Walmart opened its first store in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas, beginning the retail chain.
Sam Walton founded Walmart, originally called Wal-Mart Discount City, in Rogers on July 2, 1962. The store emphasized low prices and high sales volume, a strategy that helped the company expand across the United States and later internationally.
Walton had already operated variety stores before opening the first Walmart. The company’s early growth focused heavily on smaller towns, where large discount retailers were less common. Distribution centers and computerized inventory systems later helped Walmart manage a very large store network.
The company changed its legal name from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to Walmart Inc. in 2018. Walmart is a retailer, not a manufacturer of most of the products it sells. That distinction matters when comparing it with consumer-goods companies that may have similar market values but very different business models.