Here they come

By Jeff Mores Staff Writer // jeffm@nwanews.com

Posted on Sunday, June 1, 2008

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BENTONVILLE — Even giants like New York and Los Angeles will be hard pressed to draw more visitors to any single event this week than Bentonville and the northwest Arkansas region will with the annual Wal-Mart Shareholders Week.

“ We see traffic from all kinds of events — Bikes, Blues and BBQ, The (Wal-Mart Open ) fishing tournament weigh-in and the various conventions held here, but Shareholders is a whole different level, ” said Stephanie Fairbanks, front office manager at the Embassy Suites in Rogers. “ This is my first year to experience it, but people around here have been getting prepared for Shareholders for several weeks. You know it’s big when people are booking hotels from Siloam Springs to Eureka Springs and everywhere in between. ”

Thousands will once again flood northwest Arkansas for the week of Wal-Mart-related events, meetings and festivities. Many will arrive by car. Others will make the trek to northwest Arkansas by bus. Thousands will make their way through the covered walkway at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport — and not just from nearly every state in the country. Large contingents will arrive throughout the week from countries around the globe, where Wal-Mart either does business or intends to soon.

According to Kelly Johnson, director of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, the number of passengers coming and going at the Highfill-based facility jumps by more than 3, 000 during Shareholders Week.

There are meetings, store tours, visits to the Wal-Mart Visitors Center on the Bentonville Downtown Square and more. Live concerts will take place each evening at Bud Walton Arena on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville before the venue is eventually transformed to host the grand finale, the shareholders meeting itself, scheduled to begin shortly after the sun rises Friday.

Until then, flash bulbs will be going off around Bentonville and in neighboring communities. Tour buses will be lined up near the Bentonville Square, and congestion on the roadways will be heavier than almost any other time of year. But that means big things for area businesses and attractions.

“ On a normal week, we get about 900 visitors through our doors, ” said Boo Randolph, manager of the Wal-Mart Visitors Center in downtown Bentonville. “ Between Tuesday and Friday of this week, that number will probably jump to around 9, 000. It always does. ”

With road construction under way around the Square, on which the Wal-Mart Visitors Center is located, Randolph expects the scene will be a little different this time around. She won’t be able to look out her front window and see the mass of buses congregated in front of the Benton County Courthouse. Instead, buses will drop visitors off on the Square and find parking in designated areas a few blocks away. But she’s willing to predict that won’t hurt attendance one bit.

“ People are going to get here, no matter what, ” Randolph said. “ So many people get excited when they see the exhibit with Sam’s truck. During Shareholders, there are so many international folks who come in looking for their displays. We have displays for every country Wal-Mart is in, so that’s the first thing a lot of people go to during this week. ”

Many restaurants from Bentonville to Fayetteville see dramatic increases in business as well. Lunch crowds, according to several Benton County restaurants, stack up Tuesday through Friday, but there’s typically a little more elbow room at night.

“ We did see a good increase in business last year during Shareholders, ” said Sam Davis, managing partner at MiMi’s Cafe, a restaurant at the Pinnacle Hills Promenade in Rogers. “ In a normal week, our wait times are 10 to 15 minutes during lunch hour, but they get up to 30 minutes or so when shareholders are in town. We honestly expected a bigger jump last year, but you have to remember, Wal-Mart has a lot of planned events going on, like the concerts each night in Fayetteville. A lot of the traffic goes that way in the evening. ”

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