Driving Around the Walmart Home Office Bentonville, Arkansas in 4k Video

Filmed on Monday, December 4 2023, I drive around Bentonville, AR to see what's going on. I was racing against the sunset so I didn't get to explore as much as I wanted, but I did see the Walmart Home Office, the Walmart Museum, and downtown Bentonville. The whole area was VERY nice, from Bentonville to Fayetteville - nice stores everywhere and TONS of traffic. I've been to over 500 cities now and NOWHERE was as bustling as Northwest Arkansas.
The area now known as Bentonville's first known use by humans was as hunting grounds by the Osage Nation who lived in Missouri. The Osage would leave their settlements to hunt in present-day Benton County for months at a time before returning to their families. White settlers first inhabited the area around 1837 and named their settlement "Osage". By this time, the Osage had ceased using the area for hunting, and the white settlers began to establish farms.
Osage was renamed Bentonville in honor of Thomas Hart Benton, a senator from Missouri who strongly supported Arkansas statehood.
In the 1920s and 1930s the county developed a reputation as a leader in poultry production that continued into the World War II years, and which the area still maintains today.
In 1950, Sam Walton bought the Harrison Variety Store on the Bentonville town square. He fully remodeled the building and opened "Walton’s 5 and 10 Variety Store" on March 18, 1951. This single store eventually led to the creation of Walmart, the world's largest retailer, which still strongly influences the community today.
During Walmart's rapid growth, Helen Walton wished to remain in Bentonville to raise the family, and thus by the time Walmart became the #1 Fortune 500 in 2002, it was still based in Bentonville.
The Walmart "Home Office" now includes more than 20 buildings throughout Bentonville, specifically along Walton Boulevard in the western part of the city. In 2017, Walmart announced their intention to construct a new central headquarters in Bentonville, consolidating many of their employees to a more centralized campus.
The impact from the Walmart Home Office is multiplied by the over 1,100 prospective Walmart vendors who have established sales offices in the region. The large number of satellite offices for companies of almost every industry means a large number of transplants from around the United States live in or near Bentonville. This phenomenon impacts the culture of Bentonville in addition to the city's economy.
Symbolic of Bentonville's complex culture was a cricket game played between PepsiCo and Walmart, spectated by their respective chief executives Indra Nooyi and Doug McMillon, chronicled in an article in The Wall Street Journal describing the complex Bentonville culture. The game was played on a baseball field in Bentonville not well suited for typical cricket, so the players adopted new rules. The city has a cricket league with 18 teams and a host of fans, mostly derived from the thousands of Indian natives drawn to Bentonville by Walmart software and IT jobs.
#driving #drivingtour #travel

[@JGanes]

The building @18 second mark, use to be the computer servers for the entire company. In the mid to late 90's, there was enough cat5 cable to go around the earth and moon with a knot tying the ends together.
The one story building @45 seconds was executive row. That's where Sam's is office was.

[@exploreusacities]

Very interesting, thanks for that!

[@RobDTom]

Excellent quality video. We love Bentonville!

[@jonf6285]

Happy new year Mr explore keep up the good work all the best from Oxford UK

[@exploreusacities]

And to you too!

[@thiagofigueiredo22]

Bom dia amigo, o tráfego estava bem complicado! 😅

[@martyaz]

Bentonville is Walmart.

[@exploreusacities]

Yep. I didn't catch it on camera but you should have seen the new campus they are building. It's MASSIVE!