Unlike popular businesses like McDonald’s and 7-Eleven, Walmart is not a franchise business.
This is because Walmart is a publicly traded retail corporation. All Walmart stores are owned, financed, managed, and overseen directly by the Walmart Corporation. This means that Walmart’s prices and policies are set at the corporate level and do not vary by location.
This also means that Walmart stores can not be purchased or owned by individuals.
Who Owns Walmart?
Walmart is owned by the Walmart Corporation, also known as Walmart Inc., which is majority owned by its founding family, the Waltons. Through their holding company Walton Enterprises as well as through the individual holdings of family members, the Walton family owns over 50% of the Walmart Corporation.
The other 50% of the corporation is owned by investment companies, holding groups, and individual shareholders. The second largest shareholder of Walmart stock is the Vanguard Group, one of the largest investment companies in the world.
Walmart stock can be purchased by individuals for $145.29 per share as of January 16, 2023.
Will Walmart Turn Into A Franchise?
It is highly unlikely that Walmart will convert to a franchise business model any time soon (or ever).
The primary reason that Walmart is unlikely to change its model is that it has found immense success as a publicly traded corporation and therefore has no motivation to change its approach. In fact, Walmart is the largest corporation in the world by revenue and has been for the past 30+ years. Converting to a franchise business would likely cause detrimental effects to the company and its profitability by disturbing its recipe for success.
Franchises You Can Own Within Walmart
Because Walmart is such a successful company, many people have wondered how they can get in on the profits by franchising a Walmart store. As we’ve learned, though, franchising Walmart isn’t possible.
That said, there are quite a few franchisable businesses that operate inside of Walmart stores that you can look into franchising.
Food Franchises
Food franchises currently operating inside of some Walmart locations include:
- Quiznos
- Saladworks
- Domino’s
- Taco Bell
All of these companies provide easy-to-find resources online to help you learn what it takes to become a franchisee.
Until 2021, many Walmart locations were home to McDonald’s and Subway franchises. However, these companies have exited their relationship to Walmart in recent years. Subway stated that this decision was due to decreased traffic and profit at these locations.
Service Franchises
The only service franchise that seems to be operating inside of Walmart currently is a cell phone repair company called Techy. Techy is equipped to repair a wide range of electronics, including iPhones, iPads, cell phones, computers, tablets, and more.To learn about franchise opportunities with Techy, click here.
