Walmart's copycat strategy: Restaurant delivery is its latest use of heft to break into established markets

Walmart got its start in 1962 selling general merchandise as a discount store in Rogers, Arkansas.

Founder Sam Walton was constantly on the lookout for new retail concepts to try, and he wasn’t shy about borrowing ideas from other successful entrepreneurs. “He just tried things, and he would learn, and if it didn’t work, it wasn’t a failure,” CEO John Furner said during a conversation with reporters at Walmart’s headquarters in June. “We just learned from it.” Last week, Walmart moved to grow its delivery service in a partnership with Dunkin’, putting the company on a collision course with delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats.

The retailer will eventually offer delivery from most of the 10,000 Dunkin’ locations across the US, moving onto turf long dominated by DoorDash and Uber Eats.

Walmart described itself as “a rapidly emerging contender in the restaurant delivery business.” That delivery experiment is a continuation of a pattern that Furner says is part of Walmart’s DNA. “We constantly want to learn.

Some things apply, some things don’t,” he said. “We’ll learn from it and figure out the best way that we can accelerate the business.” Here are eight bets Walmart has placed over the years in its bid to grow beyond traditional discount retailing.