In 1962, Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas, pioneering a low-price retail model that would eventually reshape the global retail industry.
But Walmart’s roots actually run a little deeper — and a few miles down the road. Nearly a decade earlier, Walton and his brother Bud opened Walton’s 5 & 10 in Bentonville’s town square, not far from where Walton lived with his family.
The small variety store was the first “self-service” store in the state, which meant that customers could browse shelves themselves, shopping for everything from fabrics to dishware, clothing, cleaning supplies, and an array of sweets, like moon pies and Grapette soda — an Arkansas specialty.
That store’s success provided the financial backing for Walton to test a new concept in another, larger retail space a few miles away in Rogers. He named this store Wal-Mart Discount City and filled it with massive quantities of merchandise — while dropping prices to the bone.
He later explained in his book, Sam Walton: Made In America, that “by cutting your price, you can boost your sales to a point where you earn far more at the cheaper retail price than you would have by selling the item at the higher price.”
The experiment proved successful — and laid the foundation for what would become the world’s largest retailer.
Before its first year of operations had concluded, Wal-Mart Discount City generated approximately $700,000 in revenue (equivalent to $7.74 million in 2026 dollars), far outpacing the sales at his 5 & 10. Yet “Mr. Sam,” as he was known, and his family chose to remain in Bentonville.
As Walmart expanded from a single discount store into a retail behemoth with more than 10,000 stores and 2.1 million employees across 19 countries, Bentonville remained its home.
Here’s why.
“On May 9, 1950, Sam Walton opened the doors to Walton’s 5-10. On May 9, 1990, he opened the doors again, this time as the Walmart Visitors Center. Today it’s The Walmart Museum.” —The Walmart Museum via Facebook
Where is Walmart’s headquarters?
Most Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in major metropolitan areas like New York, Chicago, and Dallas. But for Walmart, its explosive growth meant bringing the world to Bentonville, and transforming the small town into one of the most influential cities in American business.
Located in northwest Arkansas, in the rolling foothills of the Ozarks, the region features small towns, steep ridges, and miles of forest. Today, Bentonville is home to roughly 63,000 residents, according to the latest US Census estimates. Approximately 15,000 of them work at Walmart’s corporate headquarters.
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Why didn’t Walmart move its headquarters?
At the corner of 8th Street and Walton Boulevard, Walmart’s first Home Office in Bentonville was a no-frills set of windowless offices and distribution warehouses. Upon visiting the enclave, one Procter & Gamble executive likened it to a bus station. Yet Walmart’s executives wore their “ostentatiously shabby surroundings” as a badge of honor, since they reflected the company’s ethos of “Always Low Prices.”
Even after he achieved billionaire status, Sam Walton could often be seen driving a dented old pickup truck around its premises. When asked why, he replied in his signature mix of folksy, down-home humor, “What am I supposed to haul my dogs around in, a Rolls-Royce?”
But as Walmart grew into a technology-driven global retailer, with investments in AI, automation, and omnichannel retailing, it eventually outgrew its decades-old headquarters.
Rather than relocate, Walmart invested in Bentonville again and opened an entirely new corporate campus in 2025.
In many ways, Bentonville grew alongside Walmart, thanks in large part to the Walton family’s philanthropy. Walmart heir Alice Walton helped to establish the Crystal Bridges Art Museum in 2011, which houses one of the country’s premier collections of American art, yet remains completely free for the public to enjoy.
The Momentary, which opened in 2020 as a contemporary extension of the Crystal Bridges Museum, hosts music and multidisciplinary performances. The family also helped reshape the area through hundreds of miles of mountain biking trails and established the Alice Walton School of Medicine, an independent, four-year medical school, in 2021.
Today, thanks to Walmart and the Walton family, Bentonville attracts entrepreneurs, suppliers, artists, cyclists, and visitors from around the world, evolving from the birthplace of the world’s largest retailer into one of America’s most unexpected cultural destinations.
A view of the Walmart Home Office Welcome Center in Bentonville, Arkansas
Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
What is Walmart’s new headquarters like?
Approximately two miles from its original headquarters, Walmart’s new, 400-acre corporate campus is centered around Customer Drive and J Street and stretches toward 14th Street in Bentonville. The campus is accessible via miles of biking trails, which connect the headquarters with the town.
This time around, Walmart took its design cues from Silicon Valley: Its new campus is a fitting visual statement from a company that has reinvented itself as a technology-driven retailer.
Its 12 buildings were designed by Gensler, the same architecture firm behind the headquarters of Meta Platforms (META), Airbnb (ABNB), and Salesforce (CRM), while SWA Group created the landscape design. Its other projects include the campuses of PayPal (PYPL), Alphabet (GOOG), and Stanford University.
Like its Silicon Valley brethren, employee perks are boundless. There’s free childcare, a food hall, and a health and fitness center replete with meditation rooms and cryotherapy pools. Shops, breweries, and barbecue areas also dot the campus.
Its office buildings feature state-of-the-art workspaces, collaboration spaces, and “focus rooms.” Employees can also grab coffee from beloved local roasters, including Airship, Heroes, and Onyx Coffee Lab.
Can I tour Walmart’s headquarters?
Unlike most technology companies, visitors are welcome on Walmart’s 400-acre campus — in fact, the company offers guided tours open to registered associates, suppliers, and visitors nearly every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
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Visitors can register through Walmart’s “Explore the New Campus” webpage.
They can also visit public areas of the Home Office via a self-guided tour.
What is Walmart’s headquarters’ address?
Walmart’s new Home Office is located at 1 Customer Drive, Bentonville, AR 72716.
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