Walmart Museum to open Friday, features Sam Walton hologram

After more than two years of work, the Walmart Museum, Spark Cafe, and gift shop on the Bentonville square will reopen at 1 p.m, Friday (March 14). The extensive overhaul of the museum restored the Terry Block, which was built around 1888.

Kurt Templeton, executive director of the museum, said the work was more of a complete rebirth than a restoration. The work included gallery space expansion, a new replica brick facade, and a third-floor Top of the Block meeting space with outdoor courtyard overlooking the square. The entire facility is 14,000 square feet and includes an updated Spark Cafe and gift shop in the Walton 5 & 10.

Walmart has not disclosed the project cost, but Templeton said more than 100 subcontractors and local artisans worked on the project that was overseen by Crossland Construction. Crossland moved 96 truckloads of dirt out of the block during the night to not interfere with daytime traffic flow and commerce.

Joe Wilson, with Crossland, said the job entailed making the old building look as much as possible like it did in 1888. The brick used was a special size that had to be replicated to the original specs and remade in Little Rock. The original stone came from Carthage, Mo., and that quarry is no longer in business. But they did locate Carthage stone that was fabricated by local artisans on the building’s exterior.

The gallery space now encompasses the first and second floors with double the space and also includes an education room, hologram experience room with Sam Walton, and other interactive displays. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon greets visitors in a short video as they enter the museum space that begins in chronological order of the company’s history dating back to Helen and Sam Walton’s Ben Franklin stores in the 1940s and 1950s.

The Walton’s moved into the five-and-dime store on the Bentonville square in 1950. It would take him 12 more years to open his first Walmart store in Rogers in 1962. Walton was 44 when the Rogers store opened. One exhibit shows the Store No. 1 financial statement from its first month of business. The handwritten ledger shows the discount store recorded sales of $43,078.07 for the opening month. After expenses, the store’s monthly net income was $14,127.73.

Today that net income has a purchasing power of $148,558.53. A lot has changed at Walmart since 1962. In fiscal 2025, a typical supercenter registered average monthly sales of around $8.75 million, and it encompasses online fulfillment duties and services such as optical, pharmacy, bakery/deli, and tire and vehicle that each add to a store’s revenue total.

The ground floor of the museum covers Walmart through the 1990s, Walton’s death in 1992, and his visit from then-President George H.W. Bush who presented Walton with the presidential medal of honor just days before his death.

The museum’s second floor follows Walmart since 2000, highlighting big moments in the past 25 years. The educational room on the second floor features the hologram room where visitors can ask Sam Walton questions about the business. He comes to life in a hologram form seated at the front of the room.

Templeton said the responses given by Walton come directly from quotes in his autobiography, “Made In America,” and other tapes in the retailer’s archives. Using technology, the voice sounds like Walton.

The replica of Walton’s office the way he left it is prominently displayed on the ground floor. There are 788 items in the office and an interactive game that can be played at that exhibit. Walton’s iconic red and white Ford truck is also on the ground floor with the driver’s side facing the Spark Cafe. In the old building, the driver’s side of the truck faced the wall and was never seen by the public.

Templeton said the museum expects to see around 500,000 visitors during the remainder of 2025, and his hope is that visitors feel like the space is familiar but also has new features to enjoy.