Our critics have occasionally pointed out that MMR, a supposedly objective business publication, unduly praises the accomplishments of Walmart, giving that extraordinary mass retailer credit for real or imagined successes out of proportion to any semblance of reality.

This is true.

But it is a truth heavily supported by the facts.

The facts, in this case, point inexorably to the fact that the Bentonville, Ark.-based discount store chain has routinely led the mass retailing industry in every barometer by which observers, even particular ones, measure retailing success. Indeed, for the better part of half a century, Walmart has led all retailers in any category worth measuring — and many that are not so apparent.

Moreover, Walmart has not merely performed in any industry otherwise populated by sparrows. Rather, it has led among giants, outpacing mass retailers during a period when the industry has been populated by a group of companies without equal in the long and sometimes laudable history of our industry. Not to belabor the obvious, but Walmart’s contributions over the past half-century have defied simple formulas and outpaced even the most optimistic forecasts. The retailer is, for openers, America’s largest corporation — of any kind. Its annual sales dwarf its rivals, outdistancing even its most outstanding competitors. Think of discount retailing in the America of today — or the America of 10, 20 or 30 years ago — and the name that first comes to mind is Walmart. Even those Americans who prefer the attractions of such competitors as Target, Costco, Amazon, Publix, CVS, Walgreens or any one of dozens of competitors invariably mention Walmart as the go-to retailer, the one practitioner of the retail art against which all others are measured.

Against that background, MMR confesses its editorial bias — and vows to its readers to be more objective in the future.

Yet it’s difficult to walk away from this tendency to hero worship, to ignore both the presence of Walmart and the incalculable impact it has exerted upon the mass retail community. Even those retailers that disdain the impact Walmart has exerted, and continues to exert, on the retail community study Walmart’s every move, every new direction, every new plateau to determine where they might emulate, outgun or out-innovate the Arkansas behemoth.

So before we say goodbye, for at least one issue, to the leader in discount store retailing, let’s pause for just a moment more to marvel anew at one aspect of the company’s success often overlooked by its rivals: the retailer’s longevity.

We’re not speaking here about sales or earnings or new store concepts or the perfection of existing concepts. No. We speak here, rather, about the company’s ability to field world-class associates. Sam Walton is history. So indeed are David Glass and Jack Shewmaker and Doug Degn and Ronnie Hoyt and Chuck Fehlig and others too numerous to mention. Yet Walmart, like Ole Man River, just keeps rolling along.

To document the incredible achievement of developing world-class executives, you might, as an assignment, attempt to recite the names of just a few of the retailer’s staffers. Doug McMillon, of course, comes readily to the tongue. But McMillon aside, name a dozen other staffers. The assignment is a difficult one because, as has long been the case at Walmart, the aggregate is more important than the individual. But one point cries out to be made: In this age of the woman in business, as in retailing, Walmart’s senior staff is dominated by women.

The conclusion is obvious: While most U.S. businesses were debating the pros and cons of bringing women into their organizations, and offering them unprecedented opportunities, Walmart acted. The result, today, speaks for itself.

A final thought. In the late winter of 2020, when the current pandemic was still a tragedy about to happen, Doug McMillon met with two senior Walmart executives, both women, in Tennessee. They were there to discuss other matters. Before they went their separate ways, however, Walmart’s CEO issued a challenge. “Suppose this currently brewing epidemic explodes into a pandemic,” he suggested. “What is our plan for coping with it?” he asked — and so left them with an assignment, a challenge, that most CEOs would have reserved for themselves.

That’s McMillon, and that’s an example of Walmart’s leadership team — and that is why Walmart has been Walmart for some 50 years.