The Walmart Museum is located on the square in downtown Bentonville, Ark. Photo by Sydney Schnurbusch
Regardless of your thoughts about the retailer, the big box discount store changed the way we shop, and the museum offers a fascinating look at how that happened.
The museum is housed in the old Walton’s 5&10 store on the square in downtown Bentonville. Admission is free, and a quick jaunt through it gives you glimpses of how Sam Walton grew his five and dime into a Fortune 500 powerhouse.
The Wall of Returns at the Walmart Museum highlights items that were returned to Walmart and the purchase price refunded. Photo courtesy Walmart Museum
But the best part? The collection of items returned to the store for refund. At Walmart, the customer is number one. Museum visitors can read notes about and see a fishing pole returned because it didn’t catch fish, an electric mixer brought back because it was possessed, and a wall thermometer rejected because it didn’t tell the right time.
You can see Sam Walton’s office, just as he left it the last time he was there, at the Walmart Museum in Bentonville. Pam LeBlanc photo
You can also see a recreation of Sam Walton’s office, complete with the original wood paneling and blue-green carpet, his name plate, a collection of books, a painting of him with his dogs and a photo of him with his wife. There’s the old Ford F150 pickup truck Walton drove (complete with chew marks from Sam’s dog Ol’ Roy on the steering wheel), a collection of Walmart buttons and lapel pins, and Helen Walton’s wedding dress.
Plan to spend an hour or so perusing the exhibits, which cover everything from Walton’s opening of a Ben Franklin variety store in Newport, Arkansas, in the 1940s, to the opening of the 5&10 in Bentonville a decade later. Walton opened the first Walmart in 1962, and things sped up from there. In less than a decade he had a chain of 18 stores in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, and he boasted the lowest prices anywhere. In the 1970s he added pharmacies, car care and jewelry, and the first distribution center opened. Then came the first Sam’s Club, the first Supercenter and barcode scanning.
Walton died in 1992, weeks after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush.
On the way out, you can grab a scoop of yellow-and-blue ice cream from the Spark Café Soda Fountain.
The museum, 105 North Main Street in Bentonville, is open noon to 6 p.m. daily but you must make an appointment online. Admission is free. Tours are self-guided and capacity is limited. Masks are required. For more information go to www.walmartmuseum.com.
