The store's march across America, in maps.
Sam Walton opened his first two stores in Arkansas by 1965:
Ten years later, the retailer had expanded to 104 stores in middle America:

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By the mid-eighties, Walmart had expanded north and east with 741 stores:
Ten years later, there were more than 2000 locations across the country:
By 2005, domination was complete, with 3045 locations.
Here's the video version:
Rapid Growth of Walmart from Nathan Yau on Vimeo.
Photo credit: K2 images/Shutterstock.com
This post originally appeared on Business Insider, an Atlantic partner site.