A Glimpse into Walmart

You may recall that on Anzac Day we made a visit to the city of Bentonville, Arkansas. It is a nice looking city, and is home to the Crystal Bridges Museum that I mentioned in the previous blog. What I didn't say is that the Museum was founded by Alice Walton, daughter of Sam Walton, the man who spawned the huge business known as Walmart. Thanks to her Walmart inheritance, she is the second richest woman in the USA.

A lot of people pooh pooh Walmart because it has taken business away from a lot of the smaller stores, and there is no dispute, it has done that. When Sam Walton set out, his goal was to provide cheaper goods for the people. Especially  for the folk in rural areas, and hopefully give them a better life by saving them money on groceries and household items. I must say that when I do regular price comparisons on groceries, clothing, jewellery, cosmetics and optical supplies, it is hard to beat Walmart prices. While some people refuse to shop at Walmart, I personally prefer to get the best value for my dollar and shop where it is convenient, rather than worry about what people think of me shopping at a discount store! When I read RV magazines it seems like a lot of RVers agree with me.

Controversies crop up from time to time, and one that I was aware of about Walmart revolved around the lesser pay and employment conditions for women working for the company. While the pay and condition disparity was similar to what was experienced in numerous other American businesses, Walmart has since address many of those issues. 

For RVers, Walmart it is a great one-stop shop, with a parking lot large enough to make parking a 42' motorhome a breeze, which means it is even easier for our 32'. We can buy our groceries, computer needs, optical needs, fishing licence, pharmaceuticals, stationery, RV items, craft items, clothing, kitchen and household items all under the one roof. I like how easy it is to return goods to Walmart - obviously you have to remember to keep your receipt. I often see casual clothes that look nice on the rack and select sizes that look right; rather than try them on in the store when I am rushed, I buy them and try them on with the clothes or shoes in my wardrobe that I may want to match them with. So long as I don't remove any tags, and have my receipt, there has never been a problem either returning the items, or exchanging them for a different size. As our RV refrigerator is only mid-size, we need to shop twice a week to restock our fruit and vegetables, and Walmart is our preferred shop. Considering we have visited all 50 US states during our travels, I guess we have visited at least one Walmart in almost every state -  I do know we have been to Walmart in Alaska, but I must admit we did not visit a Walmart in Hawaii we had our first exposure to a military PX store instead. 

Given that we spend a great many of our cost of living dollars at Walmart, we thought it was prudent to pay a call to the Walmart Visitors Center in Bentonville, and see the story of how it all came about.  I'm sure many American's know the story, but as we don't have Walmart in Australia (Costco only arrived a few years ago), I doubt many Aussies would know anything about it. In a nutshell, a very enterprising young man by the name of Sam Walton completed a degree in Economics in 1940, served a 5 year term in the Army as an Intelligence Officer, then worked in retail. Within a short time, he bought a store in a franchise chain. Eventually he bought his own 'Five and Dime' store here in Bentonville. Over the following years he kept opening new stores and the name Walmart was coined with the first 'Walmart' store opening in Arkansas in 1962. There are now almost 4,000 Walmart stores in the USA and over 500 Sam's Club stores, and just over 4,000 Walmart's internationally. Australia's market must be too small for Walmart to be viable, or there is too much opposition from Coles and Woolworths perhaps?

Below is the old building in Bentonville as it was when Sam Walton bought his first 5 and 10 (dime) store in 1950. The photo under it, is the building in modern times, although the building is now a Museum of the Walmart story, plus the original Five & Dime store that is still operating, as depicted in the third photo. 

Five and Dime Store

Sam Walton fulfilled his dream of helping citizens

International spread of Walmart Stores

As well as the Visitor's Center and Walmart Offices in Bentonville, there is also a Super Walmart store. I had read that this store is like the 'Flagship', and given the number of Walmart officials who would be shopping there regularly (getting staff discount no doubt), the staff would need to always be on their best behaviour. I thought it was worth checking out! I have been in some very nice Walmarts before (and some not so nice), but this one took the cake. It was huge, but at the same time it was very well lit with seemingly natural lighting, it had a very modern feel to it,  and there was free wifi throughout the store. It is the first Walmart I have ever visited with that attribute. Several of them have free WIFI in the McDonalds and maybe Subway, but to my knowledge, that is all. The thing that impressed me most with this store was the attitude of the staff. In different areas of the store I was perusing the shelves or the racks, and staff actually came up and asked me if I needed any help. The check-out staff were very pleasant, and efficient at the same time. In some other Walmarts we have stood in line as cashiers have chatted to customers, but they stop working to chat which holds the line up. Here they seemed to keep working effectively as they chatted. I must say it was most impressive. I wish it was my local store.