What was the name of the first Walmart store?

The first Walmart store was called Walmart Discount City, originally styled Wal-Mart Discount City. Sam Walton opened it on July 2, 1962, at 719 West Walnut Street in Rogers, Arkansas.

The store represented Walton’s move from traditional five-and-dime retail into discount merchandising. He aimed to offer lower prices by accepting smaller profit margins and selling large volumes of goods. The Rogers location also reflected his strategy of placing discount stores in smaller towns that larger chains often overlooked.

Walton had previously operated a store called Walton’s Five and Dime in downtown Bentonville, Arkansas. That earlier business was important to his career, but it was not the first Walmart-branded store. Similarly, Walmart Supercenter refers to a later store format; the first Supercenter opened in Washington, Missouri, in 1988.

Within five years of the Rogers opening, Walmart had expanded to 18 stores in Arkansas. The company later dropped the hyphen from Wal-Mart and became Walmart, but the original store’s historical name is generally given as Wal-Mart Discount City or Walmart Discount City.