Walmart opened its first store in 1962 in Arkansas.
Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas, on July 2, 1962. Walton had already operated variety stores through the Ben Franklin chain and believed rural communities could support large discount stores offering low prices. The first Walmart’s location in northwest Arkansas became the starting point for a retail network that expanded across the United States.
The company was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in 1969. Its growth strategy emphasized efficient distribution, high inventory turnover, and stores placed near smaller communities that larger retailers often overlooked. Walmart later expanded internationally and developed Sam’s Club, which opened in 1983.
The first store is sometimes confused with Walton’s earlier retail businesses. Walton opened his first Ben Franklin franchise in Newport, Arkansas, in 1945, but that was not a Walmart. The company changed its legal name to Walmart Inc. in 2018, while the familiar retail brand had already dropped the hyphen from “Wal-Mart” in 2008.