Almost everyone on Earth knows Walmart is the world's largest retailer, and many know it was started by Sam Walton in Northwest Arkansas, but how did this colossal empire begin?
In 1962, Rogers, a town of about 6,500 and growing, had recently become the home of Daisy Manufacturing and nearby Beaver Lake was under construction. All of the retail businesses were downtown, and consisted mainly of small family owned stores including Stroud's, Hunt's, Otasco, Western Auto, Rogers Hardware, and Sterling's and Russell's 5¢ and 10¢ stores.
Sam Walton lived in Bentonville and, by 1962, had used his remarkable business skills to build a chain of 16 variety stores in Arkansas and surrounding states. Fifteen of these stores were Ben Franklin chain stores, and one was independent.
A radical new concept originated about that time -- discount stores with discount prices, name-brand merchandise, large volume and emphasis on customer service. Sam was intrigued by this idea and decided to try an experiment. He and his wife, Helen, opened the first Walmart in Rogers in 1962 using the new concept. That same year, Kmart and Target opened in other parts of the country, but with different business ideas and clientele.
Don Whitaker was the manager of the first Walmart. His wife, Pauline, ran one of the four registers on opening day. The register she used sat on a box of anti-freeze.
"Every time I looked up, there were lines of people; they went all the way to the back of the store. The lines continued all afternoon. We sold a lot of pillows, brooms and throw rugs," recalls Pauline. "There were only a few wood wall shelves, and merchandise was piled on tables and displayed in the boxes that it came in. Later it was even stacked on the sidewalk because there wasn't enough room inside. Everyone was willing to give everything they had to help in its success, and everyone was proud to be a part of it." (Northwest Arkansas Morning News, Feb. 26, 1991)
After a few months, Sam Walton promoted Don Whitaker to upper management and, in early 1963, brought Clarence Leis to manage the first store. Leis had been the manager of a Walton Ben Franklin store in Coffeyville, Kan.
Since the discount concept was new, there was no pattern to copy. Everything was new and had to be developed, including buying merchandise in volume, pricing, displaying, bookkeeping and return policies. By 1964, the system had been developed to the point that profit surged, and Walton began opening new Walmart stores patterned after Rogers' store. Business was so good on Saturday afternoons, the limited store personnel were overwhelmed, and Leis would call in his wife and children to help run the registers or do whatever was required, at no pay.
Clarence spoke to the Rogers History Club a couple of years ago and told stories about managing the first store.
"When someone would return an item like a lawnmower, I would take it home and repair it, then bring it back to the store for resale." Another story was about the spring in the store basement. "There was a sump and a pump to keep the water pumped out. The cold clear water in the sump was perfect for minnows. My assistant manager, Charlie Cate, and I kept minnows in the basement and when we had time, we would take off at lunch and go to Lake Atalanta and fish."
He also told about taking the days' receipts home after work and counting the money on his kitchen table before taking it to the bank to deposit.
Walton opened Walmart stores in small towns across Arkansas, and, eventually, the nation. Leis managed Store No. 1 in the 1960s and 1970s when it was the flagship and training store for new managers and leaders of the chain.
Many local folks blame Walmart for the decline of small businesses in downtown Rogers, but that isn't accurate. In the 1960s the face of retail shopping was changing in Rogers and across the nation. Shopping centers with lots of free parking, discount stores and supermarkets were popping up nationwide. Gradually, in the mid-1970s, the family owned businesses in Rogers and downtowns around the country began to close.
The experiment in 1962 in Rogers has turned out to be a great success and today consists of more than 11,000 stores, 2.2 million employees and sales of more than $473 billion.
JAMES F. HALES IS AN AUTHOR AND LOCAL HISTORIAN. HIS COLUMN APPEARS MONTHLY IN THE ROGERS MORNING NEWS.
Commentary on 01/01/2015