I worked there around 1998, it was a small store but it was so tailored to the community that you could almost always find exactly what you were looking for. Great crew of people worked there too.
I lived there when they closed that store. This was one of the original 100 stores that Walmart said they wouldn't close right before they gave the employees and town 2 weeks notice of closing. The town has never recovered. You are correct it closed in the spring of 2009. The nearest supercenter is in Forrest City 30 minutes up the road. Theft was a major problem at this store, partially because of the housing projects surrounding it. My family shopped there all the time and I knew many people there. The closing of this store was a travesty for everyone who worked there and relied on shopping there. It put a lot of people with limited resources with problems getting what they needed like elderly and those with problems getting to the next town. There was also a pharmacy located between Walmart and Kroger that also closed. Mr. Ben, the pharmacist, went ahead and retired. I'm not sure that building is still there now.
Why should Walmart give the employees and the TOWN a 2 week notice they are closing? They owe nothing to the town or the employees. They chose to go to work there. Did the employee give Walmart a 2 week notice they were coming to work there? People who work for somebody else or a company are only modern slaves who get paid. They owe nobody nothing. People are responsible for their own self not some company where people are only a legal slave.
I lived in Brinkley in 1995. Went to elementary school. I vividly remember this Wal Mart. They used to sell these toy walmart semi trucks. Got one for my birthday that year. I actually misplaced my mom in there when I was small and had to have the cashier call for her over the intercom. Thanks for the memories. I hate that it went away.
That was an original Walmart... as soon as I saw the thumb nail I knew where y’all were... some of my family lives there. My mom worked in the jewelry department here when she was in high school!
Dude, I really admire the fact that you do not mention “what” dead animal was there, and black the image out. Thank you! I’ve seen tons of other vids where that’s not the case...it’s like we don’t need the image or need to hear about it...cause really you cannot forget it. I am also an animal lover! You and Kayla are very respectful explorers which is why I stay tuned to your channel! Keep the awesome vids coming!!
Thank you for the kind words. As an animal lover myself it makes me really sad when I come across such a sight when exploring. And also I know kids watch the videos and they don't need to see anything like that which could make them uncomfortable. I actually felt really bad for a little while after filming this video. It was like... what if I made it here just in time while it was still alive? I could have freed it.
You don't need the image of a dead animal cause you're a pansy and God forbid you hear about it, you might need therapy or at least find a safe place. Ridiculous!
I just watched your Family Dollar/Dollar Tree update video on this store and had to go back and watch this one again. It’s amazing to see the condition of this place a year ago, having sat abandoned for well over a decade, and yet they were still able to restore and repurpose it without taking a wrecking ball to the whole building and starting from scratch. That’s pretty incredible! Edit: It now makes sense why the tile floor was all broken up (the Family Dollar Tree has a polished concrete floor), the A/C was running and some lights were on. I bet they had just begun the process of restoring the building!
Thank you, this bring back so many wonderful memories. Not only did Brinkley's Wal-Mart and Kroger serve us, it also served all the neighboring towns as well. 🙏
I miss these smaller Walmart stores. They were much more enjoyable to shop at for basic things than the Supercenters are. The employees always seemed to take more pride in their stores. I lived in a small town in northern Oklahoma for a few years and they had one there. It was a really vital hub for the community until they shut it down. It really hurt that little town. Now they have to drive 20 miles for a Walmart.
Ex-Wally Martian here. When I worked for them in the mid-90s, these were called Division 1 stores, i.e., general merchandise and only an aisle or two of snacky type foods. The one I worked in opened in 1988 and still had the old school blue/orange/brown color scheme up until it was closed, turned into a Hobby Lobby and replaced with a Supercenter. That was about the time WM was on a massive "Supercenter" expansion kick and stopped building this kind of store. A lot of them were expanded into Supercenters. You can spot the expanded rather than new builds by going inside and part of the store will still have a drop-ceiling while the newer parts have the open ceilings. If a town still has an operating store like this, expansion was probably strongly opposed or not economically feasible. I say strongly opposed because usually if Wal-Mart wants in somewhere, they get their way. How is this town doing, out of curiosity? A closed WM with no replacement usually means WM came to town, drove the downtown shops out of business, then decided their store wasn't turning a profit so shuttered it. Actual "Wal-Mart Cheer" from that era until people complained, "Sell it low, stack it high, watch the downtown merchants cry."
Correct, Division 1 AKA Hometown stores nowadays....Super Centers are catagorized by the amount of revenue generated, 40-60 mil, 60-80 mil, 80-100 mil etc
This is actually in the town I grew up in. I remember when it was closed. A year before I graduated high school. It was devastating for the community. It has now, over a decade later, been turned into a Dollar Tree/Family Dollar. We also had an abandoned Save A Lot that sat vacant for over 10 years. My husband bought it 2 years ago and turned it into an HVAC company. We are slowly but surely revitalizing our little town. One abandoned building at a time. Thank you for your interest in our small town! 💜
This Wal-Mart and the Lonoke Arkansas Wal-Mart were the smallest in the world at the time. However when the lease on the land was set to renew Walmart chose to build supercenters in both towns but Lonoke city council approved the new store and location but the Brinkley city council did not approve the plans for that store due to some mom and pop stores fears of being put out of business. (They went out of business anyway) Kroger is now an Edward's Food Giant and the old Wal-Mart is a warehouse for the overstock from the grocery store.
I remember when Searcy had a small Walmart, brown background with white letters across the front. They had a cafe inside that made the beat nacho chili pies, they were freaking amazing!
I worked there in High School. I used to clean those bathrooms. The upstairs was where we would take layaway items. I hauled many old school TV's up there. I can still tell you the entire layout of that store after all these years.
My mother worked at that store for quite a few years until it closed. They have now turned part of it into a Dollar Tree. My wife worked at the Kroger next door until Kroger pulled out and it became a Food Giant.
