The Walmart Museum

105 N Main Street
Bentonville, AR 72712
Admission and parking are free.

https://www.walmartmuseum.com/  

Opened in 1990. Renovated and re-opened in 2011. 

The Walmart Museum is in the store that was Sam Walton's original Walton's 5-10. 

Upon entering the museum after walking through the store, you are invited to watch a short film about Sam Walton.  

The museum includes many visual displays telling the story of Sam Walton and the stores he founded. 

Throughout the museum is a time-line with historical information on each decade. 

 1970's means Walmart goes national.

 The 1980's 

  Part of the twenty-first century timeline. 

There are also displays explaining the philosophy of Sam Walton and his stores. 

Although it is called the Walmart Museum, it also has displays on other stores that don't bear the name Walmart. 

Obviously, the museum is largely centered around Sam Walton.  There is even a bust of Sam on display for visitors to take selfies with him. 

A lot of the early timelines center on what Sam and his family were doing that decade. 

 Sam's office is on display. 

 Sam's truck

 Sam's Rules for Building a Business go from floor to ceiling! 

To leave the museum one must walk through the Spark Cafe Soda Fountain which is a tribute to Sam Walton's love of ice cream.  Here they serve ice cream in all manners and an assortment of drinks. 

Child size booths for the young ice cream enthusiasts. 

The soda fountain does not serve a cone with this many scoops but it does offer a sundae that has 16 scoops and is topped with every topping on the menu, whipped cream and cherries.  "Serves 8-10"

 Even the soda fountain has history displays. 

 A picture of the original building.  

To enter the museum one must walk through Walton's 5 & 10. The floor in the store is the original red and green tiles that Sam laid down.  The ceiling is also the original tin tiles. But best of all there are all kinds of fun things to purchase that take you back to the '50's.  The old-style toys there were lots of fun as well as all of the penny candy! 

The museum sits on the town square as does this popular local eating establishment where we had breakfast. 

Comments: This museum includes everything you would want to know about Walmart!   It definitely promotes Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.  There is also a lot about Sam Walton and some about the Walton family today but only about limited family members. 

One visits the museum in a self-guided tour but if you have a larger group you can request in advance a guided tour.  

The bulk of the displays are displays to be read, thus depending on how much of it you actually read, one could spend 30-120 minutes in there.   Interactive displays don't particularly exist and although the museum was remodeled 6 years ago it does not include much technology.  In addition to Sam's truck and office, there are only a few artifacts.  

This museum opens two hours before Crystal Bridges Art Museum opens, so, like us, I would assume that often visitors come to it to have something to do in those early hours of the day.  

We loved the little store.  It offered many fun items for sale and we could have spent a long time in there just browsing and buying.  As we were there shortly after eating breakfast we did not purchase any ice cream in the soda fountain but I am sure that it is excellent!   

The Station Cafe was highly recommended to us. We had a great breakfast there and would recommend it to others.