Walmart Meetings Grow

BENTONVILLE — Walmart founder Sam Walton opened the doors of the first Walmart store 50 years ago, but he and his wife, Helen, set another tradition in motion several years later when they opened their home to employees.

Shareholders meetings often featured a meal on the lawn of the Walton home near where the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art now brings art to small-town America.

“There was always lunch on Sam and Helen’s lawn,” said Ed Clifford, who retired from a Walmart career that started in 1984. Clifford heads the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce. “Even after the meetings were held in Fayetteville, associates would take a bus up to their home and take a picture by their mailbox that said, ‘Sam and Helen Walton.’”

Those early company gatherings were a far cry from the weeklong, celebrity-studded extravaganzas that constitute the modern shareholders meetings. While annual shareholder meetings date back to 1969, the first employee picnic was a low-key event on Oct. 5, 1975, at Blowing Springs Park in Bella Vista.

With generous stock purchase options provided by the company, company employees and shareholders were often one and the same. The shareholders meetings generally preceded the company picnic, with the early meetings in a company board room.

About 1,350 people attended the gathering, where the grand prize was a 19-inch color Zenith television. George Simpson, Joe Bob Wilson and Leonard Ward served from a table loaded with barbecue chicken and ham, while Sam Walton greeted employees and their families as they filled their plates.

Those early picnics had a personal touch, according to a woman named Candy who wrote on the Walmart website about her first meeting with Sam Walton. She said she attended the 1980 picnic at Blowing Springs with her family, and the company founder made it a point to stop and talk with all the employees. Walton met Candy’s children and told them to be sure to get ice cream from the truck at the park.

Bob Bogle, who started working with Sam Walton in 1955, said the picnics were “a good opportunity to get together and visit.” He said most of the employees knew one another in the early days. Bogle retired in 1982, but continued to attend the meetings and picnics for many years.

The Waltons were known for their active lifestyle, and the company picnics reflected their love of the outdoors and sports. Friendly volleyball matches, tug-of-war and horseshoes were mixed with clowns, pony rides and egg tosses for the children.

A canoe float on the Elk River started in the late 1970s. Clifford said he remembers Bud Walton, Sam Walton’s brother, organizing the trips that would often include financial analysts from New York City who had never set foot in a canoe before the outings. Those less inclined toward exploring the wild could choose a day of golf, tennis or boating.

By 1983, the morning meeting had moved to the Bentonville High School gymnasium, now the Lincoln Junior High School gym. Sam Walton hosted the meeting in 1983, stopping often to shout greetings to friends in the audience, according to a reporter who covered the event for the Lakeland Ledger in Florida. Lou Holtz, the Arkansas Razorback football coach at the time, gave a motivational speech before the group went to the Walton residence for lunch.

An afternoon question-and-answer session followed the meal, with employees, shareholders and the media encouraged to ask whatever questions they wanted of top company brass.

“If Walmart is anything, it’s open,” wrote the Ledger reporter.

Country singers Shelly West and David Frizzell, famous for their hit “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma,” headlined the company picnic at Blowing Springs later that afternoon.

Walmart makes it a point to bring in big-name performers like this year’s musical guest, Aerosmith, to entertain employees and shareholders. Even in the early years, the company valued its ability to put on a good show.

One of the first bands to play at a company picnic was Chuck and Mortie King and the Western Unions. The country and western band based in Springdale played at the 1976 picnic at Blowing Springs.

Feeding the out-of-town guests was always a monumental task, Clifford said. In addition to the barbecue feast at Blowing Springs and a picnic at the Walton home, home office employees spent weeks before the shareholders meeting making Cheese Whiz and tuna fish sandwiches. They would load the sandwiches in a freezer truck and pass them out to hungry guests at the annual meeting.

As the company expanded, the event outgrew several locations. Shareholders early on met in a company conference room, the Bentonville High School gymnasium and the Benton County Fairgrounds. The meetings moved to the University of Arkansas campus and were at Barnhill Arena until Bud Walton Arena was built.

Professional planners took over some of the load as the scheduling grew more complicated, with thousands of associates now flying in from around the world for a week of meetings, entertainment and sightseeing. But even after the event moved to Bud Walton Arena, associates still labored over those Cheese Whiz sandwiches, Clifford laughed.

Clifford, now off sandwich duty, still participates in the annual meetings from the special floor seats set aside for company retirees.

“It’s a big deal now,” Clifford said.

Concerts and other employee events fill the days before Friday’s meeting, that feels more like a pep rally wrapped around a business meeting. Carrie Underwood and Aerosmith will entertain Tuesday and Wednesday nights. International workers will gather Wednesday morning for their own meeting. Workers visit the Bentonville home office and tour the Walmart Visitor Center.

Everything leads up to Friday’s meeting where about 14,000 Walmart workers and shareholders fill Bud Walton Arena. Company executives provide updates, but attendees wait eagerly to see who the entertainment will be.

Last year Will Smith served as master of ceremonies, and kept the crowd engaged and entertained. Musical acts included Alicia Keys, the Black Eyed Peas and “American Idol” winner Scotty McCreery.

The meetings start at 7 a.m., but that doesn’t put a damper on the crowd’s enthusiasm as they cheer in their native tongue. Delegations from each attending country sit together, as do groups from the various Walmart U.S. operations. The atmosphere is more like a rock concert than a shareholders meeting.

Christie Swanson contributed to this report.