Sam Walton lost his first store, in Newport, Arkansas, when his lease ran out and the landlord wanted the property for his son. The nearby town of Bentonville looked like a good place for business,but this time Walton decided to open not one but a series of discount stores, which he dubbed Wal-Marts, centered on a regional distribution center.27 After driving out the local competition, Walton opened another center in a new area, followed by a new series of stores, in an everexpending circle of Wal-Mart number 18 in Newport, as he slowly but steadily built a local chain into a regional powerhouse. Walton built it upon a unique culture of both service and value-for-money with roots deep in the Arkansas heartland.