Today, 95 Walmart associates in Greenbrier, Arkansas, marked an incredible milestone: the grand opening of our 5,000th U.S. location, a Neighborhood Market. Since our first store opening in 1962, associates just like these have not only helped us serve customers all across America – they’ve also driven innovations and accomplishments that have helped us grow. Here’s a look back at a few of the moments they made possible.    

1. Making UPCs … universal. In 1983, we began using Universal Product Codes (aka bar codes) at our checkouts, allowing us to better manage inventory. Today, we’ve taken that technology to a new level through innovations like Savings Catcher, which allows you to use your smartphone to scan the bar code on a Walmart receipt and make sure you’re getting the best price.

2. Driving our own logistics. Walmart’s private fleet and distribution network began with just three tractor-trailers and our founder’s idea to efficiently transport freight. Today, our transportation operation is one of the largest around the globe, with each distribution center using more than 5 miles of conveyor belts to keep products moving to stores – and to you – 24 hours a day.

3. Getting creative with convenience. The first supercenter opened in 1988 in Washington, Missouri, offering one-stop shopping for groceries and general merchandise. Today, we’re using technology to let you shop when and where it’s most convenient, whether it’s stocking up at a Sam’s Club, using our grocery delivery service in Denver or San Francisco, or stopping by a Neighborhood Market location that’s perfect for families on the go.

4. Jobs that work. In 1980, we had just 276 stores and employed 21,000 associates. Today, we provide the means for building a career to 1.3 million associates in the U.S.  – one great example being our CEO, Doug McMillon, who began his time at Walmart more than 30 years ago as an hourly summer associate in a distribution center. At Walmart, there’s truly no limit to success. 

5. Aiming for the greener good. In 2005, then-Walmart CEO Lee Scott put us on an aggressive course toward environmental sustainability, using the size and scale of our company to set goals in three areas: energy, waste and products. Today, we’ve made progress in all three areas, such as keeping 81% of our global waste out of the landfill and being recognized as the largest on-site green power generator in the U.S. for the third year in a row. What does that mean for you? We’re cutting our energy costs so we can pass those savings back through everyday low prices, all while doing the right thing for the environment. 

6. Moving forward with our $4 plan. In 2006, we introduced our $4 prescription program, which not only drove down the price of hundreds of generic medicines – it influenced the competitive landscape. Today, we’re still offering innovative health and wellness solutions for our customers, such as Care Clinics in select locations, an in-store insurance comparison service, and even working to make healthier food options like fresh produce more affordable and accessible.

From our first store in 1962 to our 5,000th in 2014, everything we do at Walmart and Sam’s Club is focused on our promise of offering everyday low prices on the broadest assortment of products – and making shopping easier and more convenient for our customers. 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just walk into a store and be confident the items you purchased were produced in a way that had the least amount of impact on the planet?

While that’s not yet a reality for many consumers, Walmart is trying to get there faster.

Last April, Walmart launched Project Gigaton, a project that invites our merchandise suppliers to join us in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the products they make and the way they make them, taking 1 gigaton (yes, that’s really a word - a billion metric tons) of emissions out of the atmosphere. That’s equal to all the emissions produced from all the homes in California over three years.

Greenhouse gas emissions are compounds that trap heat in the atmosphere and make the earth warmer. When the earth is too warm, it can cause many long-term issues that affect everyday things like the way we grow certain foods and source certain resources.

Not only does Project Gigaton encourage suppliers to remove emissions, it also encourages them to explore ways to improve their products, such as making packaging more recyclable, using less energy, saving customers money and reducing waste.

Taylor Farms is a supplier that makes prepackaged salads and fresh-cut vegetables for our Marketside private brand. With their chopped salads and stir fry kits, they found a way to reduce food waste by using the whole crop, meaning that 100% of the edible veggies get chopped up and nothing is discarded in the production process.

Taylor Farms has been dedicated to the development of new harvesting methods, engineering automated harvesting machines. In comparison to harvesting by hand, the uniformity and consistency of automated harvesting leads to higher yields and shipment of 100% usable products to their processing facilities. In addition to Taylor Farms, we are excited to have a growing number of suppliers joining Project Gigaton, working on things like reducing pesticides and fertilizers needed to grow food, making factories more efficient or using renewable energy like solar or wind turbines.

Walmart also recently announced we’ll further our efforts to reduce chemicals of concern, like formaldehyde and phthalates, from consumable products sold in Walmart and Sam’s Clubs U.S. stores by 10% by 2022, becoming the first U.S. retailer to set a time-bound reduction goal. This applies to items like household cleaners, cosmetics, skincare and infant products, among others.

I’m proud that work like this puts us in the company of other organizations doing great things. Walmart was recently recognized on Fortune’s Change the World list, as one of 50 featured companies making social benefit part of their core business.

No one should have to choose between products they can afford and products that are good for the environment. As more of our suppliers join in our goal to sell products that are good for people and the planet, it will become easier for more families to buy products they know are produced as sustainably as possible.

Helen Walton was much more than Walmart’s first lady — our founder Sam Walton considered her one of his best business advisers.

In an audio interview kept in the Walmart Heritage Archives in Bentonville, Arkansas, Helen’s support of associates is clear.

Helen passed away in 2007, but her legacy lives on. We pulled just a few of her quotes that show how much she cared about associates and doing good for others — and how she helped Walmart become the company we are today.

Profit Sharing
“[Sam and I] were both real excited when the decision was made to go with some type of profit sharing so that the hourly people and the people on salary, that all people would share in the profit of Walmart. … So that’s been probably one of the greatest things, I think, that came along for Walmart. I think it’s meant as much to us as anything else. It gives everybody a sense that they are part of the company, and that’s important.”

