I met Sam one day a long time ago.

Local airport, KDVK, so when a limo and a van show up, us airport bums take notice. King Air 200 lands, door opens, and a pack (at least 6) hunting dogs come bounding out of the airplane and run into the van. They obviously knew the drill.

Sam and about 4 others come out an greet folks at the airport, including myself. I had no idea who he was until afterward, but a limo meant he was important. They get in the limo, load some hunting rifles, speed off.

Later I learned he visited the local Walmart store, then spent the afternoon hunting with a friend somewhere. They came back in the afternoon, dogs ran right into the King Air, and Sam and his entourage followed, and off they went.

Sam was famous, at least at that time, in visiting every store he owned at least once a year. It was a kind of spot inspection that kept the stores on their toes year round. Of course, this became impossible soon due to the numbers, but it was an interesting idea at the time.

No airplane, no Walmart as we know it today.

Mike C.

Ah! Thats the disconnect we have!

If you use an airplane as a business tool, it won't save you money! It will make you money!

I met Sam one day a long time ago.

Local airport, KDVK, so when a limo and a van show up, us airport bums take notice. King Air 200 lands, door opens, and a pack (at least 6) hunting dogs come bounding out of the airplane and run into the van. They obviously knew the drill.

Sam and about 4 others come out an greet folks at the airport, including myself. I had no idea who he was until afterward, but a limo meant he was important. They get in the limo, load some hunting rifles, speed off.

Later I learned he visited the local Walmart store, then spent the afternoon hunting with a friend somewhere. They came back in the afternoon, dogs ran right into the King Air, and Sam and his entourage followed, and off they went.

Sam was famous, at least at that time, in visiting every store he owned at least once a year. It was a kind of spot inspection that kept the stores on their toes year round. Of course, this became impossible soon due to the numbers, but it was an interesting idea at the time.

No airplane, no Walmart as we know it today.

Mike C.

Walmart is a customer of mine, and I visited them a few months back. Usually when I visit customers I don't advertise that I flew myself in, but it came out in conversation in this meeting and they smiled and said "That's wonderful - Mr. Walton used to do the same thing!".

Robert

I believe at one point Walmart was the largest operator of Turbine Commanders and then LearJets

I used to see hordes of Learjets flying in and out of northwest Arkansas. All the N-numbers ended in SW. It was quite a fleet.

Hordes of Learjets with SW imprinted on them....

If there are two words that defined Sam Walton, it was smart and frugal.

Few men have been more careful with the way they spend their resources and transmitted and engrained this care throughout their organizations and corporate culture than Sam Walton.

If chartering aircraft would have made sense, the one man in this planet who would have gone that route, would have been him. But instead he operated a large fleet of private aircraft with his own initials on them to help him grow his vision and create one of the most successful organizations in the planet.

And by the way, I don't think anybody was sipping martinis in the back or missing out on business deals. Everyone was working.

Hordes of Learjets with SW imprinted on them....

If there are two words that defined Sam Walton, it was smart and frugal.

Few men have been more careful with the way they spend their resources and transmitted and engrained this care throughout their organizations and corporate culture than Sam Walton.

If chartering aircraft would have made sense, the one man in this planet who would have gone that route, would have been him. But instead he operated a large fleet of private aircraft with his own initials on them to help him grow his vision and create one of the most successful organizations in the planet.

And by the way, I don't think anybody was sipping martinis in the back or missing out on business deals. Everyone was working.

I don't know about the rest of this thread, but this quote is fantastic.

A few of my business school buddies went to work for Wal-Mart right after graduating. They all posted shots of the Lears they were about to climb into. At least for the first time. I got the impression there is a lot of work/meetings in those -SW airplanes and very few martinis.

When his company was young, Sam Walton used to visit the stores without prior notice, to make sure things were right with them. Those visits continued with the fleet of jets providing the transportation, at least for a while, with executives other than Mr. Sam doing the visiting. I knew a woman who worked there and she told me she did 3 trips as week, and visited 4-6 stores per trip. I am not sure they keep that up now, and it may be a reason their growth has slacked over the last few years.

The guy who ran costco until last year visited each store once a year. The trips were known as 'death marches' by his staff because he would seemingly never tire. They have a Challenger and a fleet of prepositioned suburbans to support that operation.

My business is MUCH smaller, but I do the same. Most of the folks who work at my shop don't know who I am, so I just work into whatever department and see how things are.

You can learn a lot that way.

I used to fly an ex-Walmart LJ31, N56LF. She had about 9,000 hours but handled like a champ.

I am TOTALLY AMAZED at all this disgusting back biting, finger pointing and other BS going on here...what a bunch of petty, small minded people! If some person bought (or is buying) a jet of some sort and it is what he wants for whatever reason, more power to him. If he (or anyone else) says something that you consider to be BS, just relax let it slide....it isn't going to cost YOU a danged PENNY! There are a lot of "Keyboard Kommandos" on the internet and they deserve nothing more than to be IGNORED.

Anyone purchasing an airplane is likely to want some advice, but that person has to be a realist wearing his big boy panties, so let him/her make their own decisions based on whatever advice HE OR SHE thinks is worthwhile after doing some research and performing a little due diligence.

Oh...and just a thought---what is being kicked around here is a CITATION...it is NOT a G650, an 8X or a Global of some stripe or anything REALLY EXPENSIVE like maybe a big BBJ of some sort...so just let the guy alone and let him enjoy his airplane/airplane flying and GET OFF OF HIS CASE!!

4 years and 7 months back from the dead

Interesting comments about Walmart and aviation that I wouldn’t have found however so thanks for that.