The retailing giant is spending billions to attract workers to a new headquarters and woo shoppers with drone delivery and a broader range of items (like Louis Vuitton handbags).
“There are no cash registers in the home office.”
It’s a mantra at Walmart and a reminder that every dollar earned comes from its nearly 11,000 stores worldwide. Everything done at its corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., is an expense.
For decades that expense was minimal — the retailer’s main office was a spartan distribution center with wood-paneled offices and few windows. Most of the white-collar employees here were focused on merchandising and logistics.
But that thinking has changed as the company has had to figure out how to compete in an increasingly tech-fueled, competitive industry. A big symbol of that is a multibillion-dollar splurge on a new headquarters meant to attract and retain top talent and modernize the ethos of the discount store Sam Walton founded in 1962.
Walmart built its empire by dominating on price. But to maintain that empire it must now compete on convenience, breadth and speed. During Associates Week — its annual gathering of thousands of employees from around the world — the company made a number of tech-focused announcements, like a new artificial intelligence assistant that it says will help customers shop online and an expansion of its drone home-delivery operation to more cities.
The new 350-acre Bentonville campus has a hotel, a food hall, an amphitheater, and massive fitness and child care centers. There are electric bikes to get around. Robots cut the grass and clean the windows. Winding paths, which are open to the public, snake through it all. The idyllic grounds, with more 750,000 native plants, would not be out of place among those of the biggest tech companies in the world.
The first building opened in January, and the 12th and final building is slated to open at the end of this year. Around 15,000 corporate employees will fill the home office, moving from the old warehouselike headquarters and two dozen buildings scattered around Bentonville.
