key' or the 'secret'. Whats amazing is that for almost fifty years he's managed to focus on all of them at once - all the time. That's his real secret".

• Quote about Sam Walton; by Charlie Baum, an early Wal-Mart partner. "I've known Sam since his first store in Newport, Arkansas, and I believe that money is, in some respects, almost immaterial to him. What motivates the man is the desire to be absolutely on top of the heap. It is not money. Money drives him crazy now. His question to me at 6am not long ago was 'How do you inspire a grandchild to go to work if they know they'll never have a poor day in their life?'.

• Today some people say about him "He was a good guy, except if he was running you out of business".