Inside Walmart’s company seat in Bentonville, a once-sleepy burg that now houses its $540 billion retail empire

A group of young women dance in front of a white-and-red storefront with a "Walton's" sign across it. (Credit: Rick T. Wilking—Getty Images)

A once-sleepy Arkansas city has now become the epicenter of the country’s largest retail empire. Since its 1962 founding, Walmart has not only transformed its headquarters in Bentonville, but along with it, the South Central burg it inhabits. With plans to open a new 350-acre campus only two miles from its original office next year, the big-box chain has its sights set on moonshot growth.

Drawing inspiration from Microsoft’s elaborate Seattle headquarters, as well as Pepsi and Chick-fil-a in Atlanta, Walmart’s new campus will be more than just a functional work space. It will house a fitness center, childcare facility, and hotel, with a web of bike paths running through it. The revamped campus is a radical refresh from the company’s 1962 headquarters of a warehouse and notoriously drab office space with few windows. Even the Walmart Museum, housed in some of the company’s original store locations, is getting a facelift, with a new interactive, life-sized hologram of founder Sam Walton, who died in 1992.