Paducah Kentucky used to have a Walmart like this built with a shopping center. The Walmart is two stores in one seperated by shelves. The left side is a Bargain Hunt and the right is a self serve flea market called "the Shed."
The Walmart in my town is like this. Obviously still going, kept updated, and modernized, but the building is still the same classic small building. There is some groceries, like snacks, cereal, milk, freezer stored groceries, soda, water, and such. But no produce or as big as any of the modern Walmart buildings.
Brinkley, Arkansas is known as the Hometown of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker which is a critically endangered species and sightings of it have been discovered there, as it was thought to be extinct.
Dude this is so COOL! I don't know why I love abandoned WalMarts so much, but there's something about them that is just so awesome! Great find!!! For some reason it reminds me of an old Winn Dixie
I appreciate the legitimate explorers that have good intentions and ain't looking to graffiti or trash the place and ruin it for everybody else. Definitely a good find, and really cool that they still have the air conditioner on. If someone really wants to tag a place to let others people know they were there, leave a Post it note or laminated index card instead of graffiti. That just trashes the place and ruins it for everyone else to find it full of graffiti. A laminated index card stuck the a dry wall or door frame with a piece of tape can mark that one was there without ruining the place. Graffiti is just destructive.
When I was a kid in the 1980s, these kind of "vintage" Wal-Marts were still fairly common. There were a couple of them in my area. One eventually closed down, the building was razed and then a new Wal-Mart was built on the same site, although it wasn't a Super Center, just a somewhat bigger and nicer store. Then the company decided to build a Super Center Wal-Mart across the street and transferred everything to its new store, while the old building became a lumber and home supply store. The other one closed down and a new Super Center built elsewhere in town, and to my knowledge, the old one is still sitting vacant. It's hard now to imagine a time when most Wal-Marts were not Super Centers, but during the early to mid-1990s this was a novel concept, as the original Wal-Marts didn't sell much in the way of food except for some snacks and a handful of essential food items. Before Super Centers became commonplace, there was a short-lived forerunner with the giggle-inducing name of Hypermart. I'm thankful the name was changed to Super Center instead!
We Have an older Walmarts just like that here in Ft. Smith Ark. They turned it into an A to Z variety Store. And it still has the pay phone out front too. lol. Btw they moved that walmart to a new location. we still have 3 walmarts here. Including the 2nd largest Walmart in the state. with the largest one being in Bentonville Ark. I forgot to mention too that in addition to the three super centers here, we also have two Walmart market place grocery stores here too. And a sams club .BTW who remembers the old blue Walmart bags with the cute rollback yellow smilie guy on them?
I'm pretty sure the reason they didn't renovate it into a Neighborhood Market is the Kroger wouldn't let them. The building next door (meaning same lot owner more than likely) is an old established Kroger, looks like 1970s or 1980s. I'm positive their lease says no other grocery store can open in the same property. My own local Walmart I worked at in 2006 closed in 2008, and they opened a Supercenter down the road. Why? Because next to the old location, with only a Fashion Bug in between (and connected to both) is a grocery store. Now the old Walmart is split into doctor offices and a car dealership while the big Walmart is a half mile away.
Wallie - just put a disclaimer at the start of all of your Urban Exploring videos telling people not to vandalize these places etc. That way your always covered. Great find too. Happy New Year!
There's still one of these older style Walmarts open in Ozark, AR. I was going up to Bentonville and figured I would stop in. Despite it being modern-ish, it's the smallest Walmart i've ever been in.
There are locations in Fordyce, AR (South Arkansas) and a store in Paris, AR (general area of Ozark) that are almost identical to Ozark's store. I assume they were all built around the same time, but not 100% sure since it was WAY before I was born lol. These are SO much easier to find basic things and be in an out quickly, which for someone who is an introvert like me is a godsend. 🤣
This video brought back so many memories for me. I worked at this store from 1992 until late 1999. Have a lot of great memories there. Thank you for sharing.
Great find Kayla! I haven't seen a Walmart with front parking like that in a long time. We have new Walmart, however we have still have vey old Walmart in the same plaza with grocery stores. They are the Walmart that don't have any groceries in them, side entrance, claw machines, arcade games, the customer service desk is slightly bigger than the regular registers and is located next to the regular old check out lines.
@Nathaniel Caudill the trash too treasure one. I found out a Home Depot was also going to be built but stopped when the methane problem was discovered and parking lot started sinking. I think the channel is Abandoned Cleveland (wasnt signed in so not in my watch history)
I started working for Walmart Store #1368 (opened in 1989) in 1993 in a building quite similar to this size. Just as with this one, there were entrance and exit doors, separated by the shopping carts. No parking spaces along the front wall. The missing wall in this associate lounge was to divide the smoker's room from the non-smoking room, as most Walmarts used to have. (They are all smoke-free now.) The one I started in did not have a separate room for smokers and was only about 1/3 the size of this one. The tracks on the floor upstairs are where the lay-away bins were, on rollers that were manually moved. The one room with the built-in shelves upstairs was likely the "gun room", where firearms and ammo aside from those on display were kept. It is strange to see one abandoned. Most buildings are sold to other businesses. Some are even demolished to make room for a larger parking lot. On a different note, the Walmart Supercenter where I currently live is not much larger than this building. It has no extras at all. No hair salon, TLE, game room, restaurant, etc. It does not even have separate grocery and home goods entrances. I left Walmart 10 years ago (2011) and am still amazed at how much they continue to change.
The Walmart two town up from me was small and had parking in front of the building. It then became a hobby lobby, they moved out of the building in June 2020 that when the big lot moved in and the hobby lobby moved across town. Also next to Walmart was a ingles grocery store it's now an antique store here in Georgia.
I grew up in one of these. I started working in a supercenter 12 years ago, but I’ve had family that started in a store like that 30 years ago when I was 5. Nostalgia.
