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Article: 'Sam's Town' sees changes. (Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s founder Sam Walton)
- Article from:
- Arkansas Business
- Article date:
- September 28, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Journal Publishing, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Sam Walton wanted Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s corporate home town to look as though Norman Rockwell could live there. More than six years after Walton's death, this small northwest Arkansas city also might be appealing to Donald Trump.
Precautions to hide wealth by Wal-Mart executives and vendors who wanted to mirror Walton's modest lifestyle died with the icon. Many of today's Wal-Mart executives like their cars foreign and their homes palatial.
And because Bentonville is still only 15,000 people with the "rich section of town" off on the fringes, the gap in economic classes is easy to identify. In fact, it could be a microcosm of the "diminishing middle class" ...