Waltons Buy Liquor License

Five members of the Walton family of Bentonville are in the process of buying a liquor license from Mark Foster to open a liquor store next door to a new Sam’s Club planned for Springdale, said Margie Ruple, document examiner for the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. Foster was the owner of Party Store Liquors in Fayetteville, which he closed on Feb. 1.

The proposed liquor store’s stockholders, according to their ABC filing, are Helen Walton, widow of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton, and their four children Rob Walton, Jim Walton, John Walton and Alice Walton. Ruple said this will be the first liquor store in the state to be owned by the Waltons.

The application was made by Robyn O’Kelley Babbitt, a manager of the Sam’s Club on U.S. Highway 71 in Springdale, which will likely be closed when the new one is built. Babbitt was out of town when we called on March 11, and Foster had no comment. No one at Wal-Mart could be reached to comment.

Because ABC isn’t currently granting any new liquor licenses, it was apparently necessary for the Waltons to buy an existing license to open the liquor store.

In accordance with state law, “it is going to have a separate entrance,” Ruple said of the liquor store. “It’s a separate outlet. They’re sharing one wall.”

The application, which is dated March 3, listed 1519 N. 56th St. in Springdale as the address for the new store. The Springdale Planning Commission approved a large-scale development plan in February for a 160,330-SF Sam’s Club at that location, which is just to the west of the Ozark Center Point Place shopping center on U.S. Highway 412. Construction has not begun at the site.

The business name, according to the ABC filing, is Sam’s Club #8209.