I used to mow an abandoned Kmart in Upstate NY. U-haul bought it and started turning it into an indoor storage unit. So many curbs to weedwack too thin to fit a mower on. We also kept the lawn on an abandoned Lowes in Ticonderoga NY. No way inside, I tried.
How about when they used to stand by the door and hand out those yellow smiley face stickers to little ones😢 or had the fish aquairiams in the back and huge display of tvs and you could watch the TVs etc
@@Hannahleigh_ I have seen them in my childhood days then at some point they end up stop doing that but I think they did end up making Walmart bags with star on it just without smiling face which I thought that was cool too but I'm not 100% sure on that I could have missing seeing things :)
I worked at Wal Mart #39 from 1976 to 78 in Ft Scott Ks. It was a small store too, no automotive shop back then and very few groceries. After they built the new store the old one was bought by a printing company and that's still there today. There is a old W-M in Baxter Springs Ks that closed a few years ago that still had the old slogan on the building - We sell for less-Satisfaction Guaranteed. You can still see where the letters were removed because of the darker paint underneath.
if you want to go to one of these walmarts in the ORIGINAL building. Higginsville, Missouri still has its walmart running in its original walmart building and never moved to a supercenter. its been updated to the new logo. Branson, Missouri/Eldon MO as well technically that walmart reminds me of the old one I went to in south missouri with only 3 checkouts in 05 lol
What a great find! I miss these old Walmart stores. Takes me back in time to the 80s and 90s. I loved when our first Walmart opened in 1987 when I was 5. This brings back such great memories of that old little Walmart which only lasted for 5 years before they moved a couple miles away to a larger store which they expanded and turned into a Super Walmart about 10 years after that. I miss those days! Such simple times!
This Walmart is bringing back memories of the old one in Fremont, Michigan where my family and I went all the time as kids. Miss that food court on the left right when you walk in as well
Im from brinkley & i grew up going to this wmart im 54 now & i have lottts of great memories of this wmart . I just wished yall could have experienced it like i did through the early years from when it was up & running . This town was totally different back then i loved my hometown , i could tell you lots of stories about this wmart . The reason i always heard for it shutting down was employees there were doing some major shop lifting . This town went down hill quick & which is very sad compared to what it use to be . Now all they have there is dollar stores . I still go back on occasions to visit family , thank yall so much for posting this video
I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I'm just sad to read about how the town has become. I can imagine how this walmart was and how it looked in its heyday. A few others mentioned shoplifting was a problem at this location as well. On our trip to Texas back in December, when we drove past this on I-40 I had seen it was being converted into a Family Dollar / Dollar Tree combo. We plan on stopping here and doing a video of the store when we come down to Texas next month.
@@WallieB26 i really did it brought back lots of memories this wmart was very busy back in the day , before coming across this video i always think back on alot of old times about going to this wmart . Once again thank you for shareing this video & will be looking forward to watching the upcoming video
I also grew up in Brinkley. Spent a lot of time at this Walmart and the Kroger next door. My grandparents Hillmon and Opal Davis owned and operated the Phillips 66 gas station just up the road. We lived out on dark corner.
There is an abandoned Walmart just like this in Corning, Arkansas. This particular type of store is called a “Discount Walmart Store”, as opposed to most Walmart’s being referred to as “Walmart Supercenter”. There is one still open in Malden, Missouri about an hour north of the state line. Lots of these discount stores opened up in towns with populations of about 3,000 or more. They opened up, drove all of the small businesses out, and in a lot of cases, closed their store just a few years later. Leaving these small towns with nothing after Walmart left town........
I drive by the old Corning store on my way to my property between Imboden and Ravenden. I don’t think I ever stopped to shop there. Maybe once. I do stop at the BBQ trailer across from Casey’s. He’s got good BBQ.
If you ever come over here to the west coast, Oregon has a bunch of Denny’s restaurants from the 1960’s, that have NEVER been renovated, and even have the old style signage!!!
When Walton ran Walmart, and they were fighting with Kmart to be number 1 their stores were quite nice. They also had workers who were more friendly and outgoing- something Sam preached. Today it's quite the opposite, but in the 80's when I was growing up, Walmart's look and felt quite different than they do today.
In the mid 80's I worked at the first Walmart in Texas. It opened in 1976 in Mt. Pleasant. It was a small store just like that one. It's now a Staples and a Title loan place is where the Automotive was located .
This a brilliant location, guys... When thinking of Walmart's vintage image I am transported back to my childhood. I will always remember how my prized childhood possessions were bought from Walmart. Nostalgia at its finest. T
I remember when I was a kid in jonesboro arkansas we had a walmart that looked exactly like that on highland drive and i remember many times going there with my mom as a kid and I remember they had birds for sale in the back and my parents bought me and my brother 2 pet birds from there one time. Seeing that old walmart brought back so many child hood memories
@@austindakotamillsaps1132 that's one of the old walmarts in jonesboro yes. The other one is right next to the walmarts super center it's called hobby lobby now but that was the origainl walmart building and they also built a shoe carnival on to it. And there was one on caraway before the one on highland
It's really cool you found this place. I personally would do just about anything to shop at one of these smaller stores again. The building should be restored and turned into something neat. Walmart museum???? Lol.
Use to live in Little Rock, AR. Drove by this place before a few times. Use to stop in Brinkley all the time to get fuel on our way to Memphis to visit family.
I live in San Angelo TXand on highway 87 north there is an abandoned Walmart with a big shiny new Walmart behind it. The old building has been taken over by county offices in the right front and left rear of the building. I was told , don't know for sure, that property taxes were not being paid on the old building and parking area.
Omg. You found one. There was one just like this in Flour Bluff Tx. We would ditch school and walk around that small ass WalMart.. So many memories. I guess I'm going to Arkansas I have to see this place
The first wal mart was on Walnut in Rogers,Ar. We use to hang out and drink beers in the parking lot after it would close on Fridays and Saturday nights (until the police would tell us to go home).
