Bentonville, Arkansas

The world's largest store is headquartered in one of America's smaller cities.

Bentonville, Arkansas today has 34,000 residents. But the most important resident is the corporate headquarters for Wal-Mart.

In 1962, local businessman Sam Walton founded what would become the biggest--and most controversial--retail chain in the world. What would eventually become known as "Wal-Mart" began on the town square as "Walton's Five and Dime." The building still exits today at 105 North Main Street, although it's only a visitor's center now.

But folks who did visit the center will learn a good deal about the man and the town that created this empire.

Sam Walton had worked for J.C. Penney's and had run a Ben Franklin variety story in a nearby town. It was there that he began to try different techniques. For example, he tried to offer the lowest prices possible. And he kept his store open later than his competitors. Later, when he began opening Wal-Mart stores around the country, Walton introduced the idea of allowing store managers the chance to buy into the company. He figured that people would work even harder for a store that they helped own.

The Wal-Mart model in many ways reflected the town that produced it. Wal-Mart stressed customer service and putting people first. "I'm probably not the best negotiator in the world," Walton once admitted, "I lack the ability to squeeze that last dollar." But what he lost in lower prices he made up for in volume and loyalty. Across the country, legions of shoppers became regulars at his stores.

"The reason for our success is our people and the way they're treated," Walton said in 1988. "All of us like to be recognized and appreciated. We need to feel the role we play or what we do is important. I didn't start out with that philosophy . . . but I came to develop it and appreciate it."

As for the way Wal-Mart offered incentives to employees, Walton described the strategy this way: "Our company believes in people. It's a partnership that through the years has been very important. We believe in sharing with our people."

Thanks to his unique business model, Sam Walton for many years ranked as the richest man in the United States.

Today, Bentonville remains proud to be the corporate headquarters for Wal-Mart. And the town square where Walton's original store sits remains the focal point of the community. Live concerts and arts festivals are regular features on the town square.

And one of Sam Walton's daughters, Alice, has begun laying the groundwork for a new world-class museum: the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Though no date has been set for the museum's opening, it bills itself as the next "premier national art institution."

And so Bentonville, Arkansas is still a mid-sized city with big-time ambitions.