On what exact date did the first Walmart store open?

The first Walmart store opened on July 2, 1962. Sam Walton opened the discount store at 719 Walnut Avenue in Rogers, Arkansas, marking the beginning of the Walmart chain as a distinct retail business.

Walton had already spent years operating variety stores and studying discount retailing. His idea was to build large stores in smaller towns, keep operating costs low, and pass those savings to customers. The Rogers location was the first store to carry the Walmart name, although Walton’s earlier retail career began with a Ben Franklin variety store in Newport, Arkansas.

The date is sometimes confused with Walmart’s incorporation or stock-market milestones. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. was incorporated in 1969, and the company became publicly traded in 1970. Those events happened years after the first store opened. Walmart’s first distribution center and home office also opened in Bentonville in 1971, another date occasionally mixed into the company’s early history.

From one Rogers store, Walmart grew to 24 stores and $12.7 million in sales by 1967, then expanded beyond Arkansas in 1968.