Teamwork
“If you don’t have those associates in the stores ... the person at the top can’t do anything. They have to work together.”

A Passion for Community
Helen was driven to improve the lives of those less fortunate than she, whether they attended local schools or lived in faraway communities. “We knew we had to do something,” is the way she often prefaced her comments about an important cause.

She embodied her favorite saying, which she shared whenever she got a chance. “Up here in front of me where I have never failed to see it every day because I always sit down at my desk, is a sign that has meant very much to me and it says: ‘It is not what you gather in life, it’s what you scatter in life that tells the kind of life you have lived.’”

Read more about Helen and the Walton family at WalmartMuseum.com.

Editor’s Note: A version of this story originally appeared in Walmart World, the magazine for Walmart associates.

It’s hard to prepare yourself to visit a community that’s been affected by disaster.

The week after Hurricane Harvey hit, I visited the Houston area to help Feeding America member organization, Houston Food Bank, with relief efforts. Despite learning as much as possible about the hurricane’s impact before I left, I was still shocked by what I saw – the good and bad alike.

Driving around the neighborhoods, I saw entire contents of people’s homes piled curbside. It had all been ruined in the flooding and needed to be discarded. I met several people who told me through tears that they’d lost everything – including Rosalba, a mother who, along with her five children, rode out the storm in a pickup truck, praying for safety as the water rose. The house she had been renting was no longer livable. With nowhere to go, Rosalba and her family had been sleeping in that same truck, parked on the front lawn of what remains of their home. Her landlord said the home would take six to nine months to renovate, so Rosalba was desperately trying to find a place for her family to live in the meantime.

I met Rosalba at a local food pantry that was distributing supplies and food to hundreds of people impacted by Harvey. She and her daughter were there to pick up ready-to-eat meals and toiletries to help them get by. They were extremely grateful for the support in this unexpected time of need.

When I visited The Houston Food Bank, it was overflowing with donations and volunteers. There were boxes upon boxes of donated supplies waiting to be delivered. I was there only five days after the food bank re-opened, and already, more than 5,000 people had been through its doors to volunteer. The community – and country – is truly banding together to help people rebuild.

Feeding America’s network of food banks reaches every county in every corner of our nation—making us uniquely prepared to respond in the event of a disaster. Within hours we are able to quickly deploy trucks and other solutions to help in communities where we already operate. From preparing for disasters before they hit, to responding during the disaster, to supporting families and communities through recovery, we offer food and hope for families as they seek to return to normalcy.

Food banks in Texas have provided essential supplies to people in need, including water, boxes of food and personal hygiene and cleaning items. They’ve also provided support to transitional shelters. Food banks farther away have helped, too, by pitching in to offer product, vehicles and other assistance as needed.

For me, it was humbling to be in Houston – meeting storm survivors and volunteers and seeing firsthand how much of a difference the Feeding America network was really making in people’s lives. It reminded me why I am passionate about the work that we do.

Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have been instrumental in relief efforts. Their commitment of over $37 million for hurricane response over the past few months includes specific contributions to Feeding America and its member food banks to help those affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. With this support, we’ll be able to help even more food and supplies get to communities in need.

Even with this outpouring of support, there’s still so much more to be done. For thousands of families like Rosalba’s, it will take time to recover. But I’m hopeful that with continued support, everyone who has been impacted will be able to get back on their feet a little sooner.

Family traditions can tell us so much about where we come from, and play a big part in who we become and what we bring to the world. I come from a family of winemakers.

My grandparents, Dominic and Michele Sergi, both emigrated from Italy at the age of 14, bringing the tradition of winemaking with them to Lowellville, Ohio. My grandfather started out by buying California grapes from railcars just outside of Youngstown, Ohio, which he used to make wine to share with his friends and family. My father, Frank Sergi, learned the craft from him. Frank and my mother, Ruth, opened a winery and bistro in Youngstown called L’uva Bella (“the beautiful grape” in Italian), and it still successfully serves the community today.

For me, I wanted to create something of my own that would bring people together the same way my family’s winery does. I spent four years at Cornell University learning enology and viticulture, the study of winemaking and grape-growing, and working with our team at L’uva Bella. With a passion for the industry and a technical expertise, I created my own wine label, RedHead Wine. I’ve been very fortunate that I got it right and consumers enjoy its unique blend.

After months of selling it at local stores and regional outlets, I learned first-hand how rewarding sharing something you’ve made yourself can be. I knew I wanted to do more of it. When I heard about Walmart’s U.S. Manufacturing Open Call event, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to put our product on more shelves and on the tables of more people – something that Walmart’s size could help me accomplish.

In June, I presented my RedHead Red Blend to their buyer and was approved to test it in all 150-plus stores in Ohio. As of today, it’s available in 30 stores throughout Ohio and we expect to expand into Michigan stores in early 2018.

As a result, we are expecting additional growth at L’uva Bella winery, with the potential to increase production by almost four times and create new jobs for us in Youngstown.

ICYMI: @redheadwine hits @Walmart shelves

READ MORE: https://t.co/T2cHW9Io4s pic.twitter.com/ak1yYS6DYg

— The Vindicator (@vindicator) October 12, 2017

I’m so grateful this new opportunity allows me to leverage my passion for wine and share our RedHead brand products with even more people. It’s personally fulfilling and rewarding to make a product that contributes to the celebration some of life’s happiest moments and often plays a part in bringing people together.

Growing my business and extending the legacy of my family’s artisan craft is a journey that has opened many doors for me, and I truly can’t wait to see what happens next.