Forbes Magazine did a little research and figured out who the richest person is in every state, and in Texas that person has a background in the retail industry, and it's a name you know if you've ever purchased a tamale, a diamond pendant and a fishing rod in the same place.

Sam Walton opened his first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962, when his daughter Alice Walton was twelve years old.  The chain of stores has grown to more than 1,960 since that first store opened, and now Walmart has become one of the biggest online retailers too, right up there with Amazon.

It takes some smarts to be that dominant and successful for more than fifty-five years, and Walmart has been able to change with the times without sacrificing its brand.  Sam Walton passed away in 1992, but the family has kept the business going strong since then.  Alice Walton lives in Mineral Wells, and Forbes Magazine says she's the richest person in Texas.

Alice hasn't been as involved in the family business as her brothers, but the inheritance combined with her interest as a curator of the arts makes her net worth $33.3 billion, according to Forbes.  Her art collections are on display at the Crystal Bridges Art Museum in her hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas, and those pieces are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  Some high class art combined with high class fishing lures and beef jerky...that's a rich life!

 

Congrats to Alice Walton on the big win.  We feel like our love for coffee mugs and cozy fleece blankets with pictures of wildlife on them has helped fuel the success in some small way.  We'll keep buying those, while we're picking up bikes and socks and snacks and things too.  Here's to much more success, and jerky.

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