Yes. I live near it. It is now a flea market. I’m from bentonville and remember as a young kid the Walmart in bentonville more north of where the supercenter is now. It’s some kind of Walmart home office building currently.
My grandma worked at this Walmart the whole time I was growing up. She worked in the fabric department and made all of the examples that were displayed. After they were taken down she sent many of them to my brother and I. I remember visiting her there in the 80's and early 90's until she retired. It makes me really sad to see it abandoned now.
Judging by the shopping carts with the grey and green it looks like it was maybe a Walmart neighborhood market which are a much smaller format compared to supercenters so if anything I bet it was an old Walmart then got converted to neighborhood market then finally closed I guess. Another interesting thing with how all the walls are half cut it looks like there was flood remediation done
It been so long and forgotten that I'm glad she spotted this location. When I see the star in the middle of the logo it tells me it must've been in the 80's. I remember seeing the first Walmart store in 1990. People were excited to see it. Even though looks smaller to us back in the day it was a big deal. Even the green colored price sticker was neat. I wondered if the National Lampoon Christmas Vacation was filmed there? I've heard of Kroger's but it not known in the Mid-west. That pretty old sign maybe early 70's? Thanks guys and Happy New Year!
You can park in front in Whitesburg KY's Wal-Mart store. It's the only Wal-Mart I know that's still setup the old format (Blue Wal-Marts, I call them). They recently got the new sign with the orange flowery thing though.
That is there old style they use to have. I live close to where Walmart first started as the 5 and dime store. In fact we have a Walmart like that no to far from here, that they turned into the place were they make the glasses for Walmart. We also have a small store like that still around here. It’s located in Huntsville Arkansas, and is still open to the public.
I have never seen a small walmart. It was the size of a small k mart store until they started to build super walmarts and k marts. Thank you Kayla for finding this gem. You two are great. Love your videos. Becareful out there.
I would say first experience at a original walmart was about 30 years ago with my dad in Oklahoma. It was a little bigger but still had that old school feel. Awesome video, thanks for sharing and happy new year.
Here in California the green carts indicate a grocery only walmart. They're called Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. They're usually pretty small. Just a suggestion.
Go on google maps and look up Atwood's in Clarksville,AR it use to be the old walmart. It had the parking in the front also. I helped remolded it in 1998. Not sure when they moved it to a Super center.
This was Walmart #84 and it closed on 5/30/09 without a replacement store. This store opened on 5/1/1974
47 year old building this year
Unprofitable? Its weird they didn't make it into a walmart neighborhood market for as small as it is.
When did this close?
@@danielohara529 may 30, 2009
Really? Wow, amazing to know it opened in 1974. Understand now why it's smaller. 💕
This is one of the many reasons why road trips beat flying.
Nah flying is so much better
Unless you’re the one that’s flying your own plane.
@@B-Jokers not now that you have to wear a mask on the plane!
Yeah TSA is literally a bunch of fascist nazis
@@B-Jokers why? So your telling me if you see your favorite place you would rather skip over it then go to it?
I worked there around 1998, it was a small store but it was so tailored to the community that you could almost always find exactly what you were looking for. Great crew of people worked there too.
I lived there when they closed that store. This was one of the original 100 stores that Walmart said they wouldn't close right before they gave the employees and town 2 weeks notice of closing. The town has never recovered.
You are correct it closed in the spring of 2009. The nearest supercenter is in Forrest City 30 minutes up the road.
Theft was a major problem at this store, partially because of the housing projects surrounding it. My family shopped there all the time and I knew many people there. The closing of this store was a travesty for everyone who worked there and relied on shopping there. It put a lot of people with limited resources with problems getting what they needed like elderly and those with problems getting to the next town. There was also a pharmacy located between Walmart and Kroger that also closed. Mr. Ben, the pharmacist, went ahead and retired. I'm not sure that building is still there now.
Why should Walmart give the employees and the TOWN a 2 week notice they are closing? They owe nothing to the town or the employees. They chose to go to work there. Did the employee give Walmart a 2 week notice they were coming to work there? People who work for somebody else or a company are only modern slaves who get paid. They owe nobody nothing. People are responsible for their own self not some company where people are only a legal slave.
Hello Melissa
Dollar tree/family dollar
I lived in Brinkley in 1995. Went to elementary school. I vividly remember this Wal Mart. They used to sell these toy walmart semi trucks. Got one for my birthday that year. I actually misplaced my mom in there when I was small and had to have the cashier call for her over the intercom. Thanks for the memories. I hate that it went away.
This reminds me of the Wal Mart I used to work at 20 years ago. I miss the Smiley face as part of their advertising 🤠
Me too. I still have some in my sticker book. Lol
It would make me so happy as a kid when the workers would stick smiley faces on our receipts
Same haha the epic smiley was sick and cool made Walmart what it was
Same I miss the smiley
The smiley logo is SOOO ICONIC
3:42 this store is so old that it doesn't even have automatic doors
You are correct
That was an original Walmart... as soon as I saw the thumb nail I knew where y’all were... some of my family lives there. My mom worked in the jewelry department here when she was in high school!
Do you know why this Walmart got shut down?
@@stephaniej7846 because of high employee theft im originally from there
The old Wal-Mart logo was so much better!
Ive been inside this Walmart once during a road trip in May of 2007. this was one of the smallest Walmart stores ive been inside of
Dude, I really admire the fact that you do not mention “what” dead animal was there, and black the image out. Thank you! I’ve seen tons of other vids where that’s not the case...it’s like we don’t need the image or need to hear about it...cause really you cannot forget it. I am also an animal lover! You and Kayla are very respectful explorers which is why I stay tuned to your channel! Keep the awesome vids coming!!
Thank you for the kind words. As an animal lover myself it makes me really sad when I come across such a sight when exploring. And also I know kids watch the videos and they don't need to see anything like that which could make them uncomfortable. I actually felt really bad for a little while after filming this video. It was like... what if I made it here just in time while it was still alive? I could have freed it.
