The First Ever Walmart (1962)

LOLWOT ^ | 1-2-2015

[kingattax]

Hard to imagine that from this simple image emerged a supermarket global empire

[Steely Tom]

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

[snoringbear]

I’m guessing that this store was in Arkansas. Anyone know the town?

[Bryanw92]

That’s not a photo from 1962.

[Brandonmark]

Rogers, Arkansas

[shove_it]

Upscale competition ...

[donozark]

Bentonville. Now museum.

[humblegunner]

Those 1962 crossover SUVs were awesome.

[shove_it]

Are those 1962 mini-vans parked outside?

[Bryanw92]

http://freshneasybuzz.blogspot.com/2011/06/back-to-future-at-walmart-stores.html

[SamAdams76]

Rogers, Arkansas. Started as a "five and dime" on July 2, 1962. The store later expanded and relocated to another area in Rogers but the original store still serves a a visitor center.

Below is what the store looked like 10 years later (after the relocation). "Alone Again (Naturally)" by Gilbert O'Sullivan was playing in some of those car radios at the time.

[fatnotlazy]

Five and dime stores were big at one time. I remember several in my area. We had Kresge's (the forerunner of Kmart), Woolworth's and G.C. Murphy's. Other discounters such as Hills and Zayres came along later. All gone now.

[Brandonmark]

Sam Walton opened his 5&10 on the Bentonville town square in 1950

Source: History of Walmart

[real saxophonist]

When I worked at walmart, they bragged that the only entity with a bigger computer system was the U.S. government.

I haven't set foot in a walmart in over 5 years.

[TomGuy]

My local Walmart is store #4.

The recent Walmart Neighborhood Market that opened last fall is store #6960.

Sam and his wife were the clerks in that store. Sam was always friends. Helen, not so much.

My folks used to go to Bentonville (county seat) to assess property in the spring and pay taxes in the fall in the late 50s and early 60s.

[SkyDancer]

Ben Franklin stores in NYC ....

[TomGuy]

Bentonville — on the west side of the town square.

[Moonman62]

Sam Walton, a smart religious man who married well.

[Last Dakotan]

Wal-Mart owes its success primarily to the fact that they were the first chain to source Asia for cheaper goods in a large way. Secondarily, they learned to handle logistics well.

End result you have a nation with billion dollar trade deficits and a dwindling middle class.

[greene66]

We used to have GC Murphy Co., Woolworth’s, and TG&Y’s. I always enjoyed visits to those kind of five-and-dime stores. The atmosphere, the ambiance. The Murphy store had a lunch-counter whose architectural motif reminded me of “The Jetsons” in its space-age, early-60s style. The one at the Woolworth’s dated to the 1940s, and still retained that appealing look. Miss all that visual variety, that shopping used to offer.

The tall-ceiling, warehouse style of the big-box stores like Wal-Mart just depress the hell out of me, for some reason. Dismal, bleak, and tacky. Add stores like Best Buy, with ear-splitting music and dvd-films being run all around you, simultaneously. Ugh.