#434 Sam Walton

Walmart's dominance came from disciplined cost control, shameless copying of competitors' best ideas, and Walton's willingness to reverse course instantly on new information.

• Buy cheap, sell every day: Walton's core idea was absurdly simple—buy cheap, sell low, every day, with a smile—and he never wrote a long-term business plan, staying flexible instead.
• Learned from JC Penney and Sol Price: Walton copied packaging economics from JCPenney ('profit from the paper and string'), and stole the wholesale-club model from Sol Price to launch Sam's Club, which hit 105 clubs and $5B in sales by 1990.

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