@@WallieB26 Was it a cat? It was a cat wasn't it. It's heartbreaking, the poor thing, whatever it was. It hurts to the soul of an animal lover.
This is the first of your videos that I have come across but this comment made me subscribe! Thank you, fellow animal lovers ❤
You’re ridiculous.
You don't need the image of a dead animal cause you're a pansy and God forbid you hear about it, you might need therapy or at least find a safe place. Ridiculous!
I just watched your Family Dollar/Dollar Tree update video on this store and had to go back and watch this one again. It’s amazing to see the condition of this place a year ago, having sat abandoned for well over a decade, and yet they were still able to restore and repurpose it without taking a wrecking ball to the whole building and starting from scratch. That’s pretty incredible!
Edit: It now makes sense why the tile floor was all broken up (the Family Dollar Tree has a polished concrete floor), the A/C was running and some lights were on. I bet they had just begun the process of restoring the building!
That may explain why the exterior looked so pristine.
Thank you, this bring back so many wonderful memories. Not only did Brinkley's Wal-Mart and Kroger serve us, it also served all the neighboring towns as well. 🙏
I miss these smaller Walmart stores. They were much more enjoyable to shop at for basic things than the Supercenters are. The employees always seemed to take more pride in their stores. I lived in a small town in northern Oklahoma for a few years and they had one there. It was a really vital hub for the community until they shut it down. It really hurt that little town. Now they have to drive 20 miles for a Walmart.
Surprised Walmart hasn’t gone back to small stores at least Target is doing it
Man those black old school security cameras on the ceiling really strike me with nostalgia!!!
Oh yea I am old enough to remember those
Same I remember our super center having a long dome shaped one
That is a chance to see if they're real 😆
Ex-Wally Martian here. When I worked for them in the mid-90s, these were called Division 1 stores, i.e., general merchandise and only an aisle or two of snacky type foods. The one I worked in opened in 1988 and still had the old school blue/orange/brown color scheme up until it was closed, turned into a Hobby Lobby and replaced with a Supercenter. That was about the time WM was on a massive "Supercenter" expansion kick and stopped building this kind of store. A lot of them were expanded into Supercenters. You can spot the expanded rather than new builds by going inside and part of the store will still have a drop-ceiling while the newer parts have the open ceilings. If a town still has an operating store like this, expansion was probably strongly opposed or not economically feasible. I say strongly opposed because usually if Wal-Mart wants in somewhere, they get their way. How is this town doing, out of curiosity? A closed WM with no replacement usually means WM came to town, drove the downtown shops out of business, then decided their store wasn't turning a profit so shuttered it. Actual "Wal-Mart Cheer" from that era until people complained, "Sell it low, stack it high, watch the downtown merchants cry."
Walmart shouldn’t of ever got rid of those cafes. I loved those nacho chili pies!
I think I remember that old store just been years since I lived in Arkansas as a kid years ago
Correct, Division 1 AKA Hometown stores nowadays....Super Centers are catagorized by the amount of revenue generated, 40-60 mil, 60-80 mil, 80-100 mil etc
Those little “camera” globes on the ceiling man the nostalgia, I work at Walmart and we don’t have those anymore
That Wal Mart had the EXACT same layout of my old Wal Mart 521 back in Moss Bluff, LA!
Good that the air is still on there.
Otherwise? MoldCity-mart that would be.
Great Job WallieB and Kayla!
Keep it rockin!
This is actually in the town I grew up in. I remember when it was closed. A year before I graduated high school. It was devastating for the community. It has now, over a decade later, been turned into a Dollar Tree/Family Dollar.
We also had an abandoned Save A Lot that sat vacant for over 10 years. My husband bought it 2 years ago and turned it into an HVAC company. We are slowly but surely revitalizing our little town. One abandoned building at a time. Thank you for your interest in our small town! 💜
OMG!! Love them old wal-marts. Our current Hobby Lobby is a old 1980's retro wal-mart. Love it!!!😄
There seems to be a lot of those
Yep HL loves to buy dead Wal-Marts. Cheap real estate.
The Hobby Lobby in my town was an old Big Bear (old grocery store chain in Ohio)
This Wal-Mart and the Lonoke Arkansas Wal-Mart were the smallest in the world at the time. However when the lease on the land was set to renew Walmart chose to build supercenters in both towns but Lonoke city council approved the new store and location but the Brinkley city council did not approve the plans for that store due to some mom and pop stores fears of being put out of business. (They went out of business anyway) Kroger is now an Edward's Food Giant and the old Wal-Mart is a warehouse for the overstock from the grocery store.
NEVER seen a Walmart this small, not even from the pre-Supercenter era!
Back before Walmart started carrying groceries, They really weren't that big..
@@Pete391 Yes, I know because I used to go to a non-supercenter location when I was a kid. The store was still bigger than this one, though.
I remember when Searcy had a small Walmart, brown background with white letters across the front. They had a cafe inside that made the beat nacho chili pies, they were freaking amazing!
I worked there in High School. I used to clean those bathrooms. The upstairs was where we would take layaway items. I hauled many old school TV's up there. I can still tell you the entire layout of that store after all these years.
My mother worked at that store for quite a few years until it closed. They have now turned part of it into a Dollar Tree.
My wife worked at the Kroger next door until Kroger pulled out and it became a Food Giant.
Paducah Kentucky used to have a Walmart like this built with a shopping center. The Walmart is two stores in one seperated by shelves. The left side is a Bargain Hunt and the right is a self serve flea market called "the Shed."
The Walmart in my town is like this. Obviously still going, kept updated, and modernized, but the building is still the same classic small building. There is some groceries, like snacks, cereal, milk, freezer stored groceries, soda, water, and such. But no produce or as big as any of the modern Walmart buildings.
