Stock History of Walmart, Hasbro, and MattelNational megastore chain, <a href='http://www.swivel.com/data_sets/show/1006908'>Wal-Mart</a>, celebrated its 45th birthday yesterday with nearly 6,500 stores and wholesale clubs in fifteen countries around the world. The brainchild of founder Sam Walton, <a href='http://www.swivel.com/data_sets/show/1006908'>Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Sam’s Club</a>, among other franchises make up the bulk of the competition in the discount retailer market. <br>Walton opened his first store in Rogers, Arkansas putting up the majority of the initial start-up from his and his wife’s meager pocketbooks. The company grew steadily into the monolith we see worldwide today, raking in a reported $62.7 billion last year: “an 11.4 percent increase over the previous year, and that operating profit rose to $3.3 billion, an increase of 11.4 percent over the prior year.” This according to Wal-mart’s corporate website. <br>Even toy giants such as Toys ‘R Us, Kids ‘R Us, and F.A.O. Schwartz have felt the squeeze in the recent years as Wal-Mart come under scrutiny for their alleged increase in pressure on companies such as <a href>Hasbro</a>, <a href>Mattel</a>, and MGA among others to produce cheap merchandise. This graph charts the stock trends of Wal-Mart (in blue), Hasbro (in orange), and Mattel (in maroon). financehasbromarkettoys1226000.0Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:46:59 -0700Tue, 03 Jul 2007 12:56:38 -0700rkmLineGraphdefaultAdj CloseAdj CloseAdj Close