By Serafina Lalany

 

I’ve spent most of the last decade slinging software. That usually meant flying to both coasts, chasing meetings, and waiting weeks for a simple yes or no.

Then I showed up in Bentonville.

All my decision makers were here. And they were willing to meet, in person, with 24 hours’ notice. Then they did something rare: they introduced me to their peers. Soon, I was having ten back-to-back sales meetings in a single day, all within walking distance. That became normal.

There’s something powerful about that combination: deep expertise, generous operators, and real-time access — all in a town of 50,000 people.

People still think of Bentonville as “Walmart’s hometown.” That’s true. But a fuller description is more useful: the retail value-chain capital of the world. The buyer is here. The suppliers are here. The talent is here. And increasingly, the founders and investors are here on purpose.

 

A short history of showing up

The roots go back to Sam Walton. He opened his first five-and-dime on the Bentonville square in 1950, the first Walmart in nearby Rogers in 1962, and then made a decision that shaped the region forever: he kept Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville. While most Fortune 500 companies chased big cities, Walton stayed close to small-town customers and the aisles of his stores. That choice kept leadership grounded and agile, and it built a culture around proximity.

By the 1980s, that culture extended to suppliers. Walton believed collaboration required showing up in person. In 1987 he famously took a Procter & Gamble executive canoeing down an Ozark river to mend the partnership. Not long after, P&G stationed Tom Muccio in Bentonville, the first supplier exec to relocate from Cincinnati. By 1994 there were 48 supplier offices locally. By 2003, there were 800. Today there are roughly 1,400. If you want to win at Walmart, you still show up.

That network compounded. Tyson Foods grew into one of the world’s largest protein companies out of nearby Springdale. J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. built a logistics empire hauling Walmart freight from Lowell. A sleepy Ozark town became the place where distribution, merchandising, and supply chain innovation met in real time.

 

A live testbed for retail

Because the full value chain is clustered here: retailers, suppliers, logistics, and talent. Bentonville became the place where ideas get tested quickly.

Autonomous middle mile. Walmart and Gatik ran a fixed route here without a safety driver, the first driverless middle-mile operation in the U.S.

Drone delivery. Zipline began 30-minute drop-offs from Pea Ridge in 2021. Families in town started watching small fixed-wing drones glide overhead with groceries and medicine.

Store tech. Bentonville stores have trialed digital shelf labels, RFID checkout, and AI exit verification at Sam’s Club. Some of those experiments scaled nationally, others ended quickly. All of them produced signal fast.

That’s what makes this region unusual. Ideas don’t sit on whiteboards. They run through stores, warehouses, and logistics networks, with operators nearby to refine them in weeks instead of quarters.

 

From backbone to breakout

The ecosystem doesn’t just enable Fortune 500 experiments. It also produces its own high-growth companies.

Field Agent/ Storesight (founders, Rick West, Henry Ho, Kelly Miller) started in Fayetteville with a simple idea: turn smartphones into a distributed workforce for in-store audits. Today, brands use their platform for millions of store checks across the world.

Crisp (founder: Are Traasdahl)relocated from New York because its retail data platform needed to be tested beside the merchants and suppliers who would use it. The move turned Northwest Arkansas into its largest office, fueling rapid growth.

SupplyPike (founder: Dan Sanker) was born in Fayetteville to solve the headaches of supplier deductions and compliance. The solution was so effective that SPS Commerce acquired the company for more than $200 million.

These companies show a pattern: build in the middle of the value chain, and you get velocity. Problems are visible. Customers are close. Feedback is immediate.

Signals from the outside

That density doesn’t just serve locals. It attracts outsiders too.

This week, Evan Spiegel (CEO, co-founder Snap Inc.) visited Pea Ridge to see human-centric AR and last-mile logistics in practice. MrBeast/ Jimmy Donaldson flew in to walk Walmart aisles and promote his Feastables chocolate bars. Paris Hilton launched her cookware line in a Bentonville Walmart. Andy Dunn, after selling Bonobos, is still building here too helping grow Monica + Andy (founder: Monica Royer) into Walmart stores nationwide.

People who can choose anywhere are choosing here when the work involves stores, shelves, and supply chains.

What it feels like on the ground

The operating system is generosity. Competitors share notes on how to win a line review. Executives who elsewhere might be hidden behind gatekeepers make time for founders and then connect them to three more people. The pie gets bigger if we move faster together. That mindset is part of what makes Bentonville different. You can feel it walking into Onward HQ, the hub where founders, operators, and investors collide daily. It’s where introductions get made, deal flow circulates, and the next customer relationships take shape.

Proof, not posture

If you want the numbers:

• ~1,400 supplier offices clustered around the buyer
• A #1-ranked undergraduate supply chain program producing local operators at University of Arkansas
• Multiple firsts in live retail pilots: driverless middle-mile, scaled drone delivery, store-level AI and automation
• High-growth retail-tech companies scaling from here: Field Agent, Crisp, SupplyPike

These aren’t abstractions. They are the daily operating facts of a small city with global reach.

The invitation

This September we host Retail Innovation Week in Bentonville. Founders and operators sit with merchants and suppliers to test ideas, share feedback, and leave with next steps they can execute. If Austin had SXSW, this is Bentonville’s version…fewer panels, more pilots.

If you build for retail or CPG, treat Bentonville like a one-week sprint. Book store walks. Meet a merchant. Sit with a supplier team. Bring something testable. Leave with a decision. I’m happy to help with introductions.

Bentonville already functions as the retail value-chain capital. The only question is whether you want to work from the whiteboard or from the aisle where the decision is made.

Join us for Retail Innovation Week. Come see the magic up close. Then decide where the best place is to build.