That is the cleanest public restroom I have ever seen
Brinkley, Arkansas is known as the Hometown of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker which is a critically endangered species and sightings of it have been discovered there, as it was thought to be extinct.
Interesting
Bird watcher. Awesumm
O c. So cali birds at salt marshes. 150 species
Big forests. Watershed. No one knows what's really in m
The more you know
Dude this is so COOL! I don't know why I love abandoned WalMarts so much, but there's something about them that is just so awesome! Great find!!! For some reason it reminds me of an old Winn Dixie
I appreciate the legitimate explorers that have good intentions and ain't looking to graffiti or trash the place and ruin it for everybody else. Definitely a good find, and really cool that they still have the air conditioner on. If someone really wants to tag a place to let others people know they were there, leave a Post it note or laminated index card instead of graffiti. That just trashes the place and ruins it for everyone else to find it full of graffiti. A laminated index card stuck the a dry wall or door frame with a piece of tape can mark that one was there without ruining the place. Graffiti is just destructive.
When I was a kid in the 1980s, these kind of "vintage" Wal-Marts were still fairly common. There were a couple of them in my area. One eventually closed down, the building was razed and then a new Wal-Mart was built on the same site, although it wasn't a Super Center, just a somewhat bigger and nicer store. Then the company decided to build a Super Center Wal-Mart across the street and transferred everything to its new store, while the old building became a lumber and home supply store. The other one closed down and a new Super Center built elsewhere in town, and to my knowledge, the old one is still sitting vacant. It's hard now to imagine a time when most Wal-Marts were not Super Centers, but during the early to mid-1990s this was a novel concept, as the original Wal-Marts didn't sell much in the way of food except for some snacks and a handful of essential food items. Before Super Centers became commonplace, there was a short-lived forerunner with the giggle-inducing name of Hypermart. I'm thankful the name was changed to Super Center instead!
I love the old school camera doms!
We Have an older Walmarts just like that here in Ft. Smith Ark. They turned it into an A to Z variety Store. And it still has the pay phone out front too. lol. Btw they moved that walmart to a new location. we still have 3 walmarts here. Including the 2nd largest Walmart in the state. with the largest one being in Bentonville Ark. I forgot to mention too that in addition to the three super centers here, we also have two Walmart market place grocery stores here too. And a sams club .BTW who remembers the old blue Walmart bags with the cute rollback yellow smilie guy on them?
This abandoned walmart still look better and cleaner than most busy super Walmarts.
There is a older similar sized Walmart store in New London WI. The city doesn’t want them to build a super center.
They probably could’ve just renovated it to be one of their Grocery Stores. It’s about the same size.
I'm pretty sure the reason they didn't renovate it into a Neighborhood Market is the Kroger wouldn't let them. The building next door (meaning same lot owner more than likely) is an old established Kroger, looks like 1970s or 1980s. I'm positive their lease says no other grocery store can open in the same property.
My own local Walmart I worked at in 2006 closed in 2008, and they opened a Supercenter down the road. Why? Because next to the old location, with only a Fashion Bug in between (and connected to both) is a grocery store. Now the old Walmart is split into doctor offices and a car dealership while the big Walmart is a half mile away.
A Neighborhood Market
Wallie - just put a disclaimer at the start of all of your Urban Exploring videos telling people not to vandalize these places etc. That way your always covered. Great find too. Happy New Year!
That would make it easier than saying it every time. Haha thank you! Happy New Year!
There's still one of these older style Walmarts open in Ozark, AR. I was going up to Bentonville and figured I would stop in. Despite it being modern-ish, it's the smallest Walmart i've ever been in.
There are locations in Fordyce, AR (South Arkansas) and a store in Paris, AR (general area of Ozark) that are almost identical to Ozark's store. I assume they were all built around the same time, but not 100% sure since it was WAY before I was born lol. These are SO much easier to find basic things and be in an out quickly, which for someone who is an introvert like me is a godsend. 🤣
if it wasn’t for the logo, i would have never guessed it was a walmart.
I never would have thought it was one either. I only found out because Kayla noticed the scar on the front of the building.
This video brought back so many memories for me. I worked at this store from 1992 until late 1999. Have a lot of great memories there. Thank you for sharing.
Great find Kayla! I haven't seen a Walmart with front parking like that in a long time. We have new Walmart, however we have still have vey old Walmart in the same plaza with grocery stores. They are the Walmart that don't have any groceries in them, side entrance, claw machines, arcade games, the customer service desk is slightly bigger than the regular registers and is located next to the regular old check out lines.
You can tell with the brick in the lobby that the entrance was extended outwards at some point in time and covered the original entrance
Wal-Mart in Brinkley, Arkansas closed on Saturday, May 30, 2009.
How do you know
@Nathaniel Caudill the trash too treasure one. I found out a Home Depot was also going to be built but stopped when the methane problem was discovered and parking lot started sinking. I think the channel is Abandoned Cleveland (wasnt signed in so not in my watch history)
That was my second birthday
Hi your lucky you weren’t caught by the cops and charged for trespassing, And breaking and Entering !!
@Samuel Jackson Nice.
I remember the first Walmart you went in
The memories
I started working for Walmart Store #1368 (opened in 1989) in 1993 in a building quite similar to this size. Just as with this one, there were entrance and exit doors, separated by the shopping carts. No parking spaces along the front wall. The missing wall in this associate lounge was to divide the smoker's room from the non-smoking room, as most Walmarts used to have. (They are all smoke-free now.) The one I started in did not have a separate room for smokers and was only about 1/3 the size of this one. The tracks on the floor upstairs are where the lay-away bins were, on rollers that were manually moved. The one room with the built-in shelves upstairs was likely the "gun room", where firearms and ammo aside from those on display were kept. It is strange to see one abandoned. Most buildings are sold to other businesses. Some are even demolished to make room for a larger parking lot.
On a different note, the Walmart Supercenter where I currently live is not much larger than this building. It has no extras at all. No hair salon, TLE, game room, restaurant, etc. It does not even have separate grocery and home goods entrances.
