WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ... WAL-MART NO. 1 : Company’s birthplace is now largely unknown, unheralded
Posted on Monday, February 11, 2008
The Locke Supply Company store on the corner of Eighth and Walnut streets may not be easy on the eyes. There are no bright, colorful signs like the shops at the Promenade. There is an empty building on the southwest corner of the lot. There is nothing of its historic participation in the success of the world's largest retailer - Wal-Mart.
That building is now part of the company's lore, often forgotten in the shadow of a Supercenter a few blocks away, the current store No. 1 and the former No. 1.
But on July 2, 1962, there was no Wal-Mart but that Wal-Mart. Many accounts of that grand opening say there were not enough cash registers to handle all the customers, so some employees grabbed a cash drawer and a calculator to accommodate more people. For a long time after, that building was one of the focal points of Rogers.
Two relocations later, Wal-Mart Store No. 1 is the Supercenter just shy of 1. 5 miles west, and that original store has all but been stripped of its grandeur and its legacy that began more than 40 years ago. The man behind the building Few people in America have not heard the name Sam Walton. Fewer still are not acquainted with his creations - Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. But there is one name that is now overlooked and often forgotten, that of Larry Larimore.
While Walton owned the store that became a national sensation, Larimore built and owned the building that housed Wal-Mart No. 1, forever linking himself with the company.
The pair already were friends when Walton asked Larimore to design and build the building for the store. The original building was 15, 000 square feet, but it was doubled in 1966. Larimore maintained ownership of the building until his death in May 2003, when he left it to his wife of 37 years, Oneida Larimore.
The Larimores married in 1966, the same year as the building's expansion. The new Mrs. Larimore quickly learned she had competition for her husband's time.
Walton and Larimore were constant companions in Wal-Mart's early years, Larimore's widow said. Her late husband and the Wal-Mart founder, both pilots, were routinely flying off in every direction at a moment's notice, checking in on the competition, she said.
"Of course, Sam was always in a hurry," she said.
But their activities were not limited to business.
"Sam, he wanted to do everything: Hunting, tennis, flying... men things," she said.
But Larry Larimore's legacy is more than just the Wal-Mart building. He also raised the Daisy factory, the Crane plant, facilities for Peterson Farms in Decatur, and various plants, schools and churches around the state. The Waltons as tenants The Larimores' lease of the Wal-Mart building was not with the company, but rather with Sam and Helen Walton.
"They were good tenants," Oneida Larimore said. "The check was always there on the first of the month."
The Larimores were also free from many of the maintenance hassles other landlords face. They were only asked to fix leaky roofs, Oneida Larimore said, and that did not happen often.
"When Wal-Mart leases a building, they don't bother you much," she said.
Wal-Mart moved its store to 922 W. Walnut St., the current location of the Wal-Mart CMI claims center, in 1980, but the company continued to rent the Larimores' building for the next 12 years.
"They used it as a claim store and then as a setup store," Oneida Larimore said. Early indications of success Larimore said there are no comparisons between that first Wal-Mart store and the Supercenter that now bears its No. 1. There were indications that the company would grow, just not how much.
"When somebody doubles the size of the store, that's something," she said. "Believe me, we had no idea it was going global. " Post-Wal-Mart In 1992, Larimore turned her husband's building into the Shelby Lane Mall, where she sold antiques, art and collectibles.
"I did very well there," she said.
She stayed there until 2006, when she leased the building to Locke, later adding Feng Gifts and Trading to that location.
Locke assistant manager Jerry Michael said it is "kind of strange"working in the building that once housed Wal-Mart.
"Just knowing it started in this small building, it's kind of cool," he said.
Larimore, meanwhile, briefly moved her store, Shelby Lane, to 120 S. 2 nd St., where it remained until she "effectively retired"last autumn. The building's legacy Despite its claim as the site of the first Wal-Mart, the store has received little attention from the corporation in recent years, Larimore said, ever since the 40 th anniversary celebration in 2002.
"We talked (with Wal-Mart ) about putting in a museum or something in there," she said. "It'll never happen."
The building does have some value to visitors seeking the birthplace of Wal-Mart.
"We usually have a lot of people stop out front, take pictures and stuff," Michael said.
Wal-Mart's museum and visitors' center is currently housed at the former Walton Five and Dime in Bentonville, the first store to bear Sam's name.
Even if Wal-Mart does not wish to recognize the importance of the building, Larimore's view of its history will not change.
"It's pretty important to me," she said of the building she still owns. "We still call it the Wal-Mart building."
She is one of the last, and admits the fallen stature of Wal-Mart's birthplace.
"I guarantee you, you could ride around this town and ask 20 people and two of them would know that's the first Wal-Mart," she said. "The average person doesn't know and doesn't care."
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
