When you compete with Wal-Mart, even if you think you've found a niche don't ever become complacent.

Empowering people turns Wal-Mart's culture into a competitive advantage.

Sam Walton's values are: treat the customer right, take care of your people, be honest in your dealings, pass savings along to the customer, keep things simple, think small, control costs and continuously improve operations.

When you compete with Wal-Mart, even if you think you've found a niche don't ever become complacent.

Wal-Mart hires average people but squeezes above average performance and results out of them.

At Wal-Mart, if you couldn't explain an idea or a concept in simple terms on one page of paper Sam Walton considered the new idea too complicated to implement.

The key to competing and surviving against Wal-Mart is to focus your business into a niche or pocket where you can leverage your strengths in the local marketplace.