I left Walmart 10 years ago (2011) and am still amazed at how much they continue to change.
The Walmart two town up from me was small and had parking in front of the building. It then became a hobby lobby, they moved out of the building in June 2020 that when the big lot moved in and the hobby lobby moved across town. Also next to Walmart was a ingles grocery store it's now an antique store here in Georgia.
I grew up in one of these. I started working in a supercenter 12 years ago, but I’ve had family that started in a store like that 30 years ago when I was 5. Nostalgia.
I used to mow an abandoned Kmart in Upstate NY. U-haul bought it and started turning it into an indoor storage unit. So many curbs to weedwack too thin to fit a mower on. We also kept the lawn on an abandoned Lowes in Ticonderoga NY. No way inside, I tried.
Stunned the AC is still working. Actually still have one in my state that small. Even had an eatery inside.
Let's all thank Kayla for this wonderful find 🙌🙌🙌👏👏👏👍👍👍♥️
I do miss old days where Walmart had old logo with star where they had for long time sadly tho that they don't do that kind of thing anymore
Sad it is Chinamart now.
How about when they used to stand by the door and hand out those yellow smiley face stickers to little ones😢 or had the fish aquairiams in the back and huge display of tvs and you could watch the TVs etc
@@lorynschneider2643 I miss those days
I remember the blue plastic bags with the smiley face :(
@@Hannahleigh_ I have seen them in my childhood days then at some point they end up stop doing that but I think they did end up making Walmart bags with star on it just without smiling face which I thought that was cool too but I'm not 100% sure on that I could have missing seeing things :)
I worked at Wal Mart #39 from 1976 to 78 in Ft Scott Ks. It was a small store too, no automotive shop back then and very few groceries. After they built the new store the old one was bought by a printing company and that's still there today. There is a old W-M in Baxter Springs Ks that closed a few years ago that still had the old slogan on the building - We sell for less-Satisfaction Guaranteed. You can still see where the letters were removed because of the darker paint underneath.
if you want to go to one of these walmarts in the ORIGINAL building. Higginsville, Missouri still has its walmart running in its original walmart building and never moved to a supercenter. its been updated to the new logo. Branson, Missouri/Eldon MO as well technically
that walmart reminds me of the old one I went to in south missouri with only 3 checkouts in 05 lol
What a great find! I miss these old Walmart stores. Takes me back in time to the 80s and 90s. I loved when our first Walmart opened in 1987 when I was 5. This brings back such great memories of that old little Walmart which only lasted for 5 years before they moved a couple miles away to a larger store which they expanded and turned into a Super Walmart about 10 years after that. I miss those days! Such simple times!
Yes, I was born in 87 and while I don’t remember the 80s, for me, the 90s was so simple. I was a kid with no worries in the world
This Walmart is bringing back memories of the old one in Fremont, Michigan where my family and I went all the time as kids. Miss that food court on the left right when you walk in as well
I worked for Walmart from 1986 to 2000. Those offices brought back memories from the early years.
Im from brinkley & i grew up going to this wmart im 54 now & i have lottts of great memories of this wmart . I just wished yall could have experienced it like i did through the early years from when it was up & running . This town was totally different back then i loved my hometown , i could tell you lots of stories about this wmart . The reason i always heard for it shutting down was employees there were doing some major shop lifting . This town went down hill quick & which is very sad compared to what it use to be . Now all they have there is dollar stores . I still go back on occasions to visit family , thank yall so much for posting this video
I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I'm just sad to read about how the town has become. I can imagine how this walmart was and how it looked in its heyday. A few others mentioned shoplifting was a problem at this location as well. On our trip to Texas back in December, when we drove past this on I-40 I had seen it was being converted into a Family Dollar / Dollar Tree combo. We plan on stopping here and doing a video of the store when we come down to Texas next month.
@@WallieB26 i really did it brought back lots of memories this wmart was very busy back in the day , before coming across this video i always think back on alot of old times about going to this wmart . Once again thank you for shareing this video & will be looking forward to watching the upcoming video
I also grew up in Brinkley. Spent a lot of time at this Walmart and the Kroger next door. My grandparents Hillmon and Opal Davis owned and operated the Phillips 66 gas station just up the road. We lived out on dark corner.
That was a sad day when they closed our little Walmart in Brinkley. I missed it so many times and have great memories of that store growing up.
Can you imagine what it must have looked like up and running in the 80's?! Amazing! Just subscribed! ✨
There is an abandoned Walmart just like this in Corning, Arkansas. This particular type of store is called a “Discount Walmart Store”, as opposed to most Walmart’s being referred to as “Walmart Supercenter”. There is one still open in Malden, Missouri about an hour north of the state line. Lots of these discount stores opened up in towns with populations of about 3,000 or more. They opened up, drove all of the small businesses out, and in a lot of cases, closed their store just a few years later. Leaving these small towns with nothing after Walmart left town........
I have family in both cities and can’t believe these stores went out. Corning has lost a lot.
I drive by the old Corning store on my way to my property between Imboden and Ravenden. I don’t think I ever stopped to shop there. Maybe once. I do stop at the BBQ trailer across from Casey’s. He’s got good BBQ.
I'm two hours and 45 minutes from this town, I should go explore it! Looks like a beautiful little town!
If you ever come over here to the west coast, Oregon has a bunch of Denny’s restaurants from the 1960’s, that have NEVER been renovated, and even have the old style signage!!!
When Walton ran Walmart, and they were fighting with Kmart to be number 1 their stores were quite nice. They also had workers who were more friendly and outgoing- something Sam preached. Today it's quite the opposite, but in the 80's when I was growing up, Walmart's look and felt quite different than they do today.
6:40 wow more then 5 lockers for the two cashiers, two stockers and the door greeter.
