This is Bentonville
downtown. This is the square. Directly behind you is the
Walmart Museum, the former Location of Walton Five and
Dime that opened here Originally. Retail giant Walmart is
building out a massive, Roughly 350 acre campus in
its hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. The new site,
expected to accommodate more Than 15000 employees, will
include 12 office buildings, A hotel and a daycare
center. And it's not just Walmart's
headquarters that is getting A makeover. Bentonville is
booming. Tell us a little bit about
Bentonville and who lives Here. So, you're going to have a
lot of corporate office Folks that are coming to
work with Walmart or Tyson Or J.B. Hunt. The median income here is
99,000, which is 25% higher Than the US average. One of the challenges with
high growth communities is How do you allow new people
to come in, but maintain the Brand and the charm of what
makes it special? In addition to its bustling
restaurant scene, the town Also boasts being a Mecca
for mountain bikers with More than 70 miles of
trails. It's home to an American
art museum, free to Visitors, and will soon
have a state of the art Medical school. But locals say growth has
led to some unintended Consequences. Ten years ago, we had 14
homes that sold over $1 Million. Last year, 2023,
we had 244 over $1 million. It's a big change. I'd say in the last 10 to 15
years, it's just exploded.
In addition to cutting
hundreds of corporate jobs, Walmart is transferring
many of its workers from Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto
to Bentonville. Those newcomers will join
other transplants, like Tracy Robinson, who moved
from Miami to Bentonville For a job at Walmart. Hey Sammy. I kind of pooh-poohed the
idea of working at Walmart When I came across the job
posting, because I thought Never in a million years
would I move to Arkansas. The town's newly minted hip
status could help Walmart Poach talent from coastal
cities and the tech sector, But can it hold on to its
southern charm and Character? CNBC went to
Bentonville, Arkansas, to Find out. Things grow like wild here. After living in Washington,
D.C., New York and Miami, Tracy Robinson moved to
Bentonville in 2022. What do you have in your
head when you imagined Bentonville or living in
Arkansas? I had this. Vision of a really poor
rural community, maybe a Little backwards and a
little conservative. You know we're going out,
don't you? Today, the 36 year old lives
with her dog, Stanley, and Works in Walmart's baby
division as the Director of Sourcing for private
brands. Where we are today is kind
of everything that I would Have imagined of the ideal
town or place or community That I would want to live
in. I can walk to work, I can
bike to work, I can walk to Downtown on the weekends
and go to the farmer's Market. Robinson says during her
short time in Bentonville,
She's witnessed some of the
town's transformation. It's been ten new
restaurants that have opened In the two years that I've
been here. A driving force behind much
of that change is the family Of Walmart founder Sam
Walton. Stewart and Tom Walton, Sam
Walton's grandsons, helped Grow the area's mountain
biking culture. The Walton Family
Foundation has so far Contributed $74 million
toward the construction of 163 miles of trails in
northwest Arkansas. In 2011, Alice Walton, Sam
Walton's daughter, helped Launch the Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art, Encompassing 120 acres in
the Ozark woods and over Five miles of trails. The Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, a
four year MD program and School, plans to enroll its
first class in 2025. I would say that Walmart
brought a lot of really Amazing things here, and I
think that a lot of people Have tagged on to that and
have really brought such an Amazing culture and
atmosphere to this town that Wouldn't have existed maybe
without them. There's a little bit of an
Aspen feel, a Colorado feel. A lot of people from
Colorado are coming here. It certainly has from a
museum feel and a job market Feel, a little bit of a New
York piece. But it's the new Walmart
campus that could do the Most to shape Bentonville's
new identity. Demolition and construction
at the site began in 2019. The first building to open
was a fitness center, Complete with pickleball
courts and a swimming pool. It's an example of the
amenities that Walmart is Adding to its campus to
attract talent from the Coasts and around the
world. Walmart will open the
Rest of its campus in
phases beginning in 2025. When you moved to
Bentonville, how long did You think you would stay
here and how long do you Think you'll stay now? My relocation package
required that I stay here a Year, and that's what I had
committed to. And I think I'm a lifer
now. Yeah, this was all open
country back then. I can't remember. The first neighbor down
here probably was, I'm going To say a mile away, maybe. Gill Curran and his wife,
Sue, moved to Bentonville From Kansas City in 1971. In their early years, the
couple owned a 175 acre Farm, raised cattle, and
ran a burger joint in town. What was it like in
downtown and in Bentonville At that period? Well, downtown, of course,
was small then, and Walmart Was just really getting
going. But we loved it then. We loved the small town
atmosphere. Between 2010 and 2020, the
town's population shot up 53% to 54,000 residents. By 2022, median household
income increased to more Than $99,000, up 37% from
2015. Have locals been priced out From the area? Yeah, I think
that's a struggle and Honestly, I struggle with
that in that if you are Buying a house today,
again, ten years ago, the Average price per foot was
$83 per foot. Today that same category is
about $190 per foot. So yeah, it's a struggle. The house behind me is
actually listed for it was 2.35.
Are they moving for Walmart? This couple actually is
moving for Walmart. The first Walmart store
opened in Rogers, Arkansas In 1962. Today, more than 1300
Walmart suppliers, including Mattel and Duracell, have a
presence in northwest Arkansas. It started with Walmart kind
of having their supplier Group move in in 2003, and
that sort of is what took Off. More people coming in,
honestly, people being I'm Not kidding, crying in my
car like, "I am not moving To this place. Please don't
move me here." And over the Years, it's gotten easier
and easier to bring people In. Bentonville flexes like
thousands and thousands of People every day coming in,
and that's why I can run Specials on Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday when the Vendors are in town. It's an insane economic
boom for us. With 1.6 million US workers, most
of them in stores and Warehouses, Walmart is the
country's largest private Employer. What have been
some of the changes that You've noticed that have
been more of the big city Problems that come with
growth? A lot of the people that
come to town now are Strangers to us. A lot of them come with
different values, systems; So it's kind of changed our
culture, I think. Every time I go to town
now, there's new Construction and sometimes
there'll be a three story Building that I never saw
before. The traffic is obviously a
huge problem. The population of Northwest
Arkansas is growing too,
Expected to almost double
from 576,000 in 2022 to Nearly 1 million residents
by 2045. But if someone told you
Bentonville would become Like this back then, what
would you have thought? I don't know, I probably
couldn't couldn't have Visualized in any way, uh,
what it would have been. I would have never thought
of it that way. For one thing, Walmart, you
know, I don't believe Anybody had the vision that
it's going to take over the World, you know? So.