Hey guys, when explorering abandoned places always wear resperadors or masks. Keeps bad stuff out of your lungs
In the mid 80's I worked at the first Walmart in Texas. It opened in 1976 in Mt. Pleasant. It was a small store just like that one. It's now a Staples and a Title loan place is where the Automotive was located .
You should go inside and film it
This a brilliant location, guys... When thinking of Walmart's vintage image I am transported back to my childhood.
I will always remember how my prized childhood possessions were bought from Walmart.
Nostalgia at its finest.
T
Those 4 lamp light poles are vintage! The old K-mart in my town's parking lot had them.
Takes me right back to my childhood. It was a great day when you can get front parking!
I remember when I was a kid in jonesboro arkansas we had a walmart that looked exactly like that on highland drive and i remember many times going there with my mom as a kid and I remember they had birds for sale in the back and my parents bought me and my brother 2 pet birds from there one time. Seeing that old walmart brought back so many child hood memories
Big lots now right?
@@austindakotamillsaps1132 that's one of the old walmarts in jonesboro yes. The other one is right next to the walmarts super center it's called hobby lobby now but that was the origainl walmart building and they also built a shoe carnival on to it. And there was one on caraway before the one on highland
@@austindakotamillsaps1132 The one on woodsprings road they turned it into or I should say rather Big lots bought it and is in it now.
I have fond memories of that store.
It's really cool you found this place. I personally would do just about anything to shop at one of these smaller stores again.
The building should be restored and turned into something neat. Walmart museum???? Lol.
Use to live in Little Rock, AR. Drove by this place before a few times. Use to stop in Brinkley all the time to get fuel on our way to Memphis to visit family.
I live in San Angelo TXand on highway 87 north there is an abandoned Walmart with a big shiny new Walmart behind it. The old building has been taken over by county offices in the right front and left rear of the building. I was told , don't know for sure, that property taxes were not being paid on the old building and parking area.
San Angelo now has FIVE Walmarts within city limits. Two are mostly groceries, but the rest have all the goodies. We also have a Sam's Club.
There's another wal mart in Corning AR that closed maybe 5 years ago, that never rebuilt anywhere.
Omg. You found one. There was one just like this in Flour Bluff Tx. We would ditch school and walk around that small ass WalMart.. So many memories. I guess I'm going to Arkansas I have to see this place
The first wal mart was on Walnut in Rogers,Ar. We use to hang out and drink beers in the parking lot after it would close on Fridays and Saturday nights (until the police would tell us to go home).
Yes. I live near it. It is now a flea market. I’m from bentonville and remember as a young kid the Walmart in bentonville more north of where the supercenter is now. It’s some kind of Walmart home office building currently.
@@Mac10Daddy times sure have changed in NWA, I'm from Springdale, but I live out in Durham, no way would I live in town now.
My grandma worked at this Walmart the whole time I was growing up. She worked in the fabric department and made all of the examples that were displayed. After they were taken down she sent many of them to my brother and I. I remember visiting her there in the 80's and early 90's until she retired. It makes me really sad to see it abandoned now.
Judging by the shopping carts with the grey and green it looks like it was maybe a Walmart neighborhood market which are a much smaller format compared to supercenters so if anything I bet it was an old Walmart then got converted to neighborhood market then finally closed I guess. Another interesting thing with how all the walls are half cut it looks like there was flood remediation done
Walmart where I grew up is still identical to this one and still in operation.. and yes, u can park directly In front....
It been so long and forgotten that I'm glad she spotted this location. When I see the star in the middle of the logo it tells me it must've been in the 80's. I remember seeing the first Walmart store in 1990. People were excited to see it. Even though looks smaller to us back in the day it was a big deal. Even the green colored price sticker was neat. I wondered if the National Lampoon Christmas Vacation was filmed there?
I've heard of Kroger's but it not known in the Mid-west. That pretty old sign maybe early 70's? Thanks guys and Happy New Year!
You can park in front in Whitesburg KY's Wal-Mart store. It's the only Wal-Mart I know that's still setup the old format (Blue Wal-Marts, I call them). They recently got the new sign with the orange flowery thing though.
That is there old style they use to have. I live close to where Walmart first started as the 5 and dime store. In fact we have a Walmart like that no to far from here, that they turned into the place were they make the glasses for Walmart. We also have a small store like that still around here. It’s located in Huntsville Arkansas, and is still open to the public.
there an old walmart in Ozark Arkansas that is still open built in the 70s has same logo and color theme and its really small its neat little store
Wow Thanks Kayla For spotting this one what a great find :D
This is my hometown and I was about 8 or 9 when that Walmart was first opened. Thanks for sharing your video.
It's so crazy to think that this is where it all started.. Cool video!
That was really cool to see. I’m glad this was on my recommended page. I’ve subscribed and look forward to checking out more of your videos.
I love these preservation videos you guys do. Great memories for people
I have never seen a small walmart. It was the size of a small k mart store until they started to build super walmarts and k marts. Thank you Kayla for finding this gem. You two are great. Love your videos. Becareful out there.
Amazing video and I appreciate the fact that y'all don't vandalize and or break into things. Some explorers don't take the care you do. Thanks
I would say first experience at a original walmart was about 30 years ago with my dad in Oklahoma. It was a little bigger but still had that old school feel. Awesome video, thanks for sharing and happy new year.
Love your channel Wallie B26 very bad ass footage keep safe very wonderful old school thank yous
Here in California the green carts indicate a grocery only walmart. They're called Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. They're usually pretty small. Just a suggestion.
We have many Neighborhood Market Walmarts here in NC
They built a supercenter in Forrest City (about 30 minutes west).
Nice touch with the old Wal Mart commercial jingle wrapping up your video *applause*
Thank you for sharing this video! Wow! What a awesome fine for sure! Thank you Kayla!
Go on google maps and look up Atwood's in Clarksville,AR it use to be the old walmart. It had the parking in the front also. I helped remolded it in 1998. Not sure when they moved